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Nationwide is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest insurers in the U.S. It sells almost every business insurance policy available, from general liability insurance to ocean marine coverage, via independent insurance agents.
Nationwide has been insuring farmers since it was founded a century ago. The company still specializes in coverage for farms of all sizes, along with food and beverage businesses. It also provides lots of policies for construction companies, like surety bonds.
If you work in those industries, find a Nationwide agent. They’re likely to have deep expertise that can help you get the coverage you need.
For businesses in other sectors, though, not much sets Nationwide apart from other big insurance companies. It’s a financially secure insurer with generally well-rated customer service. If your agent gets you a competitive quote from Nationwide, take it. But if not, you’re not missing out.
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Nationwide business insurance: Pros and cons
Pros
Fewer complaints than expected filed with state regulators about liability insurance.
After-hours customer support is available on weekdays.
Can get a quote online.
Cons
Online quotes may come from other companies, and you still have to call to make a purchase.
You have to call Nationwide or your agent to add an additional insured.
What Nationwide does well
Financial strength
AM Best, a credit rating agency, gives Nationwide an “excellent” financial strength rating. That means AM Best believes that, if a financial shock or disaster forced Nationwide to pay out lots of claims at once, the company would be good for it.
Relatively few customer complaints
Nationwide policyholders filed fewer complaints than expected with state regulators between 2022 and 2024 about general liability insurance, given the company’s market share. They filed slightly more complaints than we’d expect about commercial property insurance, though.
Nationwide also got an above-average customer satisfaction score in J.D. Power’s 2025 Small Commercial Insurance Study.
Specialized coverage for agriculture businesses
Nationwide was the second-largest insurer of agribusiness in 2026, according to an Insurance Business Magazine analysis. (Only the Iowa Farm Bureau wrote more premiums.) The company was founded to serve farmers. Today, its farm and ranch insurance policies cover not only property and equipment, but also livestock and ag-specific liability risks.
Where Nationwide falls short
Not known for small-business coverage
Nationwide offers everything a small business could need. But there’s very little online chatter about Nationwide as a small commercial insurer, the way there is for The Hartford or Chubb. That may mean the company’s priorities lie elsewhere — like with large businesses or with individual consumers.
For instance, Nationwide boasts about its national claims team with expertise in a variety of fields. But their specialties lie with “complex” claims, which seem more likely to be filed by large companies. For routine claims, Nationwide pushes its online portal. The company says it “retained [the] capacity” to provide “more personalized service” — but it feels a little like an afterthought.
Other companies, like Hiscox, emphasize that they assign individual claims representatives to walk you through the process.
How we evaluated Nationwide business insurance
NerdWallet’s business insurance star ratings include these factors:
- Financial strength (33%). This tells us how likely an insurance company is to be able to pay out claims if there’s a major disaster or financial crisis. Nationwide has an “excellent” rating from AM Best.
- Customer complaints (33%). The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects data about how many complaints were filed by an insurer’s customers. Between 2022 and 2024, Nationwide received fewer complaints about general liability insurance than we’d expect given its market share. It got about an expected number of complaints about commercial property insurance.
- Purchase process (17%): Nationwide offers online quotes. After that, you’ll work with an independent agent to buy your policies. In general, NerdWallet recommends independent agents over captive ones, who can only sell policies from one company.
- Customer support (17%): Nationwide offers three ways to file claims (phone, email or an online portal) and assigns filers a claims representative to each case. Its phone support hours are generous. And you can access your policy documents, including your certificate of insurance, online.
I take a few additional steps when writing reviews of business insurers. These don’t currently inform our star ratings, but you’ll see details about them below:
- Aggregating customer reviews and complaints. I used an AI tool to summarize what policyholders say about Nationwide on websites like Reddit, Trustpilot and WalletHub. We don’t factor this feedback into our star ratings because it’s usually anonymous and we can’t independently verify it. But it still offers insights into the customer experience.
- Trying the online quote process. If an insurer offers online quotes, as Nationwide does, I get one. I use the same business details every time to compare what questions insurers ask, what policies they suggest and how much their quoted premiums are.
Save up to 30% on business insurance
NerdWallet Small Business helps you get real-time quotes from 30+ insurers, and instant access to your Certificate of Insurance (COI) through our partner, Coverdash.
What business owners, insurance agents think about Nationwide
I found very few business owners or agents talking about Nationwide commercial insurance online. That’s not uncommon with insurers that sell policies through independent agents, like Nationwide. This may be because each business owner’s agent provides most of their customer service.
Plus, Nationwide also sells personal auto, pet, home and life insurance. That makes it hard to zero in on testimony from business owners.
That said, one theme emerged about Nationwide: caution.
