Primary limits run out fast. Your umbrella is what’s left between a claim and your business.
A commercial umbrella sits above your primary general liability, auto, and employer’s liability policies and provides additional limits for catastrophic claims. Verdicts and settlements have escalated dramatically — the typical $1M underlying GL layer no longer represents serious protection on its own. Without an umbrella structured correctly above it, a single severity claim can move from covered to ruinous in a matter of weeks.
Most umbrellas aren’t underpriced. They’re under-engineered. Inadequate limits relative to actual exposure, gaps where the umbrella doesn’t sit over a particular underlying policy, exclusions that don’t match the underlying form, and missing follow-form language — these gaps are common, and they only matter when the primary limit has already exhausted.
At Avanti Group, we run a Business Risk Diagnostic™ before we build any umbrella submission. We map your underlying program, your assets, your operations, and the realistic loss scenarios that could exhaust primary limits — and make sure your excess structure is actually built for them.
Who We Work With
We place commercial umbrella programs for businesses across Iowa and the Midwest, including:
- Contractors and trades businesses with significant operations or contract requirements
- Trucking and transportation operators with auto-driven exposure
- Manufacturers and distributors with product liability exposure
- Restaurants and hospitality with liquor liability concerns
- Healthcare facilities and senior care operators
- Property management and habitational portfolios
- Professional services firms with sizable assets to protect
- Nonprofits, churches, and associations with board liability
The Coverage Lines That Matter Most
A complete umbrella program is more than a single layer of capacity. The components we evaluate and place include:
- Commercial Umbrella — additional limits sitting over your primary GL, auto, and employer’s liability
- Excess Liability — multiple layers stacked above the umbrella for accounts that need higher capacity
- Follow-Form Language — coverage that mirrors the underlying policy terms, eliminating gaps where the umbrella might apply differently than the primary
- Drop-Down Coverage — for situations where the underlying limits are exhausted by aggregate or where the underlying carrier insolvency leaves the insured exposed
- Schedule of Underlying — explicit listing of the policies the umbrella sits over, with limit requirements documented
- Personal Umbrella Coordination — for owner-operators where personal and business exposures need to be addressed together
The Risks Most Umbrella Programs Miss
Limits are often too low relative to actual exposure. Verdicts have moved sharply, and the difference between a $1M and $5M umbrella is often the difference between a covered claim and a personal asset exposure for the owner. We benchmark limits against your assets and operations, not what was bought five years ago.
Underlying scheduling is frequently incomplete. The umbrella only sits over the policies listed in its schedule of underlying. If a policy is missing — an EPLI policy, a liquor liability policy, a separate cyber policy — the umbrella may not respond to a claim there. We make sure the schedule is built correctly.
Exclusions on the umbrella often don’t match the underlying. The umbrella may carry exclusions that the underlying policy doesn’t, creating a gap where the primary covers a claim but the excess refuses to follow. We review exclusion lists side by side, not just the limit on the declaration page.
Required limits in contracts get scrutinized after the fact. Many contracts require specific umbrella limits, and the failure to maintain them creates a contract-breach exposure that compounds the underlying claim. We help track contract requirements as part of the program.
How to Get Started
Commercial umbrella isn’t a commodity product. The right program depends on your underlying program, your assets, your operations, and your contract obligations. We need to understand your business before we can build the right program for it.
Call our office or use the button below to start a conversation. We’ll review your current program, identify any gaps, and let you know exactly where you stand before we ever go to market.