New Markets

Preferred Club Program

Nuts & Bolts: Venture Insurance Programs has expanded its Preferred Club Program through an exclusive program alliance with The Hanover Insurance. Co. Effective immediately, The Hanover Insurance Company, rated “A-” (Excellent), Financial Size Category XII by A.M. Best Co., will provide a new market for the program, with additional coverage for public daily-fee courses, as well as semi-private courses, private courses and country clubs. Under the exclusive arrangement, Hanover Insurance will use the Preferred Club Program’s proprietary form. The program will continue to offer its existing club package through the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. It offers workers’ comp, property, general liability, property of members, herbicide and pesticide coverage with full pollution options, tee-to-green coverage of all playing surfaces, liquor liability, excess and umbrella liability, and cart fleet and errant ball coverage. Options include business interruption coverage with an unlimited extended period of indemnity. In addition, it provides professional liability coverage through USLI.

Dollars: Limits for property go up to $25 million. Deductibles vary by line and minimum premiums are $15,000.

Carrier: The Hanover Insurance Company, rated “A-” (excellent), financial size category XII by A.M. Best Co., admitted.

States Available: All.

Contact: Annamarie Keen (800) 282-6247 ext. 278.

Stand-Alone Terrorism

Nuts & Bolts: Insurance Company of the West will offer admitted stand-alone property terrorism coverage for most states around the country. Additional states, including New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia will be added in the future. It covers certified and/or non-certified acts of terrorism. Excluded is loss caused by terrorism involving release or dispersal of nuclear, radioactive, biological, or chemical materials. It has business interruption coverage for 12 months (no contingent BI) including ordinary payroll. ICW Group is rated “A-” IX by A.M. Best. This coverage is available through appointed agents and brokers.

Dollars: Limits up to $20 million per location, subject to specific proximity guidelines. Deductibles are determined on risk specific issues.

Carrier: Insurance Company of the West

States Available: Most, with nine Eastern states being added.

Contact: Carol Pringle, (858) 350-2639, or cpringle@icwgroup.com.

Enhanced Spectrum BOP Coverages

Nuts & Bolts: The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. introduced a series of enhancements to its Spectrum business owners policy. Spectrum is known for its comprehensive base policy and Stretch endorsements. The changes to the Spectrum product increase endorsement limits, add coverages and streamline the process of choosing coverage. The Hartford further enhanced its tailored industry-specific Super Stretches by providing blanket limits of $250,000 or $350,000 (depending on the industry) that can be applied to six coverages as needed, including: Computers and media (hardware and software), debris removal, personal property of others, temperature change, accounts receivable and valuable papers and records. The Hartford streamlined its Spectrum policy endorsement structure into three tiers of increasingly powerful packages: Standard Stretch, Standard Super Stretch and the tailored Super Stretch for specific industries/classes. The new Spectrum base policy broadens property coverages to reflect growing needs. It increased separate limits for both accounts receivable and for valuable papers and records and expanded coverage to include these items when located off premises. Additionally, the base policy also contains new coverage for the added costs of restoring damaged buildings to conform to current local building codes, sometimes called Ordinance or Law coverage. Thus demolition, increased cost of construction, tenant‚s improvement and improving the undamaged portion of the building are each covered for up to $25,000.

Dollars: Blanket limits of $250,000 or $350,000 (depending on the industry) that can be applied to six coverages as needed.

Carrier: The Hartford.

States Available: The Spectrum enhancements are being introduced state by state and will be available in most states by October.

Contact: www.thehartford.com.

Hotel Crisis Management Coverage

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company has introduced a crisis management coverage that pays for professional public relations counsel to help businesses overcome disaster and preserve their reputation as well as for expenses required to get back to normal operations as quickly as possible. The coverage is to help when hotel operations face unpredictable losses requiring coordinated management action and communication to restore customer trust. For example, a workplace violence incident might generate reputational issues with immediate impact on income and employees. The new coverage would offset expenses that an hotelier would incur when responding to a shooting incident. A similar scenario would be expense protection in the event of an outbreak of a communicable disease on the hotel premises.

Coverage limits can vary widely according to the industry covered and the size of the business revenue stream, but underwriters expect most small-to-medium-size customers will need limits in the $25,000-to-$100,000 range. A primary feature in the policy is coverage for post-event expenses such as medical and funeral expenses, psychological counseling for employees, and travel expenses for people injured in the crisis, witnessed the crisis or work in the location where the crisis occurred.

The new coverages can be combined with Fireman’s Fund’s coverages that address premise evacuation expense, food spoilage and contamination, errors and omissions for miscellaneous service and guest event cancellation insurance. Dollars: Vary widely but for small-to-medium businesses, $25,000 to $100,000 range.

Carrier: Firemans’ Fund

States Available: All

Contact: www.firemansfund.com

Real Estate Broker Liability Policy

Nuts & Bolts: St. Paul Travelers introduced a new policy for real estate agents and brokers that provides broader protection from possible claims or litigation against errors and omissions. St. Paul Travelers’ 1st Choice for Real Estate Agents and Brokers Professional Liability Protection covers real estate agents or brokers, property managers and notary publics. In addition, the policyholder’s employees, independent contractors and employees of the independent contractors are covered by the policy. It covers legal defense expenses that extend beyond the policy limits, disciplinary proceeding expenses or a legal expense reimbursement and offers protection for fair housing discrimination claims. Protection from failure by the agent or broker to disclose to the buyers or sellers the existence of pollution on the property is also offered. Typically items that don’t function on the property, such as appliances, or matters related to the characteristics of the property, including zoning changes, would be covered. In addition, St. Paul Travelers offers 1st Choice for Real Estate Professionals Services Liability Protection policy, which is similar to the real estate agents and brokers policy in coverage but is offered to abstracters, auctioneers, real estate appraisers, title agents, title searchers, closing agents or escrow agents, title-opinion lawyers, witness closers and notary publics.

Dollars: Deductibles range from $2,500 to $50,000 and more. Policy limits are $5 million.

Carrier: St. Paul Travelers rated “A+”, both products are admitted.

States Available: All except California.

Contact: Ken Reko, (651) 310-7123 or kreko@stpaultravelers.com.