Admitted insurers, non-admitted insurers, RRGs, MGAs and MGUs
A retail-agent guide to insurer status, risk retention groups and delegated underwriting. Learn what admitted, non-admitted, RRG, MGA and MGU labels tell you.
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Wholesale appetite: umbrella & excess
Umbrella & excess we place.
Limits stacked above the primary policies — sized to the contracts the account is being asked to clear, not a rule-of-thumb multiplier. Already appointed? Send us the account. New here? Apply for appointment below.
An umbrella (and the excess layers above it) extends liability limits beyond what any single primary policy carries — across GL, auto and employer's liability — so a catastrophic claim doesn't reach the balance sheet.
The triggers
we hear most.
A customer, GC or lender requires a $5M, $10M or higher limit.
Mid-market commercial contracts now routinely require $5M – $25M in liability — far above any single underlying policy. Umbrella and excess policies stack on top to clear those requirements without re-buying the primary.
Nuclear-verdict trends are pushing claim severity up.
Jury awards in commercial liability have moved up dramatically. Carrying limits that looked generous a decade ago can leave the business personally exposed when a single claim breaches the primary.
The operation has high-severity exposure — trucks, customers, products, kids.
Any business with auto fleets, public-facing operations, products at scale or work with vulnerable populations carries severity risk a single primary policy won't cover. Umbrella is the cheap insurance against the catastrophic claim.
The account is scaling and wants one excess decision to lift every line.
An umbrella sits over multiple underlying policies — GL, auto, employer's liability — so one renewal decision lifts the effective limit across all of them at once.
Inside the
policy.
Excess over GL
Limits stacked over general liability — for third-party bodily injury, property damage, products and personal/advertising injury claims that exceed the primary.
Excess over commercial auto
Limits stacked over auto liability — increasingly necessary as nuclear-verdict awards push commercial auto claims well above primary limits.
Excess over employer's liability
Limits stacked over the employer's-liability portion of workers' comp — for the rare but severe claims that fall outside the comp exclusive-remedy framework.
Drop-down on specific underliers
Some umbrellas drop down to fill gaps in underlying coverage — useful when a primary excludes something the umbrella will pick up.
Where buyers
get caught out.
First-dollar coverage
Umbrellas sit above an underlying primary policy. They don't pay until the primary is exhausted or doesn't respond.
Lines without an underlying primary
An umbrella typically follows specific scheduled underlying policies. Lines you haven't scheduled (like cyber or E&O) generally aren't picked up.
Exclusions in the underlying
If the primary excludes something, the umbrella usually follows form. Closing a coverage gap means fixing the primary, not buying more umbrella.
Industries we
place this for.
Construction & contractors
Excess limits to clear the higher requirements GCs, owners and AHJs now write into commercial projects.
See the pageTrucking & logistics
Umbrella stacked above primary auto to meet broker and shipper requirements and absorb nuclear-verdict risk.
See the pageReal estate & property
Umbrella to clear lender, JV and ground-lease limit requirements across multifamily, retail and commercial portfolios.
See the pageManufacturing
Excess over GL, auto and EL — sized to product-liability severity exposure.
See the pageProfessional services
Umbrella above GL and auto for the firm's operational exposure, sitting alongside E&O on the professional side.
See the page
How we place
this line.
Appetite matched in-house
Every submission gets matched internally against the carrier relationships most likely to write it — not shopped blind into a dozen inboxes.
Every hour risks the client
Suitable accounts move to an underwriter after a licensed broker reviews the match and final file. Carrier response and quote timing depend on the account and market.
Just send the file
No upfront appointment required. Send the file you have and we’ll let you know what it needs next.
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