EXCAVATION INSURANCE GROUP
Can I Get $5 Million in Excess Coverage as a Small Contractor?
Excavation Insurance Group explains what actually determines whether a smaller excavation contractor can qualify for a $5 million excess layer.
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Quick answer: Generally, yes, contract size, not revenue alone, is what usually drives whether a carrier will write a $5 million layer, and excess tiers are typically sold in scalable increments ($1 million, $2 million, $5 million) specifically so smaller operations can reach the limits a big contract requires. Excavation Insurance Group more often sees the real obstacle being underlying limits or claims history that don’t yet support the top of the tower, not company size by itself.
WHAT UNDERWRITERS ACTUALLY LOOK AT
Most excess carriers set minimum underlying limits before they’ll write a layer on top, meaning your GL, Auto, and Employer’s Liability policies need to already carry adequate limits and clean terms before a $5 million excess layer gets quoted. Claims history matters too: a contractor with a clean loss record and properly matched underlying limits will generally find $5 million in excess coverage more accessible, and better priced, than one with the same revenue but a spotty claims record or underlying limits that don’t meet the excess carrier’s minimum requirements.
HOW SMALLER CONTRACTORS ACTUALLY GET THERE
The most common path is building the tower one layer at a time rather than trying to bind the full $5 million in a single policy: a $1 million excess layer above the underlying GL, then a second layer stacked on top of that, sometimes from a different carrier, until the combined limit reaches what the contract requires. This layered approach is exactly why excess coverage exists as a distinct product from a single giant liability policy, it lets a growing operation add height to its tower incrementally as its contract size grows, instead of needing to qualify for the entire amount at once.
Back to the Excess and Umbrella Insurance for Excavation Contractors hub. Related: When Should a Growing Excavation Contractor Add Excess Coverage? and How Much Does Excess or Umbrella Coverage Cost?
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