General Liability insurance is business liability insurance that protects all types of businesses when it is being sued by a claimant for property damage, completed operations / products liability, advertising injury, personal injury and independent contractor’s liability insurance. This type of insurance protects your assets weather you are looking for small business liability insurance or large business liability insurance. For this reason most businesses purchase business general liability insurance especially in California.

General liability insurance or business liability insurance can be purchased on a monoline basis, which means by itself, or can be combined on a package policy which is usually called a commercial package policy. A commercial package policy includes two more coverage forms that are usually customized to the needs of the insured. In a package policy you can include commercial general liability insurance, commercial property, commercial auto insurance, inland marine and crime insurance.

General liability insurance or business liability insurance usually has maximum limits the insurer will pay per claim. Most common limits are $1,000,000 each occurrence, $2,000,000 general aggregate, $2,000,000 products liability and completed operations, and $1,000,000 for personal and advertising injury.  If you are looking for liability insurance for a small business then these limits will suffice but if you are looking for commercial liability insurance for large businesses then you have the option of purchasing additional coverage limits called excess insurance.  Depending on the type of business the excess insurance market may be able to provide the desired amount of limits needed.  Most businesses will purchase at least $1,000,000 excess liability insurance.

Should you need additional limits on a package policy which usually includes general liability insurance along with commercial property, auto insurance, inland marine and crime insurance, you can purchase what is called an umbrella insurance policy.  This type of policy will allow you to have additional limits needed over you package policy.  Usually on a package policy you will get cheaper umbrella insurance rates as a discount is applied to and insured that needs umbrella insurance coverage for multiple risks.