The basic difference between disaster insurance and property insurance is that disaster insurance is more specialized and covers your losses against immediate occurrences that have disrupted your business, while property insurance covers your property against any number of common property risks, including theft or damage from accidents.

That having been said, the trend of hybridizing everything from mutual funds to cars has also affected the insurance industry. There are now various packages that cover property from a wide range of threats and allow you to buy additional coverage for specific concerns such as flooding.

The key today, with so many options, is to first assess exactly what you need and then work with an insurance agent to figure out the best package: one that covers your most significant risks. It's not an either/or scenario that you want, but a combination of policies that provides protection without duplicating coverage. It is common for business owners to fail to look closely at what is covered by their property insurance and buy another policy that covers many of the same risks. Conversely, many policyholders mistakenly assume disasters such as flooding are covered under one of their policies and don't discover until they're underwater that neither their property insurance nor their disaster insurance covers flooding.