PRODUCT: Personal umbrella
COMPANY: Ironshore
BEST RATING: A (Excellent), Class XIV
AVAILABILITY: Coverage is available to independent agents and brokers through Ironshore program administrators, including All Risks Ltd., Bass Underwriters, Braishfield, C&M First Services Inc., FTP Inc., Hull & Co., John Handel & Associates, Johnson & Johnson, MarketScout, National Risk Solutions Insurance, Orchid Underwriters Insurance Agency, Quaker Special Risk, Risco Insurance Brokerage, Risk Placement Services, Southern Cross Underwriters, Security First Insurance Group, Southern Specialty Underwriters and Sterlingrisk.
FOCUS: Ironshore’s personal umbrella product is the latest offering in its high-value homeowners program designed for high net-worth individuals and families who are increasingly targets for potentially ruinous lawsuits resulting from personal injury or property damage.
“While homeowners generally understand the importance of buying adequate limits of property protection for their high-valued homes, fewer appreciate the need for additional liability protection above the limits in homeowners and automobile policies,” says Dan Olmsted, senior vice president of personal lines.
UNDERWRITING: The personal umbrella is available with $1-5 million limits, subject to minimum underlying limits of homeowners, auto and watercraft liability.
Optional enhancements include uninsured/underinsured liability protection. Claudia Wetteland, New York vice president, personal lines, points out that unlike many standard market products, Ironshore’s uninsured/underinsured product covers losses from both motor-vehicle incidents and homeowners losses.
Most households don’t have excess liability coverage on their homes, so if the insured or a family member is injured at the home of a neighbor with inadequate coverage, the injured insured would be “stuck paying for everything above the basic medical expense,” Wetteland says—including such expenses as rehabilitation or lifetime care. “By offering it as part of the optional uninsured/underinsured coverage with the umbrella policy, the insured can be confident that no matter where they go, they don’t have to worry about whether the person whose house they’re visiting has adequate limits because they have their own protection.”
Wetteland explains that umbrella coverage typically provides excess protection over both homeowners- and auto-related to incidents for which the policyholder is responsible. But the Ironshore product provides excess coverage over incidents for which a third party is responsible and impact the policyholder or their family—“even for events on the policyholder’s own property,” she says.
Other benefits of Ironshore’s offering include: coverage for claims that may not be covered by a policyholder’s underlying homeowners, auto or watercraft liability policies, such as libel, slander or defamation of character; coverage for defense costs and attorney fees that exceed the limits available in underlying policies, without reducing the liability limit; coverage for court costs and fees associated with defense of the policyholder’s case; private consultation coverage to pay for insured’s attorney to monitor legal defense efforts; and reputation defense coverage for the cost of hiring a public relations firm to protect the insured’s reputation.
MINIMUM PREMIUM: $175 for $1 million limit.
TARGET: Consumers with homes valued in excess of $1 million in replacement cost.
COVERAGE TERRITORY: Coverage is worldwide. The personal umbrella product is available in conjunction with Ironshore’s high-value homeowners insurance product, currently available in CT, FL, GA, NJ, NY, MA, RI and SC.
CONTACT: Claudia Wetteland, New York vice president, personal lines; Ironshore, 1 State Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10004; 646-826-4826.
Ronimarie Acord is an IA contributor.
