Three Insurance is an offshoot of Berkshire Hathaway, a leading provider of commercial insurance. It uses a simple, three-page business insurance policy to eliminate gaps in insurance and provide small business owners what they need for less money – often saving 20% on premium. Unlike other carriers that force you to get multiple policies to cover different things, Three has liability, business interruption, business property, workers’ compensation, and cyber insurance in one, easy-to-understand policy. 

Company Overview

Three by Berkshire Hathaway is an offshoot of the family of Berkshire Hathaway companies and products. The company seeks to simplify insurance by incorporating multiple policies into one simple policy. Where most other insurance carriers will only offer one type of combination policy, a business owners policy, Three covers the biggest insurance needs in a comprehensive policy that even includes workers’ compensation. 

Geographic Representation

Three Insurance does not list what states it operates in. If we follow Berkshire Hathaway’s licensing model, then we can expect Three to operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

Lines of Coverage

Three is known for its all-in-one policy. With Three’s business policy, a small business owner can get coverage for:

• Business Liability: Pays third-party claims where you are responsible for damage or injuries. 
• Commercial Property: Protects your business contents from theft, fire, vandalism, and more. 
• Workers’ Compensation: Pays medical bills and lost wages for employees hurt at work. 
• Commercial Auto: Protection for liability and property damage in at-fault accidents in work vehicles.
• Cyber: Pays claims from damages related to hacks and data breaches.

Top Industries Served

Insurance companies have preferences for the types of businesses they will work with. These preferences come from a deep understanding of the industry risks and are generally rewarded with better rates. 

Three lists the following industries that they prefer to work with: 

• Professional financial services
• Tradesmen
• Creative and technology
• Residential construction
• Transportation

Premium Costs

While Three Insurance does not advertise rates, it does claim that policyholders can save up to 20% when getting a combination policy. When an insurance company is able to have one underwriting process for multiple aspects of a company, the result is usually fewer costs and lower premiums for the policyholder.

Underwriting Process

The Three Insurance process starts with obtaining basic information about your location and your industry to ensure that you are eligible. Once this is determined, it will ask you for an email to send your quote to. The process of getting a quote is just a few minutes. Once you receive the quote, you can bind the coverage quickly online or with a phone call. 

AM Best Ratings

AM Best ratings help consumers identify financially solvent companies. When a company has a good AM Best rating, it is said to be able to meet its financial obligations, even catastrophic claims. Three, like most Berkshire Hathaway companies, has the highest rating possible, an A++. 

Complaint Index

The complaint index is a ratio compiled by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) that gives insights into how many complaints a company has in relation to its size. The average ratio is 1.0. Anything under 1.0 means that the company had fewer complaints than expected and anything over 1.0 means the company had more complaints than expected. 

Three Insurance was not in the database with the NAIC. Its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway had zero complaints in 2020. 

Reputation

You can begin to tell a lot about a company based on the online reviews that it receives. Not only do quality companies get good reviews, but they are also responsive to consumers. Three Insurance is accredited with the Better Business Bureau and maintains an A+ rating. It has 14 reviews with an average star rating of 3.86. The BBB cites five complaints closed in the past 12 months. 

Concluding Thoughts

Three Insurance is innovating how business insurance is packaged and sold. It makes it easy for business owners to get the policies they need because, with Three, they only need one policy. It helps reduce costs and simplifies the claims process. 

Learn more about Three Insurance 

Methodology

CommericalInsurance.net employs its own independent research to come up with the details for reviews. We do this so that you can have as many insights as possible about a company so that you can make the best decision for your commercial insurance. We take into consideration the company’s history and where they serve. We want to highlight the appetite that a company has as this suggests where business owners can get the most competitive rates. Where possible, we include premium data. From there, we take into account formal complaints, and financial strength ratings along with public reviews painting a broad picture of the company’s reputation.

Unlike traditional business coverage which requires buying multiple, “unconnected and overly complex policies,” THREE will provide in just “three straightforward, plain English pages” insurance coverage for workers compensation, multiple liability coverages (including general liability, errors and omissions, and cyber), property and auto – all the insurance most any small business could need.

“Insurance is important protection for any business, but few small businesses have the time to actually read through the policy forms that are supposed to protect them. With THREE a small business can be confident in the protection it is getting, because the whole policy can be read in a few moments. Every day, America’s small businesses prove that great things come in small packages. Now they can get insurance on the same basis.” – Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett.

THREE, which will available to businesses online without the need to go through a broker or third-party, will be rolled out across the country as quickly as state regulatory filings and approvals can be obtained.”

Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate consisting of several insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, and retailing businesses. The company’s insurance business is considered one of its “four giants,” which account for a significant chunk of the firm’s value. Berkshire Hathaway owns 100% of its insurance operations, with a massive float value of US$164 billion.

“The insurance business is made to order for Berkshire,” the company said. “The product will never be obsolete, and sales volume will generally increase along with both economic growth and inflation. Also, integrity and capital will forever be important. Our company can and will behave well. There are, of course, other insurers with excellent business models and prospects. Replication of Berkshire’s operation, however, would be almost impossible.”

Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance and reinsurance business activities are conducted through numerous domestic and foreign-based subsidiaries, which provide insurance cover for property and casualty risks and reinsurance of life and health risks worldwide. These subsidiaries employed approximately 50,500 people.

Among the insurance companies Berkshire Hathaway owns are Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, Gateway Underwriters Agency, GEICO, General RE, MedPro Group, National Indemnity Company, and United States Liability Insurance Group.

The company’s chairman and CEO, Warren Buffett, is considered the wealthiest insurance tycoon in the US. The man is known as the “Oracle of Omaha” sits among the leaders of Forbes’ billionaires list with a net worth of US$134 billion as of March 2024.