Generally, an insurer’s duty to defend flows from the facts alleged in the lawsuit. When the pleadings alleged damage or injury that is covered by the policy, the insurance carrier has a duty to defend, regardless of whether the insured is ultimately liable and/or the insurer has a duty to indemnify. Conversely, when the pleadings…
Contractors’ Professional and Pollution Liability is the contractor’s coverage solution. Often referred to as either the Contractors Pollution and Professional Insurance, the Contractor’s Protective Professional Indemnity coverage, or simply “CPPI,” this multi-peril form specifically addresses and closes the majority of pollution and professional liability coverage gaps resulting from the limited breadth of protection provided by…
Every state and the District of Columbia grants insurance carriers an “underwriting period.” Insurance carriers are granted broad authority to cancel a newly-written policy during this statutorily-limited period.
An insured’s offer to purchase insurance is made in the form of the application, supposedly completed by the insured. Acceptance flows from the insurance carrier in the form of a policy. Logically, then, the insurance negotiation begins with the application.
Recently I’ve noticed insurance practitioners doing a LOT of cussing. No, I don’t mean using the traditional words that got us in trouble as kids; I am referring to insurance cussing. Yes, there are certain words and phrases used by many insurance practitioners that should not be used in polite company, mainly because they are…
Were you affected by the Equifax breach? There is a 1 in 2 chance you were. Even if you weren’t, there are certain steps you can take to fight identity theft, including “freezing” your credit. Yes, there are some downsides to this, but saving your good credit may be worth the aggravation.
Once a policy is in effect and has existed beyond the underwriting period, provisions still exist allowing the carrier to cancel the policy during the policy period. These are often referred to as mid-term cancellation laws. All 50 states statutorily mandate the conditions under which a policy can be cancelled prior to the end of…
You cannot assume the entity type you insured last year is the same entity type that exists this year. When insuring small businesses, you are fighting against several unseen entities – namely accountants and lawyers. These other professionals make changes to the small business without much thought to the problems these changes can cause your…
Ownership, or rather the desire to own, is changing. More and more people see less and less the need to own something they don’t use on a regular basis. As the saying goes, “I don’t need a drill, I just need a hole.” The insurance industry needs to prepare for this shift in attitude and…
Liability policies, whether the HO, PAP or CGL, respond when the insured is judged to be “legally liable” for the injury or damage. But how is “legal liability” determined? That is the question answered in this short article.