Commercial · coverage line
General liability.
Third-party bodily injury and property damage caused by your operations. The foundation of every commercial program — and the policy clients ask to see first.
What it is.
Commercial general liability is a standard ISO form that nearly every carrier writes the same way — but the limits, exclusions, and endorsements vary materially. The interesting part of a GL placement is rarely the base form; it's whether the right additional-insured wording, completed-operations coverage, and contractual liability are tuned for your actual contracts.
The lines in your policy.
Each one is its own knob. The carrier's default rarely fits a real life.
What a claim looks like.
Three anonymized files. Numbers are illustrative.
Customer slips on a freshly mopped floor with no wet-floor sign. ER visit + ongoing PT + lost wages: $28K. GL pays medical + settlement, plus $14K in defense costs (outside the limit on this client's policy — would have eroded $1M to $986K otherwise). Premium does move on renewal.
Plumber installs a water heater. Six weeks later, supply-side fitting fails — $84K in water damage to a finished basement. Products + completed operations responds; the contractor's GL pays the homeowner's claim. The policy's broader 'work performed' wording covered work done before the policy period — a standard small-business form would have denied it.
GC is named in a suit from a sub's worker injury. The sub had named the GC as additional insured 'on a primary, non-contributory basis with waiver of subrogation' — exact wording specified at placement. Sub's policy responds first; GC's GL is excess, premium impact: zero.
How to read a gl policy.
The four things worth looking for on the dec page, in the order we read them.
The first page tells you who's actually covered, on what address, and under whose legal entity. A surprising number of policies have the wrong name, the wrong address, or a missing additional insured, and you don't find out until you file a claim. Cross-check it against your driver's license, your title or lease, and any contract that requires you to be insured.
Policy limits are abstract until you stack them against the assets they protect. A $300k liability limit feels generous in isolation; against a $1.2M home and a college fund, it isn't. Walk down each numbered line on your dec page and ask: if this were the cap on the worst day, would I be okay?
Page one shows you the base form. Pages four through twelve show you what the endorsements added, and, more importantly, what they took away. Water-damage exclusions, roof-payment schedules, named-storm deductibles, scheduled-valuables caps. These small numbered forms decide more claims than the headline limits do.
Carriers re-rate, re-form, and re-endorse policies at every renewal. If you keep last year's dec page, a side-by-side read takes ten minutes and tells you which limits drifted, which sublimits got cut, and which endorsements quietly disappeared. It's the single most useful habit in personal insurance.
Frequently asked questions.
How much GL do I need?
Almost all commercial leases and B2B contracts specify $1M per-occurrence / $2M aggregate. That's the baseline. Higher-risk industries (construction, public-facing retail, anything with kids) often need $2M/$4M, sometimes paired with an excess/umbrella over the top.
What's the difference between GL and a BOP?
A BOP bundles GL + commercial property + business income in a discounted package. If you have any business property, a BOP is usually 10-20% cheaper than buying GL standalone — but BOPs are restricted to certain industries and revenue ranges. We write both and pick what fits.
Can you add a certificate of insurance same-day?
For an active client, yes — we issue COIs within four working hours, with the additional-insured wording your contract requires. New placements take 24-48 hours typically.
Does GL cover my employees?
No. GL is strictly third-party. Employee injuries go through workers' compensation; employee disputes go through EPLI (employment practices liability). We write both, and most clients carry all three.
Want a second read on your gl policy?
Send us your declarations page. You'll get it back marked up, in plain language, with the gaps and the over-coverage flagged, yours to keep, no obligation to switch.
or phone (913) 408-7280
We're an independent broker. We represent you, not the carrier , paid by the carrier we ultimately place with, but accountable only to the person whose name is on the policy. Read more about how we work.