Do you work from home? Do your clients or partners ever visit your home for business reasons? If so, you should know that your homeowners (or renters) insurance policy most likely will not protect you from claims or lawsuits if business visitors are injured at your home. Let's say a vendor, a copywriter, stops by your home to drop off some work and review it with you. She trips on a loose floor mat and twists her ankle, then sprains her wrist trying to stop her fall. Now if she lives in the U.S., chances are pretty fair that your copywriter doesn't carry any health insurance. Who is she going to look for to pay her doctor bills? What about downtime from work, since she hurt her writing hand? You and your insurance carrier, of course. But standard homeowners and renters insurance policies exclude coverage for your liability for others' injuries or damage in connection with a business you engage in. A typical exclusion is worded something like this: Personal Liability Coverage and Coverage for Medical Payments to Others does not apply to bodily injury or property damage arising out of or in connection with any business engaged in by an insured. The good news is that you can usually purchase an endorsement to your policy that will replace this coverage, for a very reasonable fee. Depending on the type of work you do and other underwriting factors, you may be able to buy a "business pursuits" endorsement for under $100 a year. Check with your insurance company, or if you have one, your agent. They should be able to explain what the endorsement does and doesn't cover. It should basically extend your liability coverage, so that the limits you purchased for your home will also include liability for injuries or damage suffered by a business visitor. It is important to know what a business pursuits endorsement to your home insurance does not cover. It is not "professional liability" or "errors and omissions" insurance: it will not cover your liability for acts, errors or omissions, or wrongful acts, arising out of your provision of services. You would need to purchase that type of coverage in a separate policy. One last thing: make sure you read your policy carefully, including any exclusions and endorsements. You need to know what you are paying for, before you have a claim. As an insurance professional writes in this little vignette from the e-insure Journal, "[o]ne day, in a perfect world, insurers will write their policies in language so clear and concise that all their clients will read and understand their coverages, and nobody will suffer any nasty surprises. Until then, the smart ones take steps to look after their own interests." If you're still not sure what is and isn't covered by a business pursuits endorsement, or any other part of your insurance policy, again, check with your insurer, agent or advisor.