The Hartford Business Insurance Review 2023

Commercial property insurance, or business personal property (BPP) insurance, is first-party coverage. The Hartford’s BPP helps cover the cost of repairing or replacing items, such as tools and equipment, furniture, and accounts receivable (A/R).

This coverage usually works on a named-peril basis, meaning if your property suffers a loss from fire, wind damage, or theft, then you can file a claim. It can also help with lost income if you’ve suffered a loss and your business has to close while you get things back up and running.

In evaluating the best general liability insurance providers, The Hartford scored the highest and is the best provider. It is affordable: the average customer paid $88 a month for general liability.

It has flexibility on limits to fit your business, as well as many endorsements, and Putty by The Hartford is an example. This product is available in the form of short-term insurance. For example, if you’re a handyperson and need insurance for the day, in 5 minutes or less, you can get a quote, purchase a policy, and receive proof of insurance.

The Hartford offers a highly customizable BOP that can be tailored to your specific business and industry. Examples are data breach addition, business income for a utility outage, and professional liability.

A BOP is often a more affordable option than purchasing BPP and general liability as stand-alone policies. The Hartford business insurance costs can vary depending on your company, but its average for a BOP in 2021 is around $261.25 monthly.

For losses outside of general liability, The Hartford offers professional liability, which is available for over 60 different industry classes. Some highlights of the policy are it provides coverage for personal injury, including mental anguish or emotional distress, and disciplinary proceedings coverage.

Beyond professional liability, The Hartford offers several management liability policies for different types of businesses, including

• Directors & officers (D&O) insurance protects directors and officers from mistakes while managing a company.
• Employment practices liability protects your business from a complaint made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• Fiduciary liability insurance protects your business from fiduciary mismanagement claims.
• Crime insurance protects your business from employee-related crimes against the company.

In our evaluation of the best workers’ compensation providers, we determined The Hartford to be the best for online quotes. It’s also the second largest provider of workers’ compensation by market share.

An important component of workers’ compensation claims is medical management. The Hartford has case managers who will work with your injured employees on their treatment plans and a network of over 65,000 providers. It also has a prescription benefit program to help reduce costs.

Regarding costs, The Hartford has an online calculator that will help you get an idea of what workers’ compensation would cost for your business. Answer a few questions regarding your business and quickly receive an estimate for the cost of your premium.

Cyber liability is available as a standalone coverage or an endorsement. Because The Hartford understands insurance isn’t a one-size-fits-all policy, it has two cyber insurance policies for small businesses: data breach and cyber liability.

Geared more toward smaller businesses, data breach helps handle the response to a data breach by notifying those who have been impacted, helping a public relations company, and offering financial monitoring services. There are several endorsements available to help flesh this coverage out, depending on your business.

Meanwhile, cyber liability helps with some expenses a business has after a cyber breach. This one is for larger businesses and helps with lawsuits, regulatory fines, and extortion for ransomware attacks.

The Hartford has additional services for policyholders who purchase this coverage through CyberChoice First Response, which has programs for training and response to a cyber loss.

If your business owns any vehicles or has employees regularly driving their vehicles for business purposes, then The Hartford has you covered with varied commercial auto insurance coverages. It even has additional options to customize a package for your business, and some options include downtime coverage if a damaged auto is affecting business and coverage for electronic devices. Additionally, it offers, for no additional cost, an additional 10%, up to $2,500, when you replace the total loss vehicle with a hybrid, electric, or natural gas vehicle.

When considering all of The Hartford’s commercial lines, it has lower-than-expected complaints with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), an organization that monitors complaints filed with state departments of insurance (DOI). Providers take a DOI complaint seriously and must respond to the complaints.

The average of complaints filed against The Hartford for small business lines in 2021 totals 0.79. The NAIC has an index of one for complaints, meaning if a company has a score of two, complaints are twice as high as what is expected.

There are several organizations that have written The Hartford business insurance reviews. A common thread in their evaluations is that the company’s quoting experience is fast and easy and that it has several options to tailor policies to your specific industry. On the flip side, one common problem is that it doesn’t have any offerings for farms and ranches.

Here are The Hartford’s ratings on third-party sites:

• U.S. News: 3.8 out of 5
• TRUiC: 3.75 out of 5
• NerdWallet: 5 out of 5
• AdvisorSmith: 3.2 out of 5
• Trustpilot: 1.4 out of 5

On a tangent, the 2022 Independent Agent Satisfaction Survey by J.D. Power placed The Hartford third in satisfaction among independent agents working in commercial lines.

Additionally, worth noting is another evaluation of The Hartford, which does not fit the traditional mold of a company review. Ethisphere, a private company that evaluates and promotes ethics in the corporate world, gives out the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation to worldwide businesses each year. In 2022, The Hartford received the award for the 13th time.

The Hartford encourages customers to leave reviews through its Star Claim Experience feature. Overall, it received more than 65,000 reviews with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, and this rating includes personal lines.

Many customers shared how simple and easy the claim experience was and expressed happiness over the outcome of the claim. However, while there aren’t many 1-star reviews, some of the more common complaints are lack of communication from the adjuster.

The Hartford’s business insurance’s user reviews are as follows:

• Workers’ Compensation: 4.8 out of 5 stars from more than 4,600 reviews
• Commercial Auto: 4.7 out of 5 stars from around 900 reviews
• Commercial Property Insurance: 4.8 out of 5 from around 5,000 reviews
• General Liability Insurance: 4.8 out of 5 from more than 960 reviews

If you do have a complaint, start the process of trying to resolve it by filling out this complaint form.

Yes, The Hartford sells both commercial and personal lines insurance. This includes policies for homeowners and personal autos. On the auto side, The Hartford is a partner with AARP car insurance.

The Hartford insures all business sizes. What’s more, with Putty by The Hartford, it will insure one person’s short-term projects. It even insures global companies with multinational locations.

AM Best, the financial rating agency for insurance companies, rates The Hartford A+ (Superior). This means its financial situation is solid and can handle and pay claims.

The average cost of a general liability policy costs about $88 monthly, whereas a BOP costs $261.25 monthly on average. Premiums can fluctuate depending on claim history, industry, and the size of your business.