Commercial Combined Insurance

It is a single policy that brings together the covers a business needs (buildings, stock, contents, machinery, public and employers' liability, business interruption and often goods in transit and money) underwritten around that particular business rather than sold as a fixed bundle. One policy, one renewal date, one insurer to deal with at claim time.

A package policy has a fixed set of sections and preset limits, rated largely from your trade and turnover. It is quick, cheap and perfectly good for shops, salons, offices and takeaways. A combined policy is put together section by section with limits set to your actual values, and an underwriter reviews the risk rather than a rating engine pricing it. You generally move to combined when a package starts returning referrals, exclusions you cannot accept, or limits below what you need.

It varies more than any other commercial policy, so be wary of anyone quoting a figure before seeing yours. On our own book premiums start at around £200 a year, and the spread above that is enormous, so there is no midpoint worth quoting as a price to expect. The premium follows what you actually insure: building reinstatement cost, stock and machinery values, turnover, wage roll, the process itself, and your claims record. A drainage contractor and a plastics manufacturer are both commercial combined and are not comparable risks.

It can, and for most businesses it is the section that matters most. Business interruption replaces the income lost while you cannot trade after an insured loss: a fire, a flood, a serious escape of water. Two things decide whether it responds properly: the sum insured, based on gross profit rather than turnover minus everything, and the indemnity period, which is how long you would realistically need to be fully back to normal. Twelve months is the default and is often too short for anything involving specialist machinery with a long lead time.

Underinsurance is declaring values lower than the true cost to reinstate. Most commercial policies carry an average condition, so if you insure a £1m building for £500,000, a £200,000 claim is settled at £100,000. The shortfall is proportional, not just capped at the limit. Rebuild costs have moved sharply in recent years, so figures set a few years ago are frequently short. A professional reinstatement valuation is the reliable fix; reviewing the numbers annually with us is the minimum.

Yes. Goods in transit covers stock and materials while they are being moved, which matters for wholesalers, manufacturers and anyone delivering their own product. Money cover deals with cash on the premises, in transit to the bank and in a safe, with different limits for each. Both are common sections on a combined policy and are worth setting to real figures rather than accepting a default.