I might be a little late to this game, however, we are about the same as you - 4 people, with $1M coverage for E&O.
I don't think my insurance co will go higher than us, until our billables get larger. We started at $500K, and were able to graduate to $1M after a couple of years.
When we go after projects that "require" larger insurance amounts, I will provide my current insurance cert and state "here's our current insurance cert, and we can negotiate higher insurance levels if required.". I haven't had any issues. Honestly, some of these project are silly - if they need $5M or $10M of insurance, that's only the largest firms who can even qualify for limits that high, so...what do they really want? In my area, a lot of the communities are asking for something like $3M OR 10% of the project value, whichever is lower. The 10% often comes out lower than $1M, so I still qualify.
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David Sisson AIA
Architect
David Sisson
Providence RI
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2019 11:55
From: Esther Sperber
Subject: Insurance Coverage Recomendations
I would love advice on what insurance coverage my small four-person office should carry. We have a professional liability insurance policy for $1M, workers comp and disability and a small policy covering the office content. Our largest project has a construction budget of $5,000,000 but we are submitting proposals for two larger jobs $7M-$10M.
One of the RFPs requires the following insurances:
Commercial General Liability (including Premises-Operations; Independent Contractors' Protective, Products and Competed Operations; Broad Form Property Damage):
- Bodily Injury
$1,000,000 Each Occurrence
$2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
- Property Damage
Included Each Occurrence
Included Aggregate
- Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
- Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
- Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
Property Damage:
Included Each Occurrence
Included Aggregate
- Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
- If the General Liability policy includes a General Aggregate, such Aggregate shall not be less than $2,000,000. Policy shall be endorsed to have General Aggregate apply to this Project only.
Umbrella Excess Liability
$10,000,000 Over primary insurance
$10,000 Retention
Many thanks,
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Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
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