Skip to content

CGL Commercial General Liability

American Institute of Architects 2017 Insurance Requirements – An Introduction

In early 2017, the American Institute of Architects (“AIA”) introduced its 2017 updates to its form construction contract documents, including a new exhibit that addresses insurance requirements between the owner and contractor. As AIA forms are among the most popular and commonly used form documents in the construction industry,1 the forms are usually considered construction industry standards. Any company involved in construction as a project owner, architect, contractor or subcontractor should familiarize itself with the new AIA insurance terms and carefully consider the insurance coverage for any project it will undertake.2

Overview of the AIA Changes

It has been AIA’s practice to revise its family of contract documents every 10 years, with the last revision in 2007. While the 2017 changes go beyond insurance, possibly the most noteworthy change in 2017 is the launch of a separate exhibit for insurance. Entitled AIA Document A101™ – 2017 Exhibit A – Insurance and Bonds, this document is intended to be used in conjunction with AIA Document A201™ 2017 General Conditions of Construction – Article 11.3 The new exhibit does not replace Article 11; rather, the exhibit is intended to expand upon the insurance provisions of Article 11.Read More »American Institute of Architects 2017 Insurance Requirements – An Introduction

Nursing Home Liability

With ample capacity in a nursing home and long-term care liability insurance, competition remains strong among carriers. However, clouds have been gathering on the horizon, with the convergence of three separate events threatening to create a perfect storm in the marketplace.

Increasing Claims

Claim frequency and severity has been climbing for the past several years, with nursing home litigation being one of the fastest-growing areas of health care litigation. In a recently published report on an actuarial analysis of the long-term care sector, it was stated that long-term care frequency is increasing by 5% annually.

Severity is a concern as well. Consider a few mega-claims in the past few years:Read More »Nursing Home Liability

Insurance for Fire Sprinkler Contractors

fire-sprinkler-contractorsSprinklerPro® is a multi-line insurance program for fire sprinkler contractors engaged in the design, fabrication, installation, testing, service, and repair of fixed water-type and special hazard suppression systems.
Target clients are as follows
  • Fire Sprinkler Contractors – Designing, Fabricating, Installing, Testing, Servicing and Repairing Sprinkler Suppression Systems including Pre-action or Deluge systems, and systems utilizing: Halon, Inergen, FM 200, Foam, or CO2
  • Contractors performing some mechanical work with sprinkler installations
Coverages
  • General Liability
  • Professional Liability
  • Pollution Liability including microbial substance (mold / fungus)  available
  • Umbrella / Excess Liability
Features
  • Special Endorsements include Blanket Additional Insured, Blanket Waiver of Subrogation, and Per Project Aggregate Limit
  • Primary and non-contributory provided for additional insureds with no premium charge
  • No exclusion or limitation endorsement for residential work
Availability: Nationwide

Read More »Insurance for Fire Sprinkler Contractors

Insurance for Multi-Family Real Estate

overcoming-the-challenges-of-placing-multi-family-real-estateThe real estate sector consists of many different types of premises-related accounts, including office buildings, shopping centers, malls, industrial warehouses, and apartments. Due to the frequency and severity of losses, habitational properties or apartment schedules are most commonly placed with E&S markets. This also applies to shopping centers and malls that are located in geographic areas where the crime scores are typically higher than the national average, or where the risk has a higher frequency of claims and is suitable for taking a retention and employing an aggressive third party administrator (TPA).

But the majority of real estate accounts placed in the E&S marketplace are multi-location apartment schedules. In recent years, many casualty markets have struggled with being profitable on these risks, and some have stopped underwriting this class entirely. What makes this class so difficult for carriers to be profitable, and why have so many markets either exited the space or tightened their guidelines?

