McComas Insurance

Every liability policy has a ceiling. Excess Liability is what happens when a claim goes through it.

A serious accident, a major injury, a lawsuit that lands above your policy limit. When the underlying coverage runs out, the rest of the judgment falls on the business and its assets. An umbrella policy may extend the limits of your General Liability, Commercial Auto, and Employer's Liability once those limits are exhausted, picking up the difference up to its own ceiling.

It doesn't add new types of coverage. It raises the height of what you already carry. With mega verdicts climbing year over year, a $1 million limit that felt generous five years ago can be wiped out by a single claim. Under insured limits, no umbrella in place, and gaps between the underlying policy and the excess layer. Any one of those can turn a covered loss into a personal one.

If a claim larger than your policy limit would end your business, it's worth knowing what's actually covered, and what's not.

Commercial Auto is one of the most misunderstood policies in a small business's coverage stack. Owners assume one line item covers every vehicle, every driver, and every situation. It doesn't work that way.
Liability may help cover injuries and property damage the business causes to someone else. Collision and comprehensive may help cover damage to the business's own vehicle. Hired and non owned auto may help cover employees driving their personal vehicles for work or company errands. Each piece is a separate decision with separate limits.
Vehicles missing from the policy schedule, employees using personal cars for deliveries without coverage, and underinsured liability limits that don't match today's verdict environment. Those are some of the most expensive gaps we see. And most owners don't find out the policy doesn't fully cover their operation until a claim gets denied or paid short.
If your business owns vehicles or sends employees on the road, it's worth knowing what's covered, and what's not.

A Certificate of Insurance only protects the business that knows how to read it. Most owners glance at the logo, see the carrier name, and assume everything checks out. That's how claims get denied months later when nobody catches the gap.

Five things to check every time. Effective and expiration dates covering the full project. Coverage limits that meet your contract minimums. Each line of coverage listed separately — General Liability, Auto, Workers' Comp. Your business name listed as additional insured. A cancellation notice requirement.

Expired certificates, missing additional insured language, and coverage types that don't match the work being done — those are some of the most common gaps we see. And most owners don't find out the COI has a hole in it until the claim is already in dispute.

Three minutes per certificate. That's the cost of catching it.