What does your insurance actually cover?
You pay for it every year. Most business owners have never been sure what it does for them until the day they need it, and that's the worst time to find out. Here's how to know where you stand, before and after something goes wrong.
You want to understand your coverage
You've got a policy and you're not certain what it covers, what the endorsements mean, or whether you're protected for the things that could actually happen in your line of work.
Understand what you're covered for→Your claim was denied
You made a claim and the insurer said no, or sent a letter you don't fully understand. You want to know where you actually stand and what you can do about it.
See where you stand→Understanding your coverage
Coverage is narrower and more specific than most people assume.
Two policies that look the same can respond completely differently to the same event, because what matters isn't the label on the policy, it's the wording inside it. Named perils coverage protects only against the specific perils it lists. All risk coverage works the other way, protecting against everything except what it excludes. Endorsements like an SEF 44 or a family protection endorsement quietly change what you're owed. And the exclusions, the parts nobody reads, are usually where a claim lives or dies.
Knowing which kind of coverage you actually have, and what your policy does and doesn't include, is the difference between assuming you're protected and knowing it. That understanding is worth having on a calm day, not discovered on a bad one.
This is general information about how insurance coverage works, not advice about your specific policy or situation.
If your claim was denied
A denial is a position, not the last word.
When an insurer denies a claim, they're taking a position based on how they read your policy and the facts they have. That position can be tested. What decides it is the record: what actually happened, when, what your policy says, and whether the reason given for the denial holds up against the wording and the facts. Most people who get denied don't have that record organized, and they don't know which questions matter. That's exactly what turns a denial into a dead end when it didn't have to be one.
This is general information, not advice about your specific claim.
How Binder helps you handle it
Binder helps you run the matter yourself, start to finish.
You know your situation better than anyone. Binder gives you the tools to document it, understand it, and figure out where you stand, with a licensed professional there when it counts. Here's what that looks like for an insurance matter.
Write down what happened
Record
Tell Binder the story in your own words while it's fresh. It turns your account into a clean, dated entry on your matter. Once you seal it, it can't be changed, so it stands as a contemporaneous record of events, the kind that matters later.
See where you stand
Advocate
Advocate reads everything on your file and works out where things actually sit. It surfaces the questions that matter, including whether your insurance should respond and what you'd need to show, questions you might never have thought to ask on your own.
Know where the matter stands
Notify
A plain-language summary of where your matter is right now, written from your file. No jargon. Just what's happened, what's still open, and what the record does and doesn't yet show.
Keep it all in one place
Library
Your policy, your invoices, the letters from the insurer, all held together on the matter. You add them, and Binder reads them for you. You never have to sort, tag, or connect anything by hand.
Understand the law behind it
University
The law of your situation, in plain language, for the province you're actually in. Understand how coverage and denials really work before you decide what to do. It's education, written so you can follow it, not advice on your specific facts.
Get a professional's read
Counsel
When you want a professional's eyes on it, Counsel is a licensed Canadian lawyer who researches your matter and gives you information to help you decide what to do next. Not a chatbot. A real lawyer, working from your file.
What it saves you
The costly part of a legal problem is rarely the problem itself.
It's the days it eats, the professional hours you pay to untangle something you didn't understand, and the coverage you find out about too late. Binder is built to bring those costs down.
Your time stays on the business.
Every hour spent trying to make sense of a policy or a denial letter is an hour you're not working. Binder does the reading and the organizing, so you're not the one buried in it.
You pay a lawyer for judgment, not for filing.
When you do bring in a professional, you arrive with your matter already documented and already understood. You're paying for their read on it, not for them to build it from nothing, which is where the bill usually comes from.
You find out before, not after.
Knowing what your policy actually does while things are calm means you're not learning about an exclusion on the day a claim turns on it. The cheapest problem is the one you saw coming.
Why not just use a chatbot
A chatbot answers. Binder knows your file.
Paste your denial letter into a chatbot and it starts from a blank box and gives you the same generic answer it gives everyone. Binder already has your record, your policy, and your documents. It knows how these matters actually work in Canada, and it puts a licensed professional behind the answer when it counts. That's the reliability of a legal department, for a fraction of what one costs to keep on staff.
Binder is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Know what you're covered for. Know where you stand.
Start documenting your matter and understanding your coverage today. A licensed professional is there when you need one.
Try Binder free→Common questions
Why was my insurance claim denied?
Insurers deny claims for many reasons, a policy exclusion, a coverage limit, missed notice requirements, or a dispute about the facts. The denial letter usually states the reason, though not always plainly. What matters is whether that reason holds up against your policy wording and what actually happened. This is general information, not advice on your claim.
Can I dispute a denied insurance claim in Canada?
A denial is the insurer's position, and positions can be challenged. What that involves depends on your policy, the reason given, and the record of what happened. Understanding your coverage and organizing the facts is the starting point. This is general information, not advice on your situation.
What's the difference between named perils and all risk insurance?
Named perils coverage protects only against the specific perils the policy lists. All risk coverage protects against everything except what it specifically excludes. The practical difference shows up when something happens that isn't clearly on either list, which is why knowing which kind you have matters.
Does my business insurance cover this?
That depends entirely on your policy, its endorsements, and its exclusions, which is exactly why "what does my insurance actually cover" is worth answering before you need to. Binder helps you understand your coverage and, if something has gone wrong, document it and see where you stand.
Binder is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The information here is general education about how the law and insurance work, not advice about your specific situation.