Nationwide Review

About Nationwide

Nationwide is a Fortune 100 mutual insurer founded in 1926 (originally as the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company) with a full assortment of commercial lines for small and mid-size businesses, including contractors. With an A (Excellent) AM Best rating and the scale of one of the largest US insurers, it offers the complete trades stack — business owner's policy, general liability, commercial auto, workers' compensation, umbrella, and commercial property — typically packaged for a contractor's specific exposures.

As a mutual company (owned by policyholders rather than shareholders) distributed through independent agents, Nationwide's model favors a relationship-based experience: an agent assesses your trade, recommends a program, and advocates for you at renewal and on claims. For a contractor who values an agent who knows their business over a five-minute self-serve quote, that is a feature, not a bug — and the mutual structure aligns the company with long-term policyholder interests.

The trade-offs are the agent-distribution ones: there is no instant online self-serve quote the way biBERK or Huckleberry offer, so getting covered means working through an agent, and as a large carrier the experience is more institutional than a nimble insurtech. Pricing is competitive but relationship- and exposure-driven rather than headline-cheap. (Industry note: in 2025 Nationwide acquired reinsurance renewal rights from Markel, part of broader consolidation among commercial carriers.)

For an established trades business that wants a financially strong, full-line carrier with an agent relationship — and especially one that values workers' comp, commercial auto, and liability under one A-rated roof — Nationwide is a solid, mainstream choice. Shops that prefer instant digital self-service should compare a direct carrier (biBERK) or digital broker (Huckleberry, Simply Business).