Contractor Umbrella Insurance
A commercial umbrella policy adds $1 million or more of liability protection on top of your general liability, commercial auto, and employer's liability policies. It's how contractors meet the higher limits big GCs and public agencies require — and how one catastrophic claim stays an insurance problem instead of a business-ending one.
What it covers
- Additional limits over general liability — $1M to $10M+
- Additional limits over commercial auto liability
- Additional limits over employer's liability (workers' comp part B)
- Contract compliance when a project requires higher limits than your base policies
- Legal defense on covered claims that exhaust underlying limits
- One policy, one premium — cheaper than raising every base limit
Big projects require big limits
It's now common for commercial GCs and public agencies in California to require $2M, $5M, even $10M in liability limits. An umbrella is the affordable way to hit those numbers — you keep your base policies where they are and stack the difference.
The catastrophic claim is the one that matters
A serious injury involving a vehicle, a structural failure, a multi-party jobsite lawsuit — verdicts in California regularly exceed $1M base limits. The umbrella is what stands between a bad verdict and your business assets.
How we make it simple
We check the insurance requirements in the contracts you want to win, then quote umbrella limits to match — stacked correctly over your GL, auto, and workers' comp so there are no gaps between layers. Usually one signature and your certificates start passing the big-project review.
Umbrella — frequently asked questions
An umbrella sits over your underlying liability policies — general liability, commercial auto, and employer's liability — and pays when a covered claim exceeds those limits. If your GL pays its $1M limit on a serious injury claim and the damages are $2.5M, the umbrella covers the next layer. It follows the terms of the underlying policies, which is why the whole program should be structured by one agency: gaps between layers are where umbrella claims go wrong.
Start with your contracts: many commercial and public projects in California require $2M–$5M total limits, and the umbrella is how you bridge from your $1M base policies. Beyond contract compliance, consider what you're protecting — vehicles on the road and crews on jobsites create real catastrophic exposure. Most of our contractor clients carry $1M–$5M umbrellas; the second million typically costs much less than the first.
It's usually the cheapest million dollars of coverage in your program. Because the umbrella only pays after underlying policies exhaust, carriers price it well below your base GL — and each additional million typically costs less than the one before. For a contractor whose base program is placed correctly, adding a $1M–$2M umbrella often costs less than contractors expect, and it can be the difference between qualifying for a large project or not.
If you sign contracts requiring more than $1M — or you have vehicles and employees creating catastrophic exposure — yes, it's worth pricing. California jury verdicts in serious injury cases routinely exceed $1M, and once your GL limit pays out, everything above it is your business's problem. We'll look at your contract requirements and your exposure and tell you honestly whether an umbrella earns its premium; for many small residential-only operations, it can wait.
Ready to quote your umbrella coverage?
One conversation and we take it to the market. Big or small… we write them all.