★ Small business commercial · Agents only · No personal lines
How Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Works in Arkansas
Before anything else, the thing nobody tells business owners: we place three different Berkshire Hathaway-owned insurers, and Berkshire runs them as completely separate companies with no affiliation to each other. Two quotes that both say Berkshire Hathaway can come from unrelated underwriters. Here's what GUARD itself writes, who it fits, and which of the three your account actually belongs with.
Short Answer
Berkshire Hathaway GUARD is a small business commercial insurer — businessowners policy, workers' compensation, general liability, inland marine, commercial auto, commercial umbrella and excess, and disability. It writes no personal insurance at all. Berkshire Hathaway owns it, but runs it as a separate company with no affiliation to the other Berkshire-owned insurers we place: separate appointments, separate underwriting, separate claims, and ratings that don't transfer between them. GUARD carries an A+ (Superior) rating from AM Best.
Same owner. Not the same company.
Berkshire Hathaway owns a number of insurers, and we hold appointments with three of them. That sounds like a single relationship with a famous parent. It isn't. Berkshire runs them as completely separate companies with no affiliation to one another — not divisions, not a group, not a shared program.
Common ownership is the only thing they have in common. Separate underwriting. Separate appetites. Separate claims operations. Separate systems and separate billing. A relationship or a claims history with one carries no weight at another.
Small business, packaged
The businessowners policy plus workers' compensation is the core, with general liability, inland marine, commercial auto, umbrella and excess, and disability alongside it. Aimed at small and mid-sized operations. No personal lines.
Different markets entirely
Berkshire Hathaway Homestate is commercial-only with a workers' compensation and commercial auto orientation. USLI is a specialty insurer — low-hazard classes, professional and management liability, nonprofits, liquor and events, plus a few specialty personal products.
Which means the ratings don't transfer either
This is the part with real consequences. A financial strength rating attaches to a specific rated insurer, not to a parent company's reputation. GUARD's A+ is GUARD's. USLI's A++ is USLI's. The Berkshire Hathaway name underwrites none of them, and a rating on one tells you nothing whatsoever about another.
So "it's a Berkshire company" is not a coverage answer, a service answer, or a financial answer. The useful question is which of the three your account belongs with — and because we hold all three appointments, that's a routing decision we can actually make rather than a sales pitch. Almost no agency in this market carries all three.
Commercial only, aimed at smaller operations.
Not everything GUARD writes nationally — what we place for Northwest Arkansas.
The core
- Businessowners policy (BOP)
- Workers' compensation
- General liability
Alongside it
- Commercial auto
- Inland marine (tools & equipment)
- Commercial umbrella / excess
- Disability
Not written here
- Home, auto, and all personal lines
No personal insurance, at all
GUARD is a commercial carrier and nothing else, so it's never the answer for your house or your family vehicles — even if your business is insured here. We place personal lines with one of our other 40-plus carriers, and there's nothing awkward about a business owner having commercial coverage in one place and personal coverage in another. It's the ordinary shape of an account.
Where the coverage detail lives
This page is about how GUARD writes business insurance, not a tutorial on what each policy does. The full explainers sit in our business tree: business owners policy, workers' compensation, general liability, commercial auto, and inland marine.
Workers' compensation, and where the threshold actually falls.
Workers' comp is half of what GUARD does, so it's worth being precise about when Arkansas requires it — because the number most business owners have heard isn't the one that applies to a lot of them.
Three or more employees, generally
Under the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Act at Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-401 and following, most employers with three or more employees are required to carry coverage.
Construction hits it sooner
Building or building repair work triggers the requirement at two or more employees, and a subcontractor, or a contractor who subcontracts any part of a contract, needs coverage at one or more employees. For a great many trade operations in this market, that last rule is the one that actually governs.
And the Commission's own caveat
The Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission states that exceptions to the three-or-more rule exist, and that employers below a threshold should check rather than assume they're exempt. Between the construction rule, the subcontracting rule, worker classifications, and who counts as an employee, "we've only got a couple of people" is not a safe conclusion to reach on your own. Confirm with the Commission, or bring us your payroll by classification and we'll walk it through. This is general information, not legal advice.
The book, in detail.
One page covers it, because GUARD's programs are built to sit together on a single small business account rather than to be bought line by line. The link goes live when it publishes.
GUARD Cribby reads the fine print for you.
