Commercial Umbrella Policy

An umbrella policy is more affordable than most lines of business liability coverage. It’s often overlooked by business owners, but it offers a pretty big bang for your buck. Umbrella coverage protects your business when your existing liability insurance policy limits can’t cover all the expenses of a claim. While your standard liability limits are often enough to cover costs, umbrella insurance steps in when a serious business claim could otherwise sink your business.

A lot of business owners purchase general liability coverage or a professional liability policy with limits of $1 million. If your business gets sued under your general liability policy for bodily injury and the settlement amount is greater than $1 million, your policy limits would be exhausted and you would have to produce any funds over the policy limit. So a $1.5 million dollar claim would mean your business would need an extra $500,000 to satisfy the award. Not many businesses could produce that much cash. This is exactly where a commercial umbrella policy could help save a business.

What is Umbrella Insurance?

Umbrella insurance is also known as excess insurance because it lays over the top of all other specified insurance policies for the business. Whenever an underlying primary policy reaches its limits of coverage, a business umbrella policy pays additional costs up to the limit of the umbrella policy. However, commercial umbrella policies generally offer broader coverage than a businesses’ primary coverage. This means that an umbrella policy may cover specific risks that are excluded under a business owners’ primary insurance. In the event your primary coverage does not respond to a claim due to policy exclusions, your commercial umbrella policy could drop-down and cover the incident as long as it’s not excluded under the terms of the umbrella agreement.

Umbrella Liability Insurance Coverage

In order to qualify for a commercial umbrella policy, insurance companies typically require a business to have minimum coverage limits on their underlying insurance policies. For example, if your business has a GL policy with $500,000 limits on coverage, the insurance company quoting the umbrella coverage may require those limits to be raised to $1 million. The same could be required for commercial auto limits and other lines of coverage.

Commercial business umbrella policies often provide additional coverage for claims that may be excluded from the underlying coverages.

Umbrella policies are unique because there is no standard form. Every insurance company has their own rating factors, exclusions and policy language. Commercial umbrella coverage does not apply to professional liability insurance and Errors and Omissions insurance. Those primary policies will automatically be excluded with a business umbrella. Every commercial umbrella policy will indicate each primary line of insurance that is being protected by excess coverage by the commercial umbrella.

Coverages Which Fall Underneath a Commercial Umbrella Policy Include:

✓ General Liability Insurance
✓ Commercial Auto Coverage
✓ Hired and Non-Owned Auto
✓ Employment Practices Liability Insurance
✓ Workers Compensation Insurance
✓ Liquor Liability Insurance

Umbrella Insurance Quote

General liability Shop offers great options for commercial umbrella insurance quotes. Our agency represents more than 35 insurance companies for business liability. We shop your business liability insurance so you don’t have to. Contact one of our commercial liability Specialists today at 800-900-8657 to see if your business qualifies for an affordable umbrella policy. Or get started with an online quote.

Umbrella policy limits can range in coverage amounts from $1 million to $5 million in additional protection for business owners. They are an excellent tool for meeting contractual obligations for B2B agreement and contracts. Often times, the cost of an umbrella is less expensive than purchasing higher limits on your primary liability policies. Rather than purchasing higher limits on general liability insurance, consider buying an umbrella to extend coverage over all your lines of insurance. This may provide more coverage at a lower cost.

Do I Need an Umbrella Policy?

While not all businesses need an umbrella policy, almost every business can benefit from the added protection afforded by purchasing an umbrella policy. Business umbrella policies are a great way to fill coverage gaps in your insurance program as well as protect personal and business assets from liquidation in the event your business is held liable for a large liability claim. The higher your personal or business net worth, the more likely you are to benefit from umbrella coverage. This rationalization is based on the fact that individuals and other businesses are more likely to sue business owners with higher net worth.

What Does Umbrella Insurance Cover?

Aside from the additional layers of protection above and beyond your underlying insurance coverages, a good commercial umbrella policy will typically cover more risks than other lines of insurance as they offer broader coverage. Many umbrella policies cover risks most business owners never consider, such as contractual liability, personal injury, non-owned aircraft liability, non-owned watercraft liability and liquor liability. They also extend coverage to other insured parties such as business partners, board members and employees.

A commercial business umbrella policy pays for claims and legal costs when your limits are reached on your general liability and other related coverages.

Learn more about a General Liability Insurance.