Several years ago, insurance agents on Reddit talked about Nationwide non-renewing certain existing policies. They also said Nationwide was raising rates aggressively and might stop writing new policies for certain types of businesses.
Overall, Nationwide wrote about 10% less in net premiums in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the most recent data from AM Best. That was the biggest decline among the top 20 insurers..
That may be a sign of prudence. If Nationwide thinks a particular state, industry or business type is particularly risky, the company is protecting itself (and its other policyholders) by taking on less of that risk.
But it may make it harder for your business to get coverage. Fortunately, if you’re trying to buy from Nationwide, you have to work with an independent agent. And it’s that person’s job to find you a company that wants to underwrite your business right now.
What policies does Nationwide sell?
Nationwide sells almost every type of business insurance. Their policies include:
- General liability insurance.
- Cyber insurance.
- Professional liability insurance.
- Business income insurance.
- Equipment breakdown coverage.
- Inland marine insurance.
- Employment practices liability insurance.
- Commercial auto insurance.
- Management liability insurance.
- Umbrella and excess casualty policies.
- Surety bonds.
- Trade credit and political risk insurance.
- Farm and ranch insurance.
- Specialized policies for the agriculture and healthcare industries.
Nationwide’s appetite guide — a document it shares with agents to explain what kinds of businesses it wants to underwrite — says it’s particularly interested in insuring:
- Professional services businesses.
- Auto repair shops with at least $250,000 in annual revenue.
- Pet services businesses and veterinarians.
- Artisan contractors for residential and light commercial development.
- Medical, dental, vision and counseling offices.
- Food and beverage businesses that serve limited liquor and have annual revenue of at least $250,000.
How to get business insurance from Nationwide
You can get an online quote from Nationwide, but will have to work with an agent to buy a policy.
The online quote process is pretty straightforward. Nationwide asked me to share my name, email and phone number and give consent for them to contact me. Then, I gave my business address and industry and selected the policy I wanted (general liability insurance).
Nationwide asked additional standard questions — my business structure, business start date and the start date for my policy.
Next, we got into some specifics about my policy.
Nationwide asked whether I wanted to add a blanket additional insured or workplace violence coverage. I had to specify whether I give medical advice or political advice, do lobbying or act as a sales representative.
And lastly, Nationwide asked if I’d filed a claim before and if I already had general liability insurance.
The company gave me three quotes for general liability insurance — all from different insurance companies.
Insurance companies sometimes act as agencies too. They can sell policies from other insurance companies if, for whatever reason, they don’t want to underwrite a policy themselves. In this case, my consulting business may just be too small for Nationwide.
That said, I don’t think the relationship is particularly clear here. For instance, Nationwide includes its own logo alongside the other insurer’s. If I hadn’t gotten quotes dozens of times — which most business owners haven’t done (and shouldn’t!) — I might not realize that these were policies from different companies.
You also still have to call to buy the policy. That isn't always necessary. For instance, you can get coverage directly from Hiscox online in a matter of minutes. And that quote will be binding versus an estimate that may change once you pick up the phone.
Nationwide called me twice the same afternoon I got the quote and left one voicemail. They didn’t follow up after that.
Methodology
Business insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet rewards business insurance companies for reliability and good service. We calculate star ratings based on scores in about a dozen categories. These include:
- Each company's financial strength.
- How many complaints customers made relative to its market share.
- How easy it is to get coverage.
- How accessible customer service is.
Learn more about how we rate small-business insurance companies.
Our editorial team routinely fact-checks and updates these data points. We also adjust our scoring on an ongoing basis. This helps our star ratings reflect changing industry norms. For instance, in 2026, we began evaluating how easy insurers make it to add an additional insured.
Our ratings are a guide. But insurance policy details and prices can vary widely. We encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes.NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
Insurer complaints methodology
One key factor in our star ratings is how many complaints insurance companies get. Here's how we arrive at that score.
Disappointed customers can file a complaint with their state's insurance department. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects, analyzes and groups complaints by business line and insurance company every year. A business line is a specific type of coverage, like workers’ comp.
Then, the NAIC calculates a complaint ratio for each company. It divides the company's share of complaints by its share of total premiums for each line of business. It then adds these ratio values to their official complaint index.
- A complaint ratio of 1 means a company received about the expected number of complaints relative to its size.
- A ratio of 2 means it received twice as many complaints as expected.
- A ratio of 0 means it received half as many complaints as expected.
NerdWallet obtains the raw NAIC data every year. We aggregate results at the company level and fact-check these results. Then we calculate a three-year average of each insurer's complaint ratio and convert it to a score for our star ratings.
Business insurance star ratings consider complaints about two lines of business: commercial liability and commercial property. We analyze complaint data on commercial auto and workers' comp policies too. But we don't currently incorporate these into our ratings since they're less universal.
