This course takes a comprehensive look at excess and umbrella liability insurance with a focus on identifying and preventing potential gaps in coverage between the excess and umbrella liability policy and the underlying or primary liability insurance policies so as to allow agents and brokers to minimize potential E & O exposures.

Part 1
Part 1 begins with a brief overview of the most relevant parts of the underlying coverages: Commercial General Liability, Commercial Auto Liability, and Employers Liability. This discussion focuses on and includes each policy’s insuring agreements, exclusions and important exceptions to those exclusions, and policy definitions. In addition, this session will detail:

• Factors which drive the need for excess and umbrella liability insurance
• Basic differences between excess and umbrella liability insurance
• Supported vs. unsupported excess and umbrella liability policies, including advantages and disadvantages of each
• Three basic types of excess liability policies and how each is designed to work
• Specific and aggregate excess liability policies
• Basic functions of umbrella liability policies
• Application of the SIR in both drop-down and aggregate impairment/exhaustion situations
• Requirement of underlying or primary coverages and limits
• Aggregate limits in umbrella liability policies
• Different types of insuring agreements in umbrella liability policies

Part 2
Part 2 will pick up the discussion from Part 1 and will detail:

• Critical definitions in umbrella liability policies
• Implications of occurrence vs. claims made coverage triggers
• Variations on handling of defense coverage
• Typical types of and reasons for exclusions in the umbrella/excess policies
• Endorsements typically available PLUS the reasons for their use
• Maintenance of underlying insurance provision
• Coverage territory
• Structuring an overall liability insurance program and avoiding potential pitfalls
• Summary comments, including important recommendations to agents and brokers to assist in avoiding
  E&O exposures in placing excess and umbrella liability insurance