How Ontario Businesses Can Lower Insurance Premiums

Ontario is home to more than 14 million people, making it a promising environment to open a business. However, competition becomes fierce in a place where numerous businesses thrive. This leaves little room for setbacks in the form of financial losses due to unforeseen events. 

General liability insurance is required for businesses that operate in Ontario while some companies may also opt for additional coverage for their property, vehicles, and other risk factors. As a business owner in Ontario, you may wonder how you can get lower insurance premiums. 

In this guide, you’ll discover the many ways to lower insurance premiums for different types of commercial insurance—while still maintaining exemplary coverage. 

Let’s begin!  

1. Explore Your Options

One of the simplest ways to get lower insurance premiums is to explore your options. Different insurance providers will give varying rates for their coverage.

To get more reliable figures for comparison, ask for quotes from different companies. Though quotes are still not yet the final price of a policy, they are closer to the actual costs than the general rates shown on company sites. 

In addition, when looking for insurance products to consider, it would be beneficial to keep a spreadsheet where you can compare the following factors side by side. These include: 

• The insurance type;
• The coverage limit of the insurance plan;
• The published coverage points; 
• Discounts available; and
• Any stated deductibles.

2. Work with an Independent Insurance Broker

On top of doing your own research, it’s recommended to reach out to a trusted independent insurance broker. Insurance brokers are different from insurance agents. The main difference is that insurance brokers work for you, while insurance agents work for specific insurance providers. 

Independent insurance brokerage firms, like KASE Insurance, employ professional insurance brokers that are not tied to specific insurance providers. Our insurance experts have years of experience in setting up customized policies for all kinds of businesses. This combination of independence and industry experience from our team will help you access the best insurance plans that are well worth your money. 

Working with an insurance broker ties well with the first tip that we talked about. As you explore your options, you can compare your findings with your broker’s recommendations to be certain that you get the best deals. 

3. Ask for Discounts

Another tip for finding lower insurance premiums is to proactively ask or look for discounts.  Discounts may be available for the following: 

• Loyalty; 
• Insurance bundles; and
• Members of specific industries entitled to insurance discounts. 

4. Bundle Your Insurance

We can’t emphasize this enough. Lower insurance premiums are common with insurance bundles. But this isn’t where your benefits end. 

By bundling your insurance with the help of a trusted insurance broker, you will have consolidated documents for all your business insurance policies. In case of unforeseen events, you would only need to contact one company. This makes the entire insurance experience more streamlined and less complicated.  

5. Carefully Consider Increasing Deductibles

In simple terms, deductibles reduce how much an insurance provider will payout for a covered claim. Deductibles could be flat amounts or percentages that the insured will cover out of pocket for a claim. They can also refer to aggregate, out-of-pocket amounts or waiting periods that generally have the same effect: reducing how much the insurance provider will pay out. 

Though it seems that deductibles are not beneficial to have (as they reduce payouts for claims), the option of adjusting deductibles gives business owners more control over their insurance premiums.

There is an inverse relationship when it comes to premiums and deductibles. Essentially, higher deductibles equate to lower insurance premiums and vice versa. Deductibles are usually not large amounts, and some businesses choose to increase deductibles to lower their premiums. It all depends on the needs of the business. 

Though increasing deductibles is sure to result in lower insurance premiums, we recommend speaking to an insurance expert about this matter—because whether or not higher deductibles are helpful is often decided on a case-to-case basis.

6. Update Your Insurance Dutifully

When business owners look for lower insurance premiums, the intent is to save. So in alignment with this intent, we must also talk about updating insurance dutifully once it is set up. 

Updating insurance can help you save in two ways:

• The update in your insurance results in lower insurance premiums – this typically happens if risks are minimized or covered properties/items/employees are reduced.
• The insurance update allows the coverage to stay valid – nothing is more costly than a policy with forfeited coverage. In some cases, when insurance is not updated with major changes (e.g. added employees, changed equipment, added vehicles), coverage may be forfeited when unforeseen events arise. 

Here at KASE Insurance, we make insurance updates as easy as possible. Simply contact our team about any changes, and we’ll assist you with the next steps. This is another advantage of working with a trusted and hands-on insurance broker like KASE. 

7. Improve Security and Minimize Risks

Consider the insurance policies your business has or needs. From there, look for ways to minimize risks or improve security in such a way that will help lower insurance premiums. You can do this at the beginning while setting up your business insurance or before updating your business insurance. 

Here are some examples to help you get started: 

Get Lower Insurance Premiums for CGL Insurance

• Consider leasing a newer commercial space.
• Re-evaluate the total area that your commercial space occupies (larger premises means more risk).

Get Lower Insurance Premiums for Commercial Property Insurance

• Consider leasing a newer commercial space (this affects both CGL and commercial property insurance).
• Find ways to improve the security of your commercial property.
• Consider relocating if you are in an area with a high crime rate.

Get Lower Insurance Premiums for Commercial Auto Insurance

• Install a GPS tracking system in your commercial vehicles.
• Screen the driving record of all new employees.
• Get less expensive utility commercial vehicles. 

8. Make Sure You Have the Coverage You Need

Careful risk assessment by an insurance expert is important in getting the coverage that you need. Here at KASE Insurance, this is one of our first steps for each client we handle. After you get your business risks assessed, you will be closer to getting coverage that responds to those risks. 

Getting lower insurance premiums is only secondary to getting good coverage. It’s common to find insurance plans with low premiums, but the catch is that they do not offer enough coverage. Ultimately, these can’t be considered real “savings” because such plans may not be able to fully protect your business once it’s time to make a claim. 

Opt For Customized Commercial Insurance to Protect Your Business

If you’re looking for great coverage and lower insurance premiums, our team of insurance experts is here to help. 

KASE Insurance is an award-winning, Toronto-based insurance brokerage firm that specializes in providing customized insurance solutions. Whatever industry your business may be in, we can set up insurance plans that fit your needs and preferences. 

Our experienced team will get you the best rates possible, while still maintaining exemplary coverage for your business. We can also bundle your insurance to help you get more discounts on premiums. 

Contact us today to start experiencing hassle-free insurance processes and lower insurance premiums!