Business Insurance
At Daines Kapp, we aim to provide excellent service, comprehensive advice and ultimately great value for money.
Quick Summary
- Independent since 1989: Daines Kapp is an independent broker based in Ware, Hertfordshire, acting for businesses throughout the United Kingdom, with access to insurers and Lloyd’s of London markets that are not available through comparison sites or direct providers
- The whole programme, reviewed together: many serious gaps sit between policies rather than inside them, so we review how the sections of your insurance fit together and make sure they align
- From a first policy to a large programme: we act for new ventures buying their first employers’ liability policy and for established businesses whose insurance runs across many sections and insurers
- Advice before placement: we undertake site surveys and policy coverage assessments to identify gaps before a claim arises, not after
- Claims handled by our own team: when something goes wrong, our in-house claims team manages the notification and the process with the insurer on your behalf
Daines Kapp arranges business insurance for companies of every size, from sole traders and new ventures to large commercial operations. We are an independent broker, based in Ware, Hertfordshire, and we act for clients throughout the United Kingdom. The pages linked below set out each type of cover in detail; this page explains how we work and how the pieces fit together.
What Business Insurance Covers, and Where Programmes Commonly Fall Short
Business insurance is a set of covers that respond to different things: damage to your property, interruption to your income, your legal liability to employees and to the public, the failure of your vehicles, systems or advice. The table below maps the main covers we arrange, what each one does, and the point at which each most often falls short in practice. Each links to a full page.
| Cover | What It Does | Where It Commonly Falls Short |
|---|---|---|
| AI Insurance | Addresses how policies respond, or stay silent, when artificial intelligence is involved in a loss | Most wordings do not yet mention AI at all, leaving cover a matter of interpretation |
| Commercial Combined | Property, stock, business interruption and liability assembled section by section around one business | Sums insured set from old valuations, and indemnity periods shorter than real recovery times |
| Cyber | Systems, data, ransomware and the income lost while systems are down | Some basic policies are built around data liability and carry little first-party cover |
| Directors’ & Officers’ | Personal liability of directors and senior managers for decisions made running the business | Often the last policy bought and the first needed when a regulator calls |
| Employers’ Liability | A legal requirement where you employ staff; pays compensation to employees injured at work | Labour-only subcontractors and temporary staff not counted in the wageroll |
| Motor Fleet | Cars, vans and HGVs on one policy with one renewal date | Driver restrictions and terms differ between vehicles, and where these are not passed on within the business, a driver the policy does not cover can end up behind the wheel |
| Professional Indemnity | Claims that your advice, design or professional service caused someone a financial loss | Limits set from the last renewal rather than from what contracts actually require |
| Property Owners & Landlords | Buildings, loss of rent and liability for owners of let property | Declared values that no longer reflect rebuild costs |
| Public & Products Liability | Injury or damage caused to third parties by your business or its products | Exclusions discovered at claim time rather than before you buy |
For construction trades, from contractors all risks to non-negligent liability, see our construction insurance section. For the industries where we hold particular depth, including manufacturing, transport and arboriculture, see our industries section.
How We Arrange Your Business Insurance
In sourcing the most appropriate insurance solution for your business, we often undertake a site survey, ensuring we fully understand how your business operates and the potential exposures you may face. We then undertake a policy coverage assessment to ensure that your insurance programme appropriately dovetails with your operational trading exposures.
What that means in practice is a sequence. We start with how the business actually works: what you make or do, what would stop you, what your contracts oblige you to carry. We then read the policies you already hold against that picture, and the differences between the two are the findings: sums insured that no longer reflect replacement costs, indemnity periods shorter than a realistic recovery, activities your business has grown into that no policy mentions. Finally we present the risk to the market properly. Underwriters price what they can see, and a well-prepared presentation of a risk, with its protections and its management evidenced, is the difference between an adequate quotation and a competitive one.
We set out what we find in plain English, with the technical terms explained, so that the decisions are yours to make on a clear picture.
Larger and More Complex Programmes
As a business grows, its insurance stops being a set of policies and becomes a programme, and the questions change. Liability limits may need to be built in layers across more than one insurer. Business interruption cover needs testing against the time it would genuinely take to recover, including the months it takes to win customers back, rather than against a default twelve-month period. Property needs declared values that would survive a claims audit, which for larger premises usually means a professional rebuild cost assessment rather than an indexed figure rolled forward year after year.
