What Is Commercial Umbrella Insurance?
Commercial umbrella insurance is a liability policy that provides additional coverage for businesses and commercial properties. A commercial umbrella policy extends a business’s liability limits so that they are adequately covered, even in instances of high-cost lawsuits and damages.
How Does Commercial Umbrella Insurance Work?
Commercial umbrella insurance works as an extension of your client’s liability limits. For example, if your client’s business insurance covers liability up to $1 million per occurrence, and they have a settlement that’ll cost them $2 million, typically, they’d be on the hook for that additional $1 million. However, an umbrella insurance policy would cover that extra $1 million up to its limits. A $2 million commercial umbrella policy would fully cover the bill.
Who Needs Commercial Umbrella Insurance?
Any business that has liability risks should have a commercial umbrella policy. For some businesses, the reasons are obvious. For example, restaurants run common risks like food poisoning or overserving patrons. For them, a specialized restaurant umbrella policy is a no-brainer.
However, almost all businesses run some form of liability risks that could cripple their operations if they don’t have adequate coverage. Industrial buildings may not have a client-facing aspect when it comes to liability concerns, but they still run major risks. For instance, a chemical plant in New Jersey was sued for $1 million over a smell that one woman claimed made her and her child sick. With a high-limit umbrella policy, these kinds of major one-off expenses become far more manageable.
Other businesses that should purchase commercial umbrella insurance include:
- Retail stores
- Strip malls
- Indoor malls
- Light industrial complexes
- Office buildings
What Does Commercial Umbrella Insurance Cover?
Commercial umbrella insurance coverage differs from policy to policy, but it should cover most liability claims that a business might face. Some common examples are:
- Lawsuits related to harassment, discrimination, and personal injury
- Auto liability
- Employee benefit liability
- Cost of legal defense
- D&O liability
- Liquor liability
What Doesn’t It Cover?
Every policy is a little different, but there are some typical things that you won’t see covered in most commercial umbrella policies. These include:
- Property damage
- Personal litigation aimed at an employee or owner of the company
- Employee theft
Many commercial umbrella insurance policies are follow form, meaning that they will cover whatever your underlying insurance policy does. Make sure to read through all of the terms and conditions, so you know that your client is getting the right coverage for their needs.
What Do Clients Look for in a Commercial Umbrella Insurance Policy?
Selling commercial umbrella insurance requires a good knowledge of what clients want when they walk through your door. Mostly that comes with experience. However, if you’re new to selling this umbrella policy, here are some things to emphasize and look for when working with your clients.
- High limits: Clients may not know it, but they often need higher limits than many standard policies offer. As their broker, you can educate them about the importance of getting a high-limit umbrella that matches their exposure level. Distinguished’s Real Estate Umbrella Insurance supports policies of up to $140 million so that you can make sure they never go underinsured.
- Fast quoting: Buying insurance is no one’s idea of a great day — so it’s no wonder many clients put off buying it until the last minute. In those situations, you’re going to need a quote right away. Distinguished’s Express Real Estate Umbrella can get you same-day bindable commercial umbrella quotes on policies up to $10 million with our online application system. For larger accounts, turnaround times are around one week.
- Coverages they need: Although many umbrella policies follow form, that’s not true of everything on the market. Clients only want to pay for coverage that’ll actually be there when they need it. Distinguished offers broad coverage umbrella policies that follow form and have no exclusions for suits related to assault or battery.
Learn More About Distinguished’s High-Limit Umbrella Policies
Distinguished specializes in high-limit real estate umbrella insurance policies that have been crafted by long-time industry experts and underwriters. We combine excellent service, fair rates, and industry expertise to provide you with insurance policies that can help you win accounts.
At Distinguished, we offer insurance policies that are as unique as the businesses they help insure. That’s why we’ve broken up our umbrella policies into different niches that are better prepared to insure your client’s assets. Most commercial umbrella applications at Distinguished will fall under our Real Estate Umbrella Insurance, which can help insure warehouses, retail outlets, office buildings, and more. We also offer specialized umbrellas for:
If you have any questions about our offerings, please reach out to our insurance experts, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Get started by registering so that you can easily submit your business for any of our insurance policies, including our high-limit real estate umbrellas. Submissions for umbrella policies with less than $10 million in coverage can go through our online portal, while larger ones should be submitted using this application form.
Learn more about Distinguished’s Real Estate Umbrella below:
- Real Estate Umbrella Insurance Program Page
- Express Real Estate Umbrella Insurance Program Page (Online Application)
- Distinguished Umbrella Overview Brochure
Distinguished’s Real Estate Umbrella FAQs
What do I need to submit?
To submit your business for our Real Estate Umbrella, you’ll need to provide a completed supplemental application, a schedule of locations including COPE info, five years of currently valued loss runs, and underlying quotes to be scheduled.
Is this umbrella available nationwide?
Yes, we offer our Real Estate Umbrella Insurance across all 50 states.
What are your limit options?
Our Real Estate Umbrella Insurance limits are:
- $10,000,000
- $25,000,000
- $50,000,000
- $75,000,000
- $90,000,000
- $105,000,000
- $115,000,000
- $140,000,000
For the Express Real Estate Umbrella, we offer limits of:
- $1,000,000
- $2,000,000
- $5,000,000
- $10,000,000
