Church Insurance: Top Companies, Cost & Coverage

To get a quote, you will need to contact GuideOne or one of its agents.

The policy comes in three levels: Basic, Broad, and Special. All come with an exceptional amount of coverage, and some highlights are:

• 2,500 personal effects and property of others off-premise (think missionaries)
• 15,000 for outdoor signs
• Volunteers, members, Sunday school teachers, and more are all considered insured
• Liability limits up to $5 million aggregate
• Counseling liability coverage includes volunteers and lay leaders

GuideOne offers many optional coverages, including sexual misconduct and key person insurance.

GuideOne is available in 50 states through a large network of independent agents. Claims services are available 24/7 online or over the phone.

There are zero complaints filed against it with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

GuideOne offers Subsplash Giving, which is an online giving platform. The system is free for churches and helps make member donations easy.

GuideOne is financially stable and has an A- (Excellent) rating from AM Best.

For a quote, fill out an online form and a representative will contact you. If you are purchasing missionary insurance, you can do so online. Its insurance is available for organizations and travelers, with options for short- and long-term missionaries. Kidnap and ransom coverage is available as additional coverage.

For organizations, Brotherhood offers MinistryFirst^®, which has worldwide liability and medical extension coverage and 24/7 foreign emergency assistance and services.

Brotherhood also has individual missionary plans: Faith Ventures for the short-term (less than 180 days) and Faith Ventures 365 for longer trips. Each has a tier that offers greater coverage for a higher premium. Some of the coverages included are emergency evacuation, illness medical expenses, political evacuation, and security evacuation.

Brotherhood is available in 47 states and D.C. For policyholders, it offers an account portal with policy documents, including proof of insurance. It has its own in-house claims team with after-hours reporting available.

Customer complaints are much lower than the national average.

A helpful feature for churches is its payroll and tax filing offerings. This is an additional cost, and your church needs at least five employees. But if you are unsure of how to handle nonprofit payroll and taxes, including housing allowance, Brotherhood Mutual can do it for you.

Brotherhood Mutual is over 100 years old. It is financially stable, with an A- (Excellent) rating from AM Best.

A quote is available after filling out a contact request form and reviewing your insurance needs with a representative.

Church Mutual currently protects about 1,500 camps and conference centers. It offers many coverages, including property, general liability, management liability (D&O coverage), sexual molestation, professional liability, and crime.

Unfortunately, there’s no specific information on endorsements.

While the complaints are higher than the national average, Church Mutual is a trusted name in the religious space.

It is a member of the Christian Camp & Conference Association, which endorsed it as the provider of liability insurance. It also partners with the American Camp Association and Camp Owners & Directors Association.

For its customers, it has many safety resources, including swim bands and allergy bands. It also offers CM Sensor^®, which provides 24/7 temperature and water monitoring for your property. These resources are free to policyholders.

Church Mutual has been insuring religious organizations since 1897. It is financially stable with an A (Excellent) rating from AM Best.

For a quote, you need to contact an independent agent.

Great American’s religious organization insurance is a policy package with liability, professional liability, property, and inland marine. The general liability coverage includes special events, so you don’t have to get separate coverage if you host an outreach event or obtain an endorsement. It’s the only provider in this guide that includes special events in its liability coverage.

Its professional liability also covers pastoral counseling, including nondegreed professionals, while its building coverage includes stained glass, murals, paintings, and mosaics. This is important for older buildings with architectural features that can be difficult to insure.

Great American is available in all 50 states, and its complaints are far below the national average.

Online bill pay is available. Its customer service is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, but if you need to file a claim, it has a 24/7 number.

It offers several services to its policyholders, including IntelliCorp^® which provides background checks on employees. If you want to monitor the driving habits of employees and volunteers who use church vehicles, there is SafetyFirst™, a driving app that monitors speed, hard stops, and other driving habits.

Great American has a solid financial foundation with a rating of A+ (Superior) by AM Best.

For a quote, answer a few questions about your church, and in about 10 minutes, it’ll provide quotes from multiple carriers which you can then purchase.

