A business owners policy combines property and liability coverage into one package. It’s popular among medium sized businesses such as retail stores, wholesalers and contractors.

A business owners policy (BOP) is a type of commercial insurance that provides property and liability coverages to businesses. The policies are generally more comprehensive than personal lines policies, and they can be customized to fit the needs of individual companies.

The BOP covers losses stemming from legal liability or property damage. It also covers expenses related to defending against lawsuits, known as defense costs. There are two types of coverage available: completed operations coverage and claims-made coverage.

Completed Operations Coverage

Completed operations coverage protects your company if it’s sued for damages that occurred before the policy started and were completed before the policy ended. So if you were sued for an incident that happened in 2016 but wasn’t filed until 2017, this coverage would apply if there was no gap between the date the incident occurred and when the policy began.

Claims-Made Coverage

Claims-made coverage applies only to incidents that occur while the policy is active, so it doesn’t protect against incidents that happened before you purchased the BOP.