Hiscox Business Insurance Review 2023: Pros, Cons, Alternatives
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Hiscox business insurance
4.0
NerdWallet ratingHiscox is a long-standing business insurance company that sells basic coverage, like general liability insurance and a business owner’s policy. You can buy Hiscox policies online from Hiscox's website, from independent insurance agents and from Geico. .
Hiscox’s small-business insurance policies are primarily designed for professional services businesses, such as accountants and consultants, though the company also offers packages for beauty, fitness and health businesses. If you need liability insurance and want to work with a trusted brand, it’s worth it to spend a few minutes getting a quote from Hiscox online.
For other types of coverage — like commercial auto insurance and workers’ comp insurance — Hiscox will refer you to partner websites to get quotes from other providers. If you want to buy all of your insurance policies from the same company, Hiscox may not be the best fit.
Hiscox business insurance: Pros and cons
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Can get a quote and purchase policies online. | You might not be able to buy all the coverage you need from Hiscox directly. |
Discounts of up to 5% available when you buy two or more Hiscox products. There is a 14-day money-back refund policy. | No coverage available in Alaska; business owner's policies are unavailable in several states. |
Professional liability policies cover work done anywhere in the world. | Business owner's policies are generally only available to businesses with 10 employees or fewer. |
Hiscox business insurance: Types of coverage
Hiscox offers the following coverage options for small-business owners:
General liability.
Professional liability.
Business owner's policy.
Cyber insurance.
Beyond those core business insurance products, Hiscox can help you purchase other types of insurance through partnerships with other providers.
Commercial auto insurance, workers’ comp insurance, directors and officers insurance, umbrella and employment practices liability insurance are available via Hiscox’s partnership with insurance marketplace CyberPolicy. You can input your business’s information and compare quotes from several different insurance providers.
For short-term liability insurance, Hiscox partners with the startup Thimble. Read NerdWallet’s review of Thimble insurance.
For medical malpractice coverage, you’ll be connected to Now Insurance, a commercial agency.
Hiscox does business in every state except Alaska, though the availability of specific types of policies varies by state. The company offers coverage to businesses in more than 180 industries.
You may come across Hiscox while shopping on Geico’s website for a business owner’s policy, general liability insurance or professional liability insurance. Geico and Hiscox are separate companies. But when insurance companies don’t underwrite a particular type of policy themselves, they sometimes refer customers to other insurance companies that do sell that type of policy.
» MORE: How to get business insurance
Hiscox general liability insurance
Hiscox offers general liability insurance with coverage limits ranging from $300,000 to $2 million. You can apply online or over the phone; your policy and certificate of insurance are issued via email, which can be helpful if you need to forward them to a client quickly as proof of insurance.
Hiscox professional liability insurance (errors and omissions insurance)
Hiscox professional liability insurance is designed to protect businesses against actual or alleged errors and omissions in the professional services or advice they provide. Your business may need this kind of insurance protection if it provides services to customers for a fee.
The Hiscox policy limits range from $250,000 to $2 million, and you can customize coverage to meet the needs of your business and your industry. Hiscox also covers claims on work performed all over the world, though the claim must be filed in the U.S., a U.S. territory or Canada.
Hiscox business owner's insurance
A Hiscox business owner's policy combines general liability insurance with property insurance for damage to your own furniture and equipment at up to five different locations. Deductibles range from $500 to $10,000 for building or business-related equipment losses.
You can customize these policies to cover:
Fire damage to the office.
Data losses.
Hired or non-owned vehicles.
Terrorism.
Employee dishonesty.
However, Hiscox business owner's insurance doesn’t cover vehicles or boats, any failures to protect personally identifiable information, inaccurate or incomplete advice you give to clients or any professional services you perform.
Also, Hiscox's BOP is not available to businesses with more than 10 employees, nor is it available in Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Rhode Island, Washington or West Virginia.
How to get a Hiscox business insurance policy
You can get a business insurance quote on Hiscox's website by supplying a few details, including your business name, physical address and years in operation. You also may need to provide revenue and payroll estimates, as well as gross sales numbers, depending on your business and the coverage selected.
During the quote process, you can call and speak to a licensed insurance agent from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. ET on weekdays.
Hiscox policies may also be sold by business insurance agents near you.
NerdWallet recommends getting quotes from multiple business insurance companies to find the policy that best fits your needs.
How much does Hiscox business insurance cost?
It’s difficult to predict the cost of business insurance, as rates vary widely depending on coverage, location, business type and associated risk factors, but a ballpark figure is helpful to index against as you shop for coverage.
Below are prices for various coverage types in 2021, as reported by Hiscox.
Type of coverage | Average monthly cost |
|---|---|
General liability insurance | $30 on average. |
Professional liability insurance | $22.50 and up. |
Business owner's policy | $33.33 and up. |
Should you choose Hiscox for business insurance?
Hiscox is a good fit for business owners who:
Want to work with an established brand: Hiscox has been active in the insurance industry since 1901.
Work internationally: Professional liability insurance from Hiscox covers work performed anywhere in the world, as long as the claim is filed in a covered jurisdiction.
Don’t mind working with multiple insurance companies: Hiscox only underwrites a handful of policies for small-business owners. If you need commercial auto or workers’ comp insurance — which many business owners do — you’ll have to manage policies from another insurer alongside Hiscox.
Alternatives to Hiscox business insurance
While you’re shopping around, consider getting business insurance quotes from these other business insurance companies:
If you like Hiscox for its century of experience: Consider Chubb, which was founded in 1882 and also sells business insurance online. You can quickly get a quote to compare coverage and costs. And in addition to a BOP, professional liability and cybersecurity insurance, you can buy umbrella and workers’ compensation insurance from Chubb online.
If Hiscox doesn’t have a package for your industry: Next Insurance sells business insurance packages tailored to more than 1,000 professions. Next is a much newer company than Hiscox — it was founded in 2016 — but it offers a list of policies that should be sufficient for many small-business owners, including commercial auto insurance and workers’ comp.
If Hiscox’s BOP isn’t available to you: If you work in a state where Hiscox’s BOP isn’t available, The Hartford offers a similar business owner’s policy. It includes general liability, commercial property and business income insurance, and you can tack on cyber liability and professional liability insurance coverage.
Business insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet’s business insurance ratings reward companies that offer small-business owners reliability and ease of use. Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including financial strength, customer complaint data, shopping experience and customer service. Learn more about how we rate small-business insurance companies.
These ratings are a guide, but insurance policy details and prices can vary widely from business to business and provider to provider. We encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes.
NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
Insurer complaints methodology
NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2018-2021.
To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period.
Our star ratings consider ratios for both general liability insurance and commercial property insurance. When an insurer sells policies that are underwritten by several different insurance companies, we consider the NAIC complaint ratios of all the underwriters.
