Mike Barton is the president of Allstate Business Insurance.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Mike Barton, the president of Allstate Business Insurance, about the most important insurance coverages for businesses.

Working as you do with buyers and sellers, I’d imagine insurance is often part of the conversation, whether it’s home insurance, private mortgage insurance or renters insurance. But how much attention do you give the insurance that covers your own real estate agency?

Risks can come from the most unexpected places, and the last thing you want is to find out you have the wrong coverage…after the fact.

Here are some of the most important coverages to consider for your agency.

6. Contents Coverage – You’ve invested a lot in your computers, printers and office furniture. Anything from a leaking pipe to a fire or full-blown natural disaster could mean starting over. Can you really afford to buy everything twice?

5. General Liability – Think about the people who visit your office. What if someone trips on the carpet and gets hurt? You know who’ll have to pay for their medical bills – and maybe more. General liability can help protect you into the millions of dollars.

4. Miscellaneous Professional Liability – No one has to tell you about how much paperwork you handle, the red tape you negotiate or the laws and professional standards you need to follow. There’s a lot out there. Miscellaneous Professional Liability provides protection for the legal obligations arising out of professional errors, negligent acts or omissions in the event something slips through the cracks.

3. Valuable Papers and Records Coverage – And about all that paperwork. Ever think what would happen if a pipe burst and soaked stacks of paper on a desk or in a filing cabinet? It’d be a mess. And worse. Valuable papers and records can offer thousands of dollars of coverage for damage or destruction of the important documents needed by you, your clients, and the companies you do business with.

2. Data Compromise – With access to so much of your clients’ personal, confidential and banking information, you’re particularly vulnerable if that data gets lost or stolen. Data compromise coverage can provide case management, legal support, credit monitoring and legally required client notifications.

1. Cyber Attack – You do business virtually nonstop with mortgage firms, banks, attorneys offices and other companies. CyberOne coverage can protect you and those companies against damage to electronic data and computer systems from a virus or other computer attack.

Mike Barton is the president of Allstate Business Insurance. He was named to Business Insurance’s list of “Power Brokers” and is a nationally recognized speaker on subjects ranging from reforming health care in America to business strategies for improving health, engagement and productivity.