– General Liability –

General liability, property coverage, and worker’s compensation are all crucial insurance needs for the majority of businesses. Liability insurance specifically protects the assets of a business when it is sued for something that it may or may not have done, which resulted in personal injury or property damage. General Liability Insurance safeguards you and your business from accidents that may result on site or any injuries or damages incurred as a result of using goods or services sold on the premises.

Liability coverage can be designed to cover supplemental payments for things such as:

• Attorney fees
• Court costs
• Expenses associated with a claim or the defense of a liability suit

– Excess Liability –

Excess liability insurance provides insurance limits above and beyond a business’s primary liability policies. When a claim is reported to the insurance company, the first policy to respond is the underlying primary, whether it’s auto liability, general liability or even employer’s liability. If the claim exhausts the limits in the primary policy, the excess liability policy picks up where the primary left off.

Limits vs. Coverage

A pure excess liability policy strictly provides additional limits above the primary policy; it does not provide additional coverage. If the primary policy provides coverage for a particular claim, so does the excess liability policy. If it is not covered under the primary policy, it is not covered under the excess liability policy. An example would be an excess fiduciary liability policy. It provides additional liability limits to cover fiduciary liability claims that exceed the primary policy. It is important to distinguish between additional limits and additional coverage.

– Umbrella Insurance –

Umbrella Liability

An umbrella liability policy is a hybrid of excess liability and additional coverage. Umbrella liability policies provide coverage and limits over and above the underlying liability policies. The typical underlying policies are automobile liability, general liability and employer’s liability. The difference with an umbrella liability policy is that it can provide coverage for claims that are not covered by the primary policies. Such claims are subject to a type of deductible called a self-insured retention.

Deductible vs. Self-Insured Retention

An excess liability policy not only pays the amount a business is legally liable to pay as a result of the claim, but the policy also pays for the legal costs incurred in defending the claim. With a strict excess liability policy, the deductible is usually equal to the liability limits on the primary policy. In contrast, since the umbrella policy provides coverage above and beyond what the underlying policies provide, the umbrella has a self-insured retention. This means the insured must pay out of pocket the defense and claim costs until the self-insured retention is reached. A typical self-insured retention is $10,000. Once the self-insured retention deductible is satisfied, the insurance company takes over and picks up the rest of the costs until the policy limits are reached.

– Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) –

There is always a risk threatening to take down your business, regardless of type or size. At Gannon Associates, we understand that employment allegations are a common form of business-related claims and we have a solution to mitigate this form of risk.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance provides protection against many kinds of employee lawsuits, including claims of:

• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Wrongful termination
• Failure to employ or promote
• Deprivation of career opportunity
• Breach of employment contract
• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
• Negligent evaluation
• Mismanagement of employee benefits plans