BAP or CGL; College Students and Insurance

Is It BAP or CGL?

A contractor is rolling an air compressor across a parking lot to load it into his truck. He slips and the compressor rolls into a Cadillac. Is it a business auto claim or a CGL claim? The answer may not be as simple as you think. In addition, this actual claim submitted to our Ask an Expert service involves two other issues even more important than the coverage.

The business auto policy covers the loading and unloading of property by hand or a mechanical device attached to the vehicle. The CGL covers the use of mobile equipment. So, is an air compressor on wheels mobile equipment or is it contractor’s equipment (i.e., “property”) that’s being loaded? Take a look at the BAP/CGL definition of “mobile equipment” and you’ll find that, surprisingly, the answer isn’t that simple.

Of the two other issues cited above, the first involves the fact that the BAP and CGL are written with different companies (uh oh). The second issue involves customer service, PR and the image of our industry with consumers. To examine all of these issues, go to the Big “I” Virtual University.

College Students and Auto Insurance

As educator Robert Maynard Hutchins put it, “Whether four years of strenuous attention to football and fraternities is the best preparation for professional work has never been seriously investigated.” Being the insurance geeks we are, we wonder whether the auto insurance exposures of kids at college have ever been seriously investigated.

So, we set out to do that.

For example, your 18-year-old son is away at college. He does not have a car on campus, but his roommate does and he drives the auto occasionally. Think this scenario could happen? Would your personal auto policy respond if he has an accident driving the car? If not, is there anything you can do about it? You might be surprised…

To examine a common, serious exposure (and a possible simple, inexpensive solution), visit the Virtual University.

Before you know it, it will be that time of year again, when recently graduated high schoolers begin the journey from childhood to adulthood by enrolling in institutions of reputed higher learning…otherwise known as going off to college. Aside from the usual fears of sending Junior off on his own for the first time, perhaps of equal concern (at least to those of us in this industry) should be the insurance protection, or lack thereof, that extends from your home to your child’s dorm room and campus at large.

Kids away at college often present unique exposures to loss, many of them potentially catastrophic. So, it’s important to know how much coverage if any, is provided by parents’ personal lines policies. In this article, we’ll take a look at a very common exposure to loss and really scare you when we show you how the most common ISO HO 2000 program could suspend your child’s insurance protection if they simply drop a course or two…and the latest ISO 2011 program won’t help.

To read the complete article, go to the Virtual University.