Insurance & LiensQuestion 1552 of 1632

A contractor's umbrella or excess liability policy is designed to:

a.Take the place of the workers' compensation policy entirely
b.Add limits above the underlying policies once exhausted
c.Act as the primary policy for every kind of claim
d.Cover only the contractor's own defective work

Explanation

An umbrella or excess policy sits above scheduled underlying policies — commercial general liability, commercial auto, often employers' liability — and pays only after those limits are exhausted, which is how a contractor reaches catastrophic-claim limits without buying them at the primary layer. (c) inverts that structure. (a) confuses liability limits with workers' compensation, which is statutory, separate, and not something an umbrella replaces. (d) names the risk the CGL's 'your work' exclusion leaves with the contractor, and an umbrella follows the underlying policy's terms rather than curing its exclusions.

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Reviewed by Abraham Chen — Licensed California General Contractor (CSLB License #1101856 — verify)
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