In My Experience - Insurance... How Are You Covered

We carry five types of insurance.

Worker's Compensation

This is processed through the service that handles our payroll. It is based on payroll, and you pay the insurance company as you go. This policy covers accidents that may happen on the job and medical expenses for workers who are injured. We have only had two claims in 35 years. I would not run a business without this coverage.

Liability Insurance

Equally as important as workers’ compensation. If a customer’s property is damaged as a result of your work, you are covered. It is easy to think of many ways that property can be damaged during paint jobs, so it is a really important coverage.

Health Insurance for Employees

This is an expensive insurance policy, but it helps us to attract good and loyal employees. Many small businesses don’t offer it, so it is a benefit that differentiates us a bit. This covers major medical for employees and their families.

Key Man Insurance

Many folks may not know about this one, but this is a policy that would compensate our business for financial losses due to the death (or extended inability to work) of an important member of the business. Basically, if there are people in your business whose absence would sink the ship, you include them in this policy.

Automotive Insurance

Whatever size your fleet of trucks, vans or estimating vehicles, it’s necessary to have an auto policy with full coverage that includes liability, comprehensive and collision.

Also, unemployment benefits are a payroll-based tax that our company pays in the event that we ever have to lay employees off due to lack of work. It is rare that we need to use this, but
many paint companies do need it if their work is largely seasonal. Also, the recent COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses in all industries to lay people off. Fortunately, our business had plenty of work in unoccupied spaces, and we were able to maintain our staff and payroll.

By Dan Frost - HDF Painting, Concord, MA