Obviously, profitability is tied to thin rates and/or overly generous claims settling, but there are several other factors when it comes to this class:

1. Unique claims = general liability? Not always.

One factor is that there are so many more unique claims which ultimately get tagged to the general liability (GL) carrier. Just about anything that goes wrong – other than traditional property losses such as fire, wind, flood, etc. – is considered a GL claim. While it used to be that the owner or manager had to be negligent in order for a GL claim to be paid, that’s hardly the case anymore. Carriers have traditionally been the most concerned with “typical” GL claims including slip-and-falls, violent attacks, and sexual assaults; they now have to also deal with unique, obscure claims for which a GL carrier is ultimately held liable. This diminishes any chance of the account being profitable.Read More »Insurance for Multi-Family Real Estate

Potential Exposures for Construction Owners ​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Potential Exposures for Construction OwnersAs always with construction projects, it is important that owners of new developments understand insurance coverage to ensure that there is adequate insurance to address any potential risks during and after the construction of the project. While most owners maintain commercial general liability policies or rely on project-specific policies, these policies may not fully protect the owner against any and all risks that they may face during and after construction. This article addresses two unique areas in which owners should take special note to ensure that they are covered for these particular risks: third party action over claims and products-completed operations coverage.

 

Third Party Action Over Claims

Owner contracts with Roofer to assist in the construction of the roof of a commercial building. During construction, Roofer’s employee falls and injures himself on the project site and collects workers’ compensation benefits under Roofer’s workers’ compensation policy. Typically, Owner would not consider any risks with respect to this injury as Owner required Roofer, in the subcontract, to maintain workers’ compensation insurance. However, despite receiving workers’ compensation benefits, Roofer’s employee files an action against Owner alleging negligence for failing to properly maintain a safe work site.The action filed by Roofer’s employee is considered a third party action over claim. The employee is unable to sue Roofer because workers’ compensation is the employee’s exclusive remedy against his or her employer. Thus, the injured employee brings an action against Owner alleging that Owner’s negligence in failing to maintain the project site contributed to the employee’s injuries.
Read More »Potential Exposures for Construction Owners ​​​​​​​​​​​​​

How to Onboard and Train Employees into a Safety Culture

How to Onboard and Train Employees into a Safety CultureOnce you attract and hire qualified job candidates to your open positions, having an onboarding and training process can help employees work safely and effectively. A continuous onboarding program will help orient employees not only to the functional details of employment, such as appropriate safety procedures, but also to the safety culture of the organization.

Employee retention strategies, such as onboarding and training programs, can also help protect the considerable time and expense invested in recruiting and hiring new employees. According to the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) at the University of California at Berkeley, the costs of replacing an employee are approximately 9% of an employee’s annual wage. In addition to any lost productivity and institutional knowledge, those costs include recruitment, selection, the costs of learning on the job and any separation costs.Read More »How to Onboard and Train Employees into a Safety Culture

Liability Gaps with K-12 Schools Student Accident Coverage

While more than 1.35 million kids suffer a sport-related injury that requires emergency room treatment each year, at an estimated cost of $935 million, student accident coverage is what can help to mitigate the “out of pocket” losses. At K-12 schools, these accidents are frequent and sometimes severe. In today’s rapidly changing health insurance landscape, out of pocket medical expenses are growing, creating financial burdens for families and exposing schools to contentious liability claims. We offer the combination of Student Accident for everyday injuries and Catastrophic Medical for the most severe sports-related injuries (with the same carrier). This can help… Read More »Liability Gaps with K-12 Schools Student Accident Coverage

Ridesharing Insurance Rules in California

Free Gas Today Uber ridesharingA new law requiring that ridesharing drivers and companies have liability insurance coverage during all three periods in which they use the ride-sharing application went into effect 7/1/2015.
The rules are in effect under Assembly Bill 2293, which was signed into law in September 2014.

The law stipulated divides ridesharing activities into three periods.
[process_steps type=”horizontal” size=”small”] [process_step title=”Period one” icon=”mobile-phone” icon_color=”#ff0000″] App open and waiting for a match [/process_step] [process_step title=”Period two” icon=”map-marker” icon_color=”#beb509″] Match accepted, but passenger not yet picked up [/process_step] [process_step title=”Period three” icon=”car” icon_color=”#239c0a”] Passenger in the vehicle and until the passenger exits the vehicle [/process_step] [/process_steps]

AB 2293 requires:

Read More »Ridesharing Insurance Rules in California