Working side by side with our retail broker partner New Day was asked to participate in a competitive situation for insurance services for a large construction firm. While our retail broker partner brought the expertise on all other lines of insurance, New Day brought its expertise in the areas of construction-related professional liability and environmental liability to supplement our retail broker partner’s experience. New Day was part of the team that met with the prospect. We proposed several ideas and structural changes to their current combined professional and pollution liability program. In addition, New Day introduced the prospect to cost-effective alternatives for project professional liability insurance. Our retail broker partner was recently awarded the Broker of Record letter and New Day is now working on the renewal program.
One of our retail broker partners came to us with $125,000,000 commercial office project. The design-build contract required $10,000,000 in professional liability limits – higher than typical for this size and type of project. While the traditional markets were providing indications of $350,000 to $450,000 premium, New Day was able to secure a program for $150,000 premium with a $10,000,000 limit and $100,000 self insured retention. The program was structured with both professional and pollution liability and did not contain the protective or mitigation type coverages. The insured’s primary initiative was to comply with the insurance specification in the most cost-effective manner possible.
New Day, working with our retail broker partner, was tasked with placing project professional liability insurance for a design/build contract on a commercial building project. The owner required $10 million in limits but no dedicated limit requirement for the project. The construction firm was purchasing a practice program with a $5 million limit and planned to purchase a $10 million project professional liability policy, which was a costly alternative. The project professional liability program would have cost about $750,000 premium. New Day offered a different structure that applied a $5 million project excess endorsement over the firm’s $5 million practice program since there was no requirement for a dedicated limit. This structure brought the total cost down by over $500,000 even after factoring in carrying the endorsement for 5 years. This may not be an effective solution in all similar situations but should be considered when the specifications allow.
New Day recently established a new broker relationship in which the insured, an International remediation contractor, was new to our partner broker via Broker of Record (BOR). The broker partner came to New Day seeking renewal solutions. The insured had a high loss ratio and thought they had the broadest coverage since the account was previously with a national broker. New Day restructured the program and negotiated broader coverage that included identifying a missed insured, broadening foreign coverage, adding site pollution coverage and adding emergency response coverage. The incumbent insurer was pressing for a large premium increase due to the loss ratio. However, New Day was able to broaden the coverage and ultimately negotiated a flat premium with the incumbent insurer.
New Day Underwriting Managers was asked by our retail broker to review the current policy for an insured that acted as an owner’s representative for their clients to ensure that their construction projects were completed on schedule and within budget. The insured worked with many higher profile clients and projects. The current insurance program included an initial professional liability policy with $2,000,000 limits of liability and a $3,000,000 excess policy for a total of $5,000,000 in limits of liability. New Day’s review of the policy revealed several significant coverage deficiencies including a mold exclusion, pollution exclusion and a narrow definition of professional services.
Bodily injury definition expanded to include medical monitoring.