General Liability Insurance
Provides coverage for the Named Insured (your business entity) for Bodily Injury and Property Damage (not your employee) and caused by you (or your employee’s negligence). This coverage is at your premises, your work place, or even after you have completed your work and months later someone claims to have suffered a bodily injury or some property damage due to you not doing your job correctly.
The limits of liability available are $300,000 per occurrence $600,000 aggregate OR $500,000 per occurrence $1,000,000 aggregate OR $1,000,000 per occurrence $2,000,000 aggregate. The Aggregate limit is the most the company will pay in a 12 month policy term and is usually twice the occurrence limit. Other limits that are provided (at no additional charge) are $50,000 for Fire legal liability, $5,000 for Medical payments, and $1,000,000 for advertising and personal injury.
The Rating Basis
Your general liability premium will be calculated based on how many people you have out in the field doing the work that could negligently cause a bodily injury or property damage. Some companies use the number of full time and part time people and other companies use payroll to determine your premium. They will also charge (though at a much lower rate) for your cost of sub-contractors. If you have certificates of insurance on those subs, they will charge the sub-contractor rate. If you do not have a certificate from the sub-contractor – they will charge like he is your employee (which is a much higher rate). These policies are AUDITABLE.
Umbrella Express Policy
This is an optional policy that many businesses take out for an additional layer of coverage over the underlying general liability, business auto, work comp employers liability and any other liability policy they have. A true umbrella policy not only adds a million dollar limit over underlying policies, it drops down to cover something excluded on GL policy usually over a self insured retention i.e. deductible ($10,000). It will respond first dollar on losses not covered under any underlying policy. It is usually less expensive if you needed a $2,000,000 limit, to have a $1,000,000 umbrella over a $1,000,000 underlying policy than to have $2,000,000 general liability, $2,000,000 business auto and $2,000,000 work comp. An excess policy is like the umbrella except that it follows the underlying GL policy. There is no “drop down” feature.