Cribby the Chameleon is our guide to reading a policy in plain English.
A chameleon notices what's actually there. On a small business account that's usually the things nobody mentioned — the class code set once and never revisited, the tools insured nowhere, the umbrella that satisfies one contract and not the next, and which of three unrelated companies with the same owner your quote actually came from. That's a coverage review, in chameleon form.
A+ (Superior) — and whose rating that is.
A rating is a solvency opinion, not a claims opinion
AM Best is explicit that a financial strength rating does not address a carrier's claims-handling practices and is not a recommendation to buy or keep any policy. So an A+ tells you GUARD can pay. That's real and worth knowing — it simply isn't the same question as how a claim will go.
What we actually do at a claim
Narrower than some agencies imply, and we'd rather be straight about it. We don't adjust your claim and we can't overrule an adjuster. What we do: tell you whether a claim is worth filing before you file it, make sure the coverage that should respond gets identified, chase the file when it stalls, and move the account to a different market when this one stops fitting. On a commercial file that last one matters most, because an operation changes faster than a policy does.
No range would mean anything.
We publish cross-market planning bands for personal auto and homeowners. There's no equivalent for commercial, and inventing one would mislead rather than help.
What actually drives a commercial premium
What the business does and how it's classified, payroll and headcount, the property you own or occupy, revenue, the vehicles and who drives them, claims history and experience rating, the limits and deductibles selected, and any limits your contracts require you to carry. This is a description of how the coverage is rated, not a quote and not a guarantee. Send a description of the operation and any current declarations pages and we'll build the real figure with you across our commercial markets.
Berkshire Hathaway GUARD in Arkansas: common questions.
Aren't all the Berkshire Hathaway insurance companies the same?
What does Cribb Insurance Group place through GUARD?
Is GUARD a good fit for a small business?
Does my Arkansas business need workers compensation?
How financially strong is GUARD?
How do I get a GUARD quote in Bentonville or Rogers?
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Tell us what the business actually does.
Classification, payroll, vehicles, property, and any contract requirements you have to satisfy. We'll tell you whether GUARD is the right home for the account — or whether one of the other Berkshire-owned companies we represent, or one of our other 40-plus markets, fits it better. If what you have is already right, we'll tell you that too.
1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 📞 (479) 286-1066 ✉️ service@cribbinsurance.com 🕘 Mon–Thu 9:00–5:00
Fri 9:00–4:00
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. We are not Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, and this page is not endorsed, sponsored, reviewed, or approved by Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., or by any affiliated company. "Berkshire Hathaway GUARD," "Berkshire Hathaway Homestate," "USLI," and "Berkshire Hathaway" are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners, used here nominatively to identify products we are appointed to place. Policies are issued by the individual GUARD underwriting companies.
Statements about the relationship between separately owned insurers describe corporate structure only. Each insurer referenced on this page underwrites its own business, sets its own eligibility, and handles its own claims independently of the others; nothing on this page should be read as a representation that any insurer stands behind, guarantees, or shares the obligations of any other, or that a relationship with one affects treatment by another.
This page describes coverage in general terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price. The businessowners policy, workers' compensation, general liability, inland marine, commercial auto, commercial umbrella and excess liability, disability coverage, limits, deductibles, endorsements, and exclusions are set by the carrier, vary by state and by policy and over time, are subject to underwriting approval and to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy actually issued. Eligibility for any class of business is determined by the carrier on the facts of your operation; this page makes no representation that any particular business qualifies. If anything on this page conflicts with the issued policy, the policy controls.
Statements about Arkansas workers' compensation requirements — including the general three-or-more employee rule, the two-or-more rule for building or building repair work, and the one-or-more rule for subcontractors and contractors who subcontract any part of a contract, under the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Act, Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-401 et seq. — reflect guidance published by the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing, are general information rather than legal advice, are simplified, and are subject to change. Exceptions exist. Whether the requirement applies to your business depends on your employee count, worker classifications, and operations; confirm with the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission or a qualified professional.
Financial strength ratings are opinions of an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations, are subject to change, and are not recommendations to purchase, hold or terminate any policy, nor do they address an insurer's claims-handling practices; current ratings are at ambest.com. A rating applies only to the specific insurer rated and does not extend to any parent, affiliate, or separately owned company.
Last reviewed August 2026.