Shield your company from more than the rain with umbrella coverage.
An Umbrella Liability policy is without question the most cost-effective insurance policy that you can buy. This is the policy that will extend the limits of your primary casualty policies and provide additional limits that will extend to the:
- General Liability policy
- Automobile Liability policy
- Employers’ Liability policy (Part B of the Workers’ Compensation Policy)
It is important to note that an umbrella policy may often be referred to as “Excess Liability”. While this is technically correct, there are some important differences between an Umbrella policy and an Excess Liability policy.
It is true that both policies will provide additional limits for the insured in the event that there is a single claim that breaches (uses up) the underlying primary limits. However, the Umbrella policy can often contain expanded coverages that cover claims that are not necessarily covered under the primary policy. Since there is no underlying coverage, there may be a self-insured retention for these types of claims. Whereas an excess policy sits in “excess” and provides additional limits that follows the terms & conditions of the casualty policy.
Benefits:
- Designed to protect from big losses.
- Picks up where the primary casualty liability ends.
- Provides additional limits for high dollar claims.
- A more cost-effective policy since it can extend the limits of three primary policies (General Liability, Auto Liability and Employers’ Liability).
Features:
- Policy Term: Annual policy term for corporate programs, can be purchased on a project specific basis.
- Limits of Liability: Lead Umbrella limits of up to $10M. Additional limits may be purchased as Excess Layers.
- Retentions: No retention if the policy is triggered as excess to an existing claim. Retained Limits of $10,000 for claims that may not be covered by the primary policies.
- Policy Form: Can be written on a broad form that does not have the same exclusions as the underlying policy.
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