Thursday, April 25, 2024
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FAQs

Renter's Policy

If you are someone who lives in a rented home or apartment you can obtain liability and property coverage on the HO4 form. Typical coverage would be something like $500,000 liability and $100,000 personal property.

Personal property includes such things as clothes and furniture. For special items such as computers you need to check to be sure the policy will cover it. 

To complete an application click here.  

 

Waiver of Subrogation

A waiver of subrogation is an agreement not to pursue legal rights of recovery against the party in whose favor the waiver is executed.

Subrogation is the legal substitution of one entity for another. As part of an insurance contract the insured subrogates  its legal rights to recovery of damages over to the insurance carrier. If the carrier pays out on a claim and another party was liable or contributed to the damage your (the insured) carrier may excercise its right to subrogate and seek to recover from another party such as your general contractor or your sub contractor or the building owner or some other entity as the case may be.

When a carrier waives this right the endorsement is a "Waiver of Subrogation". This is also sometimes referred to as a "Waiver of Transfer of Rights of Recovery". The wording may be "Waive Substitution" as well

In a construction contract this waiver is not necessarily a bad thing but it is sometimes set up as  a "one way" proposition. That is, the sub may be expected to waive its rights while the general contractor intends to keep its right to subrogate. Since the waiver is essentially a contractual issue it is important to ensure that the insurance carrier is willing for its insured to waive this legal right in a contract. This transfer of rights would likely not be honored if the contract was signed after the loss or if there were no written contract. If you receive a "Waiver of Subrogation" from your subs carrier it means that if his carrier pays out on a claim the process should have ended and you won't later see a claim against your policy for the same loss where his carrier is trying to recover the payment it made from your carrier.

For more detailed expert commentary on this topic see the article, "Insurance Coverage - Waiver of Subrogation" and "What is Subrogation"

 


 Venture Insurance Services

866-726-8442

 

Which Payroll Is Included for work comp?

Workers’ compensation premium is assessed on gross wages. California law dictates whether or not a specific form of compensation is considered as payroll for premium calculation. The table below lists the two categories.

Included Not Included
Sick, vacation, and holiday pay Tips
Bonuses and commissions Reward for discovery or invention
Automobile allowances Auto value; auto expense reimbursement
Regular overtime pay “Overtime Excess” pay*
Shift differential pay Severance pay
Idle time or standby/on-call pay Health and welfare paid by employer
Meals and lodging in lieu of wages Meals and lodging expenses
Certain pension/retirement plans:
Employee's voluntary contributions to pension/retirement plan, made through regular payroll deductions.
Certain pension/retirement/cafeteria plans:
Employer contributions to pension/retirement plan, and salary reductions to fund the welfare or fringe benefit portion of a Section 125 cafeteria plan.

*Overtime Excess (OTX): Total overtime compensation paid over and above the regular rate of pay, including increased pay for weekends, holidays, or hours worked beyond the standard number for the day or week.

 

 


 

Venture Insurance Services
866-726-8442

What is a Sunset Clause?

By Floyd Sloat

A Sunset Clause relates to when a claim can be reported.

With a Sunset Clause there is a time limit on when a claim can be reported and considered for coverage. If you are not allowed to report a claim per the policy then there is no chance that coverage would apply regardless of when the occurrence happened. So if the policy has a 3 year Sunset Clause  after three years no claims can be reported on the policy. Any damage that shows up after the three years would not be covered. Here is a sample exclusion.

In a traditional Occurrence Form policy there is no limitation on when a claim can be reported. For the policy to pay, it would still have to be a covered claim (based on the wording of the policy) but the claim could be made years after the fact of the occurrence itself. This is particularly important when the occurence may not be visible until years later such as in any new construction work.

In California the limitation for lawsuits on construction is 10 years so a 10 year sunset might seem acceptable. The trick with this is to know when the 10 years start. For condos the 10 years start after substantial completion of the project which means a certain number of units have to be sold before the 10 years start. It is not uncommon for a year or more to pass before the clock starts.

This means a 10 year Sunset Clause could run out before the 10 year statute of limitations runs out. If you are doing any type of new construction a Sunset Clause is not the best policy for you. It is essentialy like buying a Claims Made policy with an extended reporting period but is actually a step down since if you keep a Claims Made policy in force for 10 years the coverage goes back to the very first policy. With Sunset Clauses in the policies the earlier policies will start to fall away and leave no coverage in the earlier years.

The usual coverage is an Occurrence Form policy. Sunset Clauses, Manifestation Clauses and other exclusions simply take things away from the coverage.

 


Venture Insurance Services
866-726-8442