Specialty rises to the Top

Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance is a must for just about any business client. But the bland vanilla flavour of CGL has so many limitations and exclusions that specialty risks such as cyber are increasingly tacked on to CGL’s standard coverage. As we move into an era that features cutomized coverage packages and more granular risk assessments, will everything soon start to look like a “specialty” risk? Will there be such thing as a “standard” CGL policy risk anymore?

The lines are already starting to blur. No black-and-white guide determines the difference between a standard insurance policy and a specialty policy. “There is not a set definition” of specialty insurance, says Dave Bresnahan, executive vice president of Boston-based Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, which entered the Canadian market in 2015. Typically, a specialty coverage does not “fit in a box,” but rather “requires some tailoring of coverage” or changing terms and conditions to meet a client’s needs, he says.

“Specialty is a word that can mean different things depending on the insurance company you are dealing with,” says Brian Kelly, Montreal-based managing partner for risk management at BFL Canada Risk and Insurance Services.

CGL’s “standard” insurance is intended to cover a company if it is found legally liable for an injury or property damage. It normally applies if a third party suffers a loss caused by the insured company’s operations, products or by accidents on company premises.

Read the full article in the Digital Edition of the August 2018 Canadian Underwriter.

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