Commercial Property and Inland Marine Coverage
Commercial property forms
The Building and Personal Property Coverage Form (BPP) insures the building, business personal property, and personal property of others, with limits listed per item or as a blanket. Additional coverages (debris removal, pollutant cleanup, preservation of property) and extensions (newly acquired property, valuable papers, outdoor signs) sit inside the form. Causes-of-loss forms escalate in breadth: Basic (named perils), Broad (named, adding water damage, falling objects, weight of ice/snow), and Special (open peril, all risk unless excluded). Endorsements such as agreed value suspend coinsurance; peak season and spoilage address inventory fluctuations.
Business income
Business income pays net income plus continuing normal operating expenses during the period of restoration, which typically begins 72 hours after the direct physical damage. Extra expense funds costs incurred to keep operating. Business income carries its own coinsurance test. Coverage requires a suspension of operations caused by direct physical loss by a covered cause of loss.
Crime
Employee theft, forgery or alteration, computer fraud, and robbery are separate insuring agreements. Know whether the form is written on a loss-sustained or discovery basis.
Inland marine
Rooted in the Nationwide Marine Definition: property in transit, movable property, and instrumentalities of transportation or communication. Examples include motor truck cargo, bailee's customer goods, contractor's equipment floaters, accounts receivable, and fine arts. Floaters follow the property wherever it goes.
Rule of thumb
If the exposure moves, think inland marine; if it sits at a scheduled location, think commercial property.
Trap: a utility service interruption or a loss by an uninsured peril generally will not trigger business income.