We arrange and manage programmes of this kind, and we bring in the specialist services they need: rebuild cost surveyors, loss assessors and risk management consultants, all of which can be made available to our clients. As a Willis Networks broker we also have access to the wider specialist market, which matters most on exactly these cases, where the difference between an adequate programme and an excellent one is usually in the wording rather than the price.
If your business already has a broker and a programme in place, we can carry out a no-obligation review, reading the policies you actually hold and reporting on what we find.
New Ventures and Growing Businesses
At the other end of the scale, a new business usually needs less than it fears but sooner than it expects. Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement from the first person you employ. Public liability is rarely compulsory but frequently demanded by customers and landlords before you can start work. Professional indemnity is required by regulators in some professions and by contracts in many more. We arrange first policies at sensible cost, and because we see what growing businesses become, we build them with the future in mind. For some businesses the policy simply grows with them; for others, where a micro-SME policy is the right and cost-effective starting point, we move the cover in later years to a commercial insurer whose appetite and breadth of cover match larger contracts and customers as they arrive.
Making a Claim
When a claim happens, our in-house claims team manages the notification and the process with the insurer on your behalf. Where a claim is substantial, we can involve a loss assessor to act in your interests in quantifying and negotiating it. Our team stays with the claim from notification through to settlement.
Why Choose Daines Kapp for Business Insurance
We have been an independent broker since 1989. We are a BIBA Accredited Cyber Insurance Broker, a Willis Networks broker with access to the wider specialist market, and we were a finalist at both the British Insurance Awards and the UK Broker Awards in 2026. Acting in your best interests, you will find our team professional, friendly and straightforward to deal with, and our advice is given in plain English with the technical terms explained.
Frequently Asked Questions About Business Insurance
What insurance is a UK business legally required to have?
Two covers are required by law in most circumstances. Employers’ liability insurance is compulsory for almost all businesses that employ staff, at a minimum limit of £5 million, and trading without it can lead to a fine of up to £2,500 for each day without cover. In practice, most insurers issue employers’ liability cover with a limit of £10 million as standard. Motor insurance is compulsory for vehicles used on the road. Beyond that, requirements come from regulators and contracts rather than statute: some professions must carry professional indemnity insurance as a condition of practising, and many commercial contracts, landlords and local authorities require public liability cover at a stated limit before work can begin.
What is the difference between business insurance and commercial insurance?
Nothing, in substance: they are two names for the same family of covers, and insurers use both. The distinction that actually matters is between a package policy, which bundles standard covers, often at preset limits, for straightforward trades, and a commercial combined policy or wider programme, which is assembled section by section around one business. Which of those suits you depends on the complexity of what you do, not on which name appears on the policy. Our commercial combined page explains that distinction in detail.
Why use a broker rather than buying online?
For a straightforward trade with standard needs, buying online can be perfectly adequate. We also see a steady stream of policies that were bought online and later prove less suitable than they looked, because a nuance of the risk or the cover was missed: online policies are sold on a non-advised basis, so understanding the questions, the limits and the exclusions rests entirely with the buyer. A broker takes that work on professionally, and earns their place as the risk becomes harder to describe in a dropdown menu: unusual activities, high or contractual liability limits, significant stock or machinery, previous claims, or anything where the wording will decide the outcome of a claim. An independent broker can also place cover with insurers who deal only through brokers. At claim time the difference is practical: your broker prepares and presents the claim, manages the insurer, and argues your corner until it is settled.
What does a business insurance review involve?
We look at three things: what the business does now, what the policies you hold actually say, and the gap between the two. For most businesses that means checking sums insured against genuine replacement costs, testing the business interruption indemnity period against a realistic recovery, reading the liability sections against the work you actually do, and checking that nothing the business has started doing since the policies were written sits outside them. You receive the findings in plain English. If your existing arrangement is sound, we will say so.
Can you take over our existing insurance part-way through the year?
Yes. Your cover stays exactly where it is while we take over its management and begin the review. Any changes then happen deliberately, at renewal or mid-term as the findings justify.
Types of Business Insurance We Arrange
