Small Project Design

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

I suggest you be sure your General Liability includes electronic documents coverage (that might not be the exact name, but it's coverage for file restoration in the case of ransomware*, trojans, etc.) as well as basic coverage for restoration of paper documents.

It looks like there are several parts of your General Liability that cover you for things that often aren't an issue for design professionals - "product" coverage, etc.  May not cost a lot in the big scheme of things, but you might as well be paying for the kinds of things we usually need (on the Professional Liability side).

This could be a good time to talk with your broker about the kind of coverages they suggest. 

*My carrier wouldn't pay the ransom, but paid (less deductible) for some clever folks to unlock a lot of files, once upon a time; the deductible was peanuts.

------------------------------
Joel Niemi AIA
Joel Niemi Architect
Snohomish, WA
------------------------------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

Esther:
I also have a small firm (3 people) and my General Liability policy pretty much already has the provisions you listed.  You have more Professional Liability coverage than I have carried for 31 years.  I have no idea what that Umbrella Excess Liability is but it sounds a bit ominous... and if it is just for that project, I would see about getting it on a per-contract basis only and make sure it doesn't negate any provisions of your architectural agreement.  Not sure if that is helpful.

Gina



------------------------------
Gina Moffitt AIA
owner
Kiyohara Moffitt
Los Angeles CA
------------------------------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------

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.

------------------------------
David Sisson AIA
Architect
David Sisson
Providence RI
------------------------------

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):

1. Bodily Injury
   $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   $2,000,000 Per location/Per Site General Aggregate
   
   
2. Property Damage
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
3. Products and Complete Operations shall be maintained for six (6) years after final payment
   
   
4. Property Damage Liability Insurance shall provide explosion, collapse and underground coverage as applicable
   
   
5. Contractual Liability (Hold Harmless Coverage):
   Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 Each Occurrence
   Property Damage:
   Included Each Occurrence
   Included Aggregate
   
   
6. Personal Insurance with Employment exclusion deleted: $2,000,000 Aggregate
7. 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,

------------------------------
Esther Sperber AIA
President
Studio ST Architects
www.studio-st.com
New York NY
------------------------------