Excess Liability Insurance

You can’t plan for every possible disaster scenario, but you can be prepared to cover catastrophic loss.

Excess and umbrella insurance policies are designed to augment primary coverage to deal with catastrophes.

Think of these policies as a safety net that kicks in to provide additional coverage when your primary insurance limits are reached. 

For example, if your Church roof catches fire, destroying the whole building, it might cost $2 million to rebuild, which would be a problem if your general liability limit is $1 million. But it wouldn’t be an issue if you also have a $5 million umbrella policy that’s triggered when the general policy is exhausted.

While similar, excess and umbrella liability policies aren’t identical. Excess liability provides additional insurance capacity without changing the nature or scope of protection. Umbrella liability, on the other hand, supplements your primary coverage by extending protection beyond the underlying policies.

Umbrella and excess insurance policies list the specific primary liability policies that they augment, and organizations should consider adding them to their general liability, clergy pastoral counseling, sexual misconduct, automobile liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, and employment practices liability policies.

And because these excess and umbrella policies are supplemental, they protect the same entities as primary policies, namely the corporate entity, its subsidiaries and affiliates, their respective executive officers and directors, their trustees, their employees and their volunteers.

*Including employees, vestry members, directors, trustees, and volunteers.

Property and Casualty Insurance Disclaimer