by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, GDI Insurance, Insurance, Umbrella Insurance
Commercial Umbrella Insurance for Your California Business and for Peace of Mind
In a culture where litigation is commonplace, business owners have so many more worries than making profits and retaining top employees. For instance, if a business’s product injures a consumer, the organization could face a devastating lawsuit, exponential damages and a ruined reputation within the marketplace. Find out how Commercial Umbrella Insurance can help your business from GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. 209-634-2929
To assist with the financial burden of a claim, many business owners are electing to purchase Commercial Umbrella Insurance on top of their standard Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance policies. An aggregate limit is established on most CGL policies that, once exhausted, will not cover any other excess claims.
Why you need both a Commercial and a Personal Liability Umbrella!
An easy way to understand how quickly a claim can exceed the first $1,000,000 of coverage is to consider a person that is 35 years old, earning $30,000 a year. If that person is injured and cannot work as a result of your business activities or your employee’s activities the loss of income between 35 and 65 would be $900,000 alone. Not to mention pain, suffering etc… The amount grows to $3-$4,000,000 quickly. A higher wage earner grows even faster.
Although this blog is about commercial umbrella coverage it is important to point out that more family owned businesses are lost because of personal activities such as personal car accidents than because of business liability claims. Your GDI broker can help you coordinate a personal umbrella to cover your personal activities and those of you family members which you are responsible for.
Purpose of Commercial Umbrella Coverage
Umbrella coverage is designed to protect an organization against monumental liability claims that can demolish a business through a large financial judgment. Typically, an umbrella policy serves the following purposes:
- Provides coverage for potential damages and court defense courts that exceed underlying insurance policies (typically CGL policies).
- Provides coverage in situations that are not covered by underlying insurance policies but are not excluded from the umbrella policy. This benefit is subject to a self-insured retention (SIR), similar to a deductible, in which thepolicyholder is responsible for losses up to the SIR amount.
- Applies to claims where the aggregate limit of the underlying policy has been met. The umbrella policy will cover the portion of the claim that cannot be paid with the underlying policy because there are not enough funds available in the policy to cover the entire claim. For instance, if at the time of a claim, your CGL policy has $500,000 remaining and the claim in question is $1.5 million, then the CGL policy will cover $500,000 and then the umbrella policy will cover the remaining $1 million.
Coverage Details
A typical Commercial Umbrella Insurance policy has the following features:
- Offers coverage for the following: worldwide; personal injury; blanket contractual liability protection; care, custody and control; non-owned aircraft liability; watercraft liability; advertisers liability; liquor law liability and XCU liability.
- Offers an extension of insurance protection for additional insured’s.
- Policies are “following form” in which they abide by similar provisions and cover similar losses as the underlying policy. If claims are not covered by an underlying policy, the umbrella policy makes the business responsible for the loss (if the loss exceeds SIR limits). The damage must also involve personal injury, property damage or advertising injury.
- The insurer has the right to investigate all claims not covered by any underlying insurance.
- Policies cover all individuals or parties that gain insured status within the contract. Policies also protect an organization’s executive officers, regular employees, directors and stockholders acting on behalf of the organization. Protection for additional insured’s in typically excluded when claims involve motorized vehicles, watercrafts and aircrafts.
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. Your Trusted Insurance Brokers
Beyond these stipulations, a Commercial Umbrella Insurance policy ascertains that an organization must hold an underlying insurance policy during the term of the policy. To learn more about averting your business risks with Commercial Umbrella Insurance, contact your GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. broker today. 1-888-991-2929, or visit us on the web at http://www.gdiinsurance.com
37.5007547-120.8492279
by Grant Davis | Insurance, Umbrella Insurance
Why a Business Umbrella Insurance Policy is Necessary
A stack of money! The only question you need to ask yourself is this. If you or your employee hurt someone, do you want to pay for that from your stack of money? Or do you want your insurance company to pay for it from their stack of money? If you want your insurance company to be the one paying, a business umbrella insurance policy is necessary.
From what I see everyday I will bet you that you don’t have enough insurance to cover your business, farm or dairy if you or your employees hurt someone. Unless you are already a GDI Insurance Agency client. Call Grant Davis GDI and let me help. You will be surprised how reasonably you can get the right coverage and protect your assets! 1-888-991-2929
What is a Business Umbrella Insurance Policy?
First let’s start with talking about what an “Umbrella” is as it pertains to insurance.An umbrella is a extra layer of liability insurance that goes over your home, autos, cabins, boats, and other toys. For business owners a business umbrella insurance policy goes over their workers compensation and general liability insurance.
I have been working as an insurance broker for about 37ish years now. Long enough to have lost count!I have seen companies come and go and met with clients many times after the fact. By after the fact I mean after they have sustained a loss that is larger than they have insurance for.
I can remember the first client I met back in the early 80’s that was in the process of selling of the rentals they had purchased to fund their retirement. They were in their late 60’s and retired, but had gotten into a car accident with a motorcycle and didn’t have enough insurance and no umbrella (that extra layer of insurance to protect them from the larger losses).They lost everything including their home.
I can also recall meeting with business clients before they had losses, and seeing that their current broker didn’t understand the basic concepts of risk management, and or didn’t care enough to make sure they had adequate umbrellas.I can think of many cases to share with you, but one strikes my right now. They had $1 million limit on their company cars, and a $1 million umbrella.Their net worth was in the 8 figure range so they would be considered well off.We raised the umbrella to $10,000,000. A few years latter one of their employees driving to a job site caused a major car accident, killing and disabling others in their cars. One of my proudest days was when I met with the owner of this business and he thanked me for saving his business. Had he had the small limits the other broker had given him he would have lost everything as this loss was well over the $2 million dollar limit he had prior to meeting with me.
With all the clients GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. has each year we have clients that have large losses. It is just a function of having a lot of clients. Also we see losses around our community that are serious, so we are always reminded of the importance of having the right limits of liability and a business umbrella insurance policy.
One of the hardest things I ever have to do is get a call from a business or farmer that has had a large loss and they realize they are under insured.I go speak with them about what they should have had, and start talking about asset preservation techniques.
What should you do right now?
Just call me and let’s talk about protecting your home, business and estate. The funny thing is the last one I just completed was a week ago.We redid everything for them, and while it doesn’t happen every time we raised their umbrella 20 times what it was, earned premium credits for safety programs and risk reduction techniques and actually got them the insurance they should have had for less than they had been paying!The fun part for me is we did it with the same insurance company they were already insured with!That’s right!If you do the work to reduce risk, and get the right limits many times we can cut your costs at the same time.Now most of the time it may cost a little more to get the right limits of insurance.But compared to losing everything, and what you pay for all the basic policies you have I do mean an umbrella can cost “a little” more.
California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management
As one of the fastest growing agencies in California, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is able to provide its clients with the latest and greatest of what the insurance industry has to offer and much, much more. With locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for more information on a business umbrella insurance quote!
37.5007547-120.8492279
