My husband is a carpenter and needs to get insurance for his business...?

What kind of insurance am I looking for. He just needs basic insurance as he is the only person involved.

Basic. Does that mean he wants to insure his tools and equipment? How about his truck?

He'll need to go to a local, independent agent. He's looking for general liability coverage, which may or may not include products and completed operations. Plus inland marine coverage if he wants to cover his tools. Builder's risk if he wants to include building materials.

Most of the time you can look in your phone book and there will be a list of insurance agencies. Call them and explain what you need and they can pick what's best for you.

Typically, all he will need is a commercial general liability policy. With no employees, he won't need to carry workers compensation - you might just want to find him a good accident policy in the event that HE gets hurt.

Just look in your local phone book for an independent agent and they should be able to help you. Just look for the PIA of Big I (Trusted Choice) logos and you should find a professional agent there that can help you.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

It's true that your husband needs to visit with an agent about the exposures he needs to be covered for...but I have an issue with the listings here that say he needs to contact an "independent" agent. (Come on guys, let's give good advice here and not be self-serving.) Long story short, contact the agent that handles your home, auto and life policies first. If for some strange reason they can't provide the kind of coverage your husband is going to need then they will give him suggestions on companies that can.

Hi, first off he needs public liability insurance. This will cover him if his work causes any injury to any member of the public, whether it be a customer or not. To be honest, even though there is just him, he should also take out employers liability insurance. The reason for this is that say during the year he has a big job going on and gets sick and asks a friend to do a bit of work for him, even if it just for a day, he is now effectively an employer and needs employers liability insurance in case the friend gets injured while working for him. You will find that some companies will not quote for "stand alone" public liability policies and will insist he take the employers liability insurance too. Anyway, just ring a broker or insurance company and just tell them you want a quote for liability insurance for a carpenter and they will ask all the questions! I presume his work van is insured separately and you would just need to make sure that it has full business class use and that it is covered to carry his tools of trade. Good luck