General Liability, Umbrella/Excess and Specialty Casualty
Commercial general liability
The CGL has Coverage A (bodily injury and property damage), Coverage B (personal and advertising injury), and Coverage C (medical payments). The occurrence form covers injury during the policy period; the claims-made form adds a retroactive date and extended reporting periods. Core exclusions: expected or intended injury, contractual liability, your product and your work, impaired property, pollution, auto, and employer's liability. Limits include each occurrence, general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, personal and advertising injury, damage to premises rented, and medical expense.
Umbrella and excess
An umbrella sits over underlying policies and also drops down to cover gaps, usually after a self-insured retention. Follow-form umbrellas track the underlying terms; standalone umbrellas impose their own. The umbrella drops down only for a loss covered by the umbrella but not the underlying policy - and only after the retention is exhausted.
Workers' compensation
Benefits are statutory and no-fault, and the exclusive remedy doctrine bars most employee suits. Part One covers statutory benefits with no dollar limit; Part Two, employers liability, responds to suits outside the exclusivity (such as third-party action-overs); Part Three extends to other states. Benefits include medical, disability income (TTD, TPD, PPD, PTD), death, and rehabilitation.
Professional liability
E&O and malpractice are written claims-made, cover negligent acts, errors, or omissions in professional services, and exclude intentional acts and often fee disputes. D&O and EPLI are management-liability cousins.
Rule of thumb
Statutory injury to an employee - workers' compensation; negligent professional service - E&O; catastrophic or gap coverage above underlying - umbrella.