PRODUCT: Professional Liability for midsize to large A&E and contractor businesses
COMPANIES: QBE and Huntersure, LLC
BEST RATING: A (Excellent)
AVAILABILITY: Coverage is available on an open-brokerage basis.
FOCUS: QBE North America recently announced a strategic program underwriting alliance with Huntersure, LLC to bring its professional liability coverage to midsize to large architectural, engineering and contractor businesses.
The initiative to continually expand its professional liability portfolio demonstrates QBE North America’s distinctive ability to nimbly respond to the evolving market needs of A&E insureds, says Kent Shelley, vice president, underwriting leader, Specialty Programs, QBE North America.
Shelley notes that the program includes two important components: A&E professional liability, and contractors liability for “the people who actually build the projects.”
“We recognized a need for this type of coverage in the marketplace,” Shelley says. “This was a way to gain some real expertise in the space at a time when we thought there was an opportunity to write business.”
Huntersure, which boasts more than a decade of experience offering a wide array of insurance products in the professional liability space, will underwrite these risks and offer coverage for these accounts through a variety of specialized distribution sources, including retail and wholesale partners.
Shelley says Huntersure’s experience is one of the biggest benefits of the program. “Huntersure is comprised of many attorneys, so their model is to get involved with claims, even though QBE will be ultimately settling these losses,” he explains. “They’re a good partner for us in terms of claims management and expertise.”
COVERAGE DETAILS: The policy provides both defense protection in the event of allegations of professional negligence, as well as supplemental payments and coverage designed to assist insureds in dealing with the events of a claim, including court attendance costs and claims expense for disciplinary proceedings.
Coverage also includes personal injury, contingent bodily injury and property damage, joint venture liability, and loss of data and documents. The policy provides automatic and optional extended reporting periods and ADA, FHA and OSHA coverage.
UNDERWRITING: Capacity is available up to $10 million on a primary and excess basis.
MINIMUM PREMIUM: $20,000.
TARGET: Risks with at least $10 million in revenue. Appetite includes architects, engineers, surveyors, planners and other design professionals, as well as contractors operating in the agricultural, residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and heavy civil sectors.
COVERAGE TERRITORY: U.S. domiciled risks only.
COVERAGE AVAILABILITY: All U.S. states.
CONTACT: Marc Holden, partner; Huntersure, LLC, 318 W Adams, Suite 1519, Chicago, IL 60606; 646-751-3055.
Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.
