From the Front Lines: Environmental Liability

How did you get started at your agency?

I’ve been in insurance since 1990 and, initially, worked for an insurance carrier that provided insurance to only a handful of specific industries: contractors, petroleum marketers, equipment and automobile dealerships, lumberyards, and more. In 1999, I decided to branch out and start my own independent insurance agency. I continued to work—and still do to this day—in this niched environment as we’ve grown our agency to 22 employees. We’ve taken this niche marketing process to a larger scale and have actually developed niched agency brands specific to certain industries, including restoration contractors, restaurants, law firms, and more.

How did you become an environmental liability specialist?

Initially, we specialized in insuring contractors. That has been and will always be the majority of the business that we write. We started our first niche brand agency for restoration contractors and quickly learned that the most important insurance the restoration contractor purchases is environmental liability insurance. We then realized that not only is it a misunderstood policy, but that many restoration contractors either didn’t have it or the policies they carried were inadequate. Furthermore, we continue to educate other contractor industries that haven’t normally carried environmental insurance that they have an exposure to claims as well—specifically, plumbing contractors.

Biggest environmental liability passions?

This is an evolving product line. Like cyber or data breach insurance, environmental liability is expanding as both a market and as an exposure. Once insurance carriers stop paying claims under a general liability policy where they shouldn’t be (for claims where a pollution policy should be the solution), there will be a profound effect on industries like the construction industry that we specialize in. I’ve been in the insurance business for 25 years—it’s exciting again to have a unique product that is both evolving in types of policies but also in types of potential hazards.

Biggest environmental liability changes over the years?

Again, in recent years, it’s the fact that clients are realizing the true exposure they have. Education about the exposure and the potential coverage in this type of policy—that’s the biggest change.

What do you say to a first-time client looking at environmental liability coverage?

First, when working with a client who has the need and now the desire to purchase a policy, it is highly likely we are working with a more sophisticated buyer. The sophisticated buyer listens and better understands the exposure vs. coverage process. It’s simply a different sale than selling a statutory worker’s compensation policy.

Advice for a fellow agent trying to break into the market?

I have always marketed to the niche industry with a wide array of products. To market a single product line to a wide array of industries is opposite to how I built my own personal clientele and to how I built my agency. However, niche is the key nowadays. Regardless of product-based or marketing- and industry-based, the new agent absolutely needs to be niche-based!

What do you see in the future for environmental liability?

This is a growing market for sure. As we continue to educate insurers and agents to realize that they have an errors & omissions exposure by not providing an environmental liability policy to their client, we will then make a larger impact in spreading the word about the need for this important coverage line.