What’s in a Name?

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Why names matter on a professional liability insurance policy

By Cindy Russell
Assistant Vice President, Senior Claims Examiner, Berkley Alliance Managers, a Berkley Company

December 8, 2022

Let me introduce myself. My name is Cindy Russell; well, my full name is Cynthia Russell. Maybe you need to know my maiden name was Ellis. Why does all this matter? Depends on what you