Nationwide Small Business Insurance Review

That’s why we put together our guide to the top small business insurers in seven different categories to help your business find the right insurance company.

Nationwide topped our list as the insurer best-known for well-rounded insurance offerings. But is this the best insurer for your small business?

Which Small Business Insurance Policies Does Nationwide Offer?

With Nationwide, small business customers have access to a wide variety of policies, including these popular coverages:

• Business liability: This type of insurance protects your business from third-party bodily injury or property damage claims, as well as matters of libel and slander.
• Commercial property: If you own or rent physical space for your business, or if your company uses equipment in its operations, this policy provides coverage for these assets.
• Business income: Often referred to as business interruption insurance, this policy replaces your company’s lost income if it’s forced to close temporarily due to a covered peril.
• Equipment breakdown: With equipment breakdown insurance, you’ll receive coverage to protect your equipment against mechanical breakdowns, power surges, and operator errors.
• Businessowners policy (BOP): Nationwide’s BOP combines all four of the above coverages into one convenient policy. Some companies have different arrangements for BOPs (for example, most insurers don’t include equipment breakdown insurance).
• Commercial auto: If you own or rent vehicles for your business activities, you should protect them with commercial auto insurance policies.
• Workers’ compensation: If you have employees, your state requires you to have workers’ comp to protect them from injuries and illnesses (unless you’re in Texas, the only state that doesn’t require it).
• Crime: Do you want protection from robbery, burglary, computer fraud, employee dishonesty, forgery, and more illegal activities? If so, crime insurance is the policy for you.
• Cyber: If your business suffers a data breach, this policy will help you cover the expenses of having your customers’ personal information exposed.
• Errors and omissions: Does your business operate in a licensed profession (such as for doctors, lawyers, chiropractors, etc.)? If so, errors and omissions coverage will protect you against damages caused by professional mistakes. This policy is also commonly referred to as professional liability insurance.
• Commercial umbrella: An umbrella policy extends the limits in your existing liability insurance policies.

Nationwide Small Business Insurance Review

Nationwide is Incorporation Guru’s top overall pick for the company with the best well-rounded coverage packages among small business insurance providers. Let’s dig into the details to find out why and determine if this is the right company to provide your small business insurance policies.

Company Background

Nationwide first opened its doors back in 1926. It started off as a farm bureau auto insurer but quickly expanded its operations to include a wide variety of personal and business insurance policies. With more than 25,000 employees, Nationwide is the #76 company on the Fortune 500.

Selling Points

We love how Nationwide includes equipment breakdown insurance with its businessowners policy (BOP). This is one of the only insurance companies that bundles equipment breakdown coverage into a BOP, as most competitors only include general liability, business interruption, and commercial property insurance (and some, like State Farm, exclude business interruption coverage).

This makes Nationwide’s BOP a more fully featured and well-rounded offering than most competitors’ BOPs, as it truly includes every coverage most small businesses will need. Nationwide also offers some specialized forms of small business insurance that not all competitors provide, so give this insurer a long look if you need crime, employment practices liability, inland marine, builder’s risk, or accounts receivable insurance.

In addition, most insurance providers aren’t exactly known for positive online customer reviews. After all, these companies have so many customers in so many unique situations that there is bound to be plenty of negative feedback. That said, Nationwide gets pretty good reviews on reputable third-party review aggregator sites like WalletHub, where it has a solid 3.8 customer rating — a higher score than most major insurers receive.

Pricing Info

One drawback of Nationwide is that its prices can tend to be slightly on the high side compared to the average insurer. That said, Nationwide offers more features and well-rounded coverages than many competitors too. So, to us, this seems like a case of getting what you pay for.

Still, if affordability is your top priority, we would understand why you might prefer one of Nationwide’s competitors in the small business insurance industry.

Our Final Thoughts

Nationwide is our top pick for small business insurance customers seeking a company with well-rounded and fully featured insurance policies. The fact that it receives mostly positive customer reviews doesn’t hurt either!

With a broad selection of business insurance policies and a ton of experience, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Nationwide to our family and friends.

Still, if you want to take a look at our recommended insurers for other categories — such as the best options for industry-specific policies, fast claims payment, and more — take a look at our complete guide to the best small business insurance providers.