Avoiding Gaps with a Holistic Insurance Analysis

It is so important for a broker and agent to work as a team to make sure there are no gaps in an insured's program.  I recently reviewed a layered placement where $10mm of earthquake was in a primary and $10mm was written with a different company in the excess.  The excess included earthquake sprinkler leakage (EQSL), but the primary had EQSL sublimited to $5mm.  Whoops.  Luckily, we were able to get the excess to drop down to $5mm on the EQSL and save the day.

Make a checklist of everything you want to look for in each policy and consistently check each one.  If you don't place the entire program, ask for the layers around you to make sure everything is ok.  There are so many people out there not doing this, so it may be your competitive advantage, or at the very least, keep you from losing an account from gaps that are uncovered by more diligent competitors.