We received two quotes for general liability, both through Liberty Mutual. One was for $650 annually and the other was for $745 annually. Both were nearly identical, with limits of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. The more expensive quote included inland marine coverage for equipment.

In addition to providing multiple quotes within 10 minutes, CoverWallet provides policy financing options. The policy is paid in full for a year by CoverWallet, and then you work out a payment plan with CoverWallet to pay it directly.

It offers a self-service Wallet to manage your policy, including documents and access to certificates of liability.

CoverWallet is owned by Aon, which is rated A (Excellent) by AM Best.

General liability is sometimes referred to as broad-form coverage because it provides a wide range of coverage in the areas of property damage, bodily injury, and personal injury in the form of libel, slander, and reputation harm. Two common general liability claims for a church are:

1. Someone trips, falls, and is injured in the sanctuary.
2. Your church causes property damage to a rented space.

Most church events, including worship, succeed because of volunteers—but volunteers create a gray area for liability policies: are they covered or not? Most policies include coverage for them, treating them a bit like an employee. However, check with your agent to ensure you do not need to add them as additional insureds. If you have lock-ins with children or teens, see that your agent is aware so that the proper coverage is in place.

This is first-party coverage for a building, its contents, and equipment. If your organization is affected by a covered event, such as fire or theft, you can file a claim on your property insurance to either repair or replace the damaged items.

Typically, commercial property insurance follows a named peril structure, meaning coverage applies to the named perils in the policy. These perils include fire, vandalism, windstorms, theft, and hail.

Organized religion in America predates the revolution. Many church buildings are hundreds of years old, and one informal study found the average age of a church building is 92 years old. Older buildings present insurance risks—outdated wiring and plumbing, older roofs, and toxic construction materials, like asbestos, can all translate into a higher premium.

Because workers’ compensation insurance is not federally regulated, it is up to each state; however, nearly every state requires this policy for organizations with at least one employee. If an employee becomes injured or ill because of their job, workers’ comp covers the medical bills and some form of wage replacement until they can return to work.

Many nonprofits try to save money by having employees and members do “the work themselves” instead of hiring outside help. Some claims you may encounter are:

• The pastor breaks a finger using a hammer
• The worship leader falls off a ladder trying to fix a ceiling-mounted speaker
• The children’s ministry leader hurts their back moving storage units

If your church regularly uses volunteers for activities where they could be injured, such as a church work day, check with your agent to see if they qualify for workers’ comp or if there is a blanket endorsement for volunteers available.

Often referred to as errors and omissions, professional liability is a type of policy for religious leaders who provide counseling services. Pastors have an elevated level of responsibility in that they can also function as counselors and, depending on the state, are considered mandated reporters.

Some examples of a claim can be:

• Failure to report suspicious or criminal behavior
• A couple claims poor counseling led to their divorce and financial hardship

Professional liability helps in these situations by paying defense fees, court costs, and settlements within the limits of the policy.

Commonly called D&O coverage, this is more common in businesses to protect board members who are not typical employees. Most churches are governed by some sort of board—and while many states offer some immunity for volunteer board members, there may still be significant defense costs involved and no immunity if the action is considered egregious or gross negligence. Because of that risk, consider this coverage.

D&O claims often make the news, such as:

• The church has a capital campaign for a new building, but after raising the money, it decides to do something else with the funds.
• The offering is down because a member of the board is stealing some of it.
• The board is aware of accusations of misconduct against the pastor, but instead of investigating it, they cover it up.

D&O coverage, like professional liability, handles court costs, related expenses, and settlements.

Special event insurance is a type of liability policy that provides coverage for a limited period. It can also reimburse any non-refundable deposits or loss of money that may result from the cancelation of events. These events often draw large crowds and represent a significant investment by the organization.

For example, when I was a pastor, our church had a regular food truck festival in conjunction with a local school. This was a large event that would draw crowds above 500. One year, it looked like the weather would force a cancelation, and without special event insurance, all the funds invested and anticipated income would have been lost.