Commercial General Liability Insurance Commercial Property Insurance Business Auto Workers Compensation Umbrella / Excess Liability Insurance Business Owners Life Insurance Professional Liability Bonds Crime Business Income / Extra Expense Clubs and Associations Insurance Commercial Vehicle (ie. Limo, long haul) Boiler & Machinery Farm Liability Insurance
Group Health Insurance
Commercial umbrella insurance provides additional limits of liability over and above a commercial entity's primary general liability or automobile policy. An umbrella policy is considered secondary coverage and is triggered when the primary policy's limits have been exhausted.
The purpose of umbrella coverage is to provide additional liability limits to an insured to cover a catastrophic type of claim awarding a large dollar amount to a claimant. The cost is relatively small in regards to the limits due to the fact the umbrella policy is used only after the primary policy has been used up.
Umbrella liability insurance has underlying policy requirement provisions. This means that the insured must carry specified primary policies with specified minimum limits in order for the umbrella policy to become active. An example of an underlying policy is a commercial automobile policy or a general liability policy. A common underlying limit requirement is $1,000,000 per occurrence for general liability and $1,000,000 per accident for commercial automobile.
There is similar type of business umbrella insurance called excess liability insurance. Excess liability insurance performs a similar function as umbrella coverage in that additional limits are provided to cover extraordinarily large claims.
The difference between excess liability insurance and umbrella insurance is that excess liability can sometimes be "follow form" coverage and the terms and conditions of the excess policy follow the exact form of the primary policy's terms and conditions. With umbrella liability coverage, the umbrella policy has its own terms and conditions which while they may correspond to the primary policies may in fact possess slight differences.
Umbrella liability insurance and excess liability insurance policies vary greatly in wording and terms from one company to another. Some policies will read that they will "pay on behalf of" the insured and other policies read that they will "indemnify" the insured for losses. This alone can be a significant impact on the insured.
Under the former, "pay on behalf of" means that the insurance company will in fact pay the claimant directly as a result of a judgment. Under the latter, "indemnify" means the insured must pay the claimant at the time of judgment and the insurance company will then reimburse the insured. The result is the insured must arrange for a large sum of money to pay the claim and then wait to be reimbursed from their company.
In relation to the limits provided both umbrella and excess insurance is very inexpensive. The cost varies among insurance companies and is dependent upon location, type of business insured, and primary insurance limits, but the cost is a small percentage of the underlying liability premiums subject to a minimum premium per $1,000,000 in coverage. A prudent buyer should always seek an umbrella insurance quote as the cost is inexpensive relative to the protection afforded.
Because of possible wide variances in coverage, replacing or changing umbrella and excess policies with those of another insurance company a thorough analysis by an umbrella or excess liability expert should be done. The commercial insurance staff at Driscoll Insurance and Financial Services has been servicing the commercial insurance needs of businesses in the greater Pittsburgh, PA area since 1976 and is well-versed with the special nuances of excess and umbrella liability policies. The expert staff can provide recommendations and fully integrated property, liability, automobile, and worker's compensation insurance plans as well as life insurance and health insurance to meet all insurance needs of Pittsburgh businesses.
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Business Insurance
• Commercial General Liability Insurance
• Commercial Property Insurance
• Business Auto Insurance
• Workers Compensation
• Umbrella / Excess Liability Insurance
• Business Owners Life Insurance
• Professional Liability
• Bonds
• Crime
• Business Income / Extra Expense
• Clubs and Associations Insurance
• Commercial Vehicle (ie. Limo, long haul)
• Boiler & Machinery
• Farm Liability Insurance
• Group Health Insurance
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