NAICO property and inland marine for what you own, wherever it happens to be.
Buildings and contents stay in one place. Equipment, tools and material do not. Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with NAICO and places both sides for Arkansas contractors, manufacturers, energy operations and service businesses.
The short version
These are the two coverages that pay for your own property rather than somebody else's. Commercial property covers what sits at a described location. Inland marine covers what moves.
They get written together because most businesses own both kinds of thing, and the seam between them is where property quietly ends up covered by neither. Getting the schedules right is the whole job.
What commercial property covers.
A commercial property policy is organized around a location and the categories of property at it. Each category is scheduled separately, and each can be left off.
Building
The structure itself, plus what is permanently installed in it. Fixtures, machinery attached to the building, and the improvements that came with a build-out.
Business personal property
Your contents: furniture, stock, materials, office equipment and the machinery that is not part of the building. Also improvements you installed in a space you lease.
Property of others
Customer property in your care, custody or control. A repair shop, a fabricator or a warehouse frequently holds far more of this than it realizes.
Business income and extra expense
Property coverage rebuilds. Business income covers the earnings the business loses while the rebuilding happens, and extra expense covers the added cost of operating in the meantime, such as a temporary location or expedited equipment.
On most accounts this is the coverage that determines whether the business reopens at all. The repair is finite. The interruption is what runs out the clock.
Causes of loss, and ordinance or law
A property policy responds to either a named list of perils or on a broader special form basis, and the two behave differently when something unusual happens. Which one applies is a policy term, so it is worth knowing which one you have.
Ordinance or law coverage addresses a separate problem: current building codes may require more than a like-for-like rebuild of an older structure, and that additional cost is its own coverage question.
The number on the declarations is not the whole story.
Three mechanics decide what actually gets paid on a property loss. None of them is the limit by itself, and all three are set long before anything goes wrong.
- Valuation basisReplacement cost pays to replace with property of like kind and quality without deducting for wear. Actual cash value takes depreciation into account and pays less on older property. This is a policy term rather than a claim-time choice, and it can differ between the building, the contents and the equipment on the same account.
- The coinsurance conditionA condition comparing the limit carried against the value of the property at the time of loss. Where the limit falls short of what the condition requires, the payment on a covered loss is reduced proportionally. The part that catches people out is that it reaches ordinary partial losses, not only total ones, so a stale value can quietly shrink every payment the policy makes.
- DeductiblesProperty deductibles are not always one flat figure. Some perils, wind and hail in particular, can carry a deductible calculated as a share of the insured value rather than as a fixed amount, which makes it move as the value moves. Read which kind yours is.
Values drift. Construction costs move, equipment gets added, a build-out happens and nobody updates the schedule. We go through the values with you ahead of renewal, because the worst possible moment to discover a stale number is in the middle of a claim.
Inland marine covers what does not have an address.
The name is a historical accident. What it means in practice is property that travels, property at somebody else's location, and property in the process of becoming part of a building.
- Contractors equipmentExcavators, skid steers, trailers, compressors, generators and the rest. Coverage follows the equipment rather than an address, so it applies at a jobsite, in the yard or in the bed of a truck.
- Scheduled and blanketLarger items are usually listed individually with values. Smaller tools are often covered blanket up to a per-item and total amount. Which items sit where is a setup decision that matters most on the day you need it.
- Leased and rented equipmentEquipment you rent frequently comes with a contract making you responsible for it. That obligation needs to line up with what the policy covers, and rental agreements are not all written the same way.
- InstallationMaterial you have bought and are installing at a jobsite is not yet the owner's building and is no longer sitting in your shop. An installation floater is what covers it in that gap.
- Builders riskA structure under construction is its own exposure, covered while the work is in progress rather than under an ordinary property policy.
- Employee toolsTools owned by your employees but used on your jobs are a recurring question, and the answer depends on how the coverage is arranged rather than on who bought the tool.
The seam is where things get lost.
A generator can plausibly belong to three different policies depending on where it is and what it is bolted to. That is not a trick question, it is the actual structure, and it is why these lines are built together rather than separately.
Bolted to the building
Permanently installed machinery generally travels with the building rather than with the contents, which changes which limit responds.
Sitting in the shop
Equipment and stock at your described location are business personal property under the commercial property policy.
Out on the job
Once it leaves for a jobsite it is inland marine territory, covered by the equipment schedule rather than by the location.
Mounted on the truck
Equipment permanently mounted to a vehicle is generally treated as part of that vehicle and belongs to the commercial auto policy instead.
Somebody else's property
Damage you cause to property belonging to another party is a liability question rather than a property one, and lives on the general liability policy.
Which is why we map it
Send us the asset list once and we will tell you which policy each line sits on. It is a short exercise that prevents the expensive kind of surprise.
Documentation is the whole ballgame.
Property claims are decided on evidence about what existed, what it was worth and what happened to it. The business that kept records is in a materially different position from the one reconstructing it from memory.
Photograph equipment while it is intact. Keep purchase records and serial numbers. Keep the equipment schedule current rather than annual. And when a loss happens, document the damage before anything is moved or cleaned up, because the condition of the property at the moment of loss is what the claim turns on.
Arkansas gives you a lever, and an accurate number is what protects it
Arkansas has a statute aimed squarely at slow payment. Under Ark. Code § 23-79-208, where a property, marine, cargo, casualty, fidelity or surety insurer fails to pay a loss within the time specified in the policy after demand is made, it becomes liable for the amount of the loss plus twelve percent damages on that amount, plus all reasonable attorney's fees for prosecuting and collecting it. The statute names those commercial lines directly, so it reaches commercial property and inland marine losses rather than only personal ones. It also provides that a policyholder is never liable for the insurer's own attorney's fees in a case where the insurer is found not liable.
Now the part that decides whether any of that is available to you. Recovering less than you demanded does not cost you the twelve percent damages and the fees, but only if what you recover comes within twenty percent of what you demanded or sought. Overstate the claim and you can win the case and still lose the statutory remedy, because the gap between the demand and the award grew too wide.
That turns careful documentation into something more than good housekeeping. A number you can actually support with records, photographs and invoices is a number that keeps the statute on your side. An aspirational one can quietly forfeit it. When you have a loss, call us before you put a figure in writing, and we will help you build the demand off what you can document.
Ark. Code § 23-79-208. Summarized, with provisions not covered here. General information, not legal advice.
Schedules go stale faster than anything else.
More than any other commercial line, property and inland marine drift out of date quietly. Nothing breaks. The schedule simply stops describing the business.
Tell us when you buy
New equipment, a new location, a build-out, a machine that arrived on a trailer last month. Send it when it happens rather than at renewal, because newly acquired property provisions have their own terms and time limits.
Watch the values, not just the list
Having every item listed does not help if the values behind them are years old. Replacement costs move, and the coinsurance condition compares against value at the time of loss.
Reporting a loss
Report promptly and document before you clean up. Call the office and we will walk you through it and coordinate with the carrier, or report direct if that is faster in the moment.
These lines sit alongside the rest of the program rather than apart from it. For the wider picture, start with business insurance, or see how the vehicle side works on commercial auto and how employee injury is handled under workers compensation.
Other NAICO lines.
NAICO overview
The carrier profile: what NAICO writes, how the appointment works, and where financial strength sits.
NAICO workers compensation
Class codes, experience modification, audit mechanics and the Arkansas coverage thresholds.
In the build queueNAICO commercial auto
Liability, physical damage, hired and non-owned auto, and what Arkansas requires on a registered vehicle.
In the build queueNAICO general liability
Completed operations, contract requirements and the Arkansas construction repose period.
In the build queueNAICO surety and excess
Bond requirements, contract thresholds and how excess layers sit over the primary program.
In the build queueProperty and inland marine questions we get.
What is the difference between commercial property and inland marine?
What is replacement cost and how is it different from actual cash value?
What is coinsurance on a commercial property policy?
Is my equipment covered while it is on a jobsite or in the truck?
What is business income coverage?
What happens if an insurer does not pay a loss on time in Arkansas?
Cribb Insurance Group publishes carrier explainers, Arkansas coverage guidance and commercial insurance education. Add Cribb Insurance as a preferred source on Google.
Send us the schedule.
Locations, building and contents values, the equipment list with serial numbers, anything you rent or lease, and prior loss runs. We will run it through NAICO and the rest of our commercial markets and tell you where the seams are.
Bentonville, AR 72713
NAICO and National American Insurance Company are marks of National American Insurance Company and are used here nominatively to identify a carrier Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of National American Insurance Company.
Coverage descriptions on this page are general and simplified. Coverage, availability, eligibility, valuation basis, endorsements and terms vary by policy, class of business and state, and the actual policy language controls in every case. Nothing here amends any policy or creates coverage.
Financial strength ratings are assigned by AM Best, are opinions about a company's ability to meet its insurance obligations rather than about claims handling or service, and can change at any time.
No premium figures, rate estimates, savings figures, property values or suggested limits are published on this page. The only percentages shown are statutory figures within the Arkansas code section cited. Property and inland marine pricing and limits are developed from the exposures of the individual account.
Arkansas statutory references are general information and not legal advice. Statutes are summarized, carry provisions this page does not cover, and may be amended. How any of this applies to a particular policy, loss or demand depends on facts this page cannot know. Consult a licensed Arkansas attorney before relying on it in a claim.
Last reviewed August 2026.