General Liability, Umbrella, and Specialty Liability
Commercial General Liability
The CGL covers bodily injury and property damage on an occurrence basis, plus personal and advertising injury and medical payments. Key coverage blocks: premises/operations, products-completed operations, and fire legal liability (damage to premises rented to you). The standard limits are each occurrence, the general aggregate (usually annual, per location or project), the products-completed operations aggregate, the damage to premises rented limit, and the medical expense limit. The general aggregate applies to everything except products-completed operations.
Umbrella and excess
An umbrella sits over underlying policies, drops down when the underlying policy is exhausted or does not cover a loss the umbrella covers, and may require a self-insured retention for gaps. An excess policy simply sits above the underlying layer and does not drop down. The umbrella may broaden coverage; excess does not.
Specialty lines
- Professional liability/E&O - errors and omissions in services.
- D&O - directors and officers acting in their capacity.
- EPLI - employment practices (wrongful termination, harassment).
- Cyber - data breach and network interruption.
- Fiduciary liability - benefit plan administration.
Traps
- The CGL is not a professional liability policy; malpractice requires a separate form.
- Products-completed operations has its own aggregate and applies away from the insured's premises.
- Punitive damages and contractual liability are restricted or excluded unless endorsed.
Rule of thumb: "Did the injury arise from the insured's product or completed work after it left the premises?" If yes, you are in the products-completed operations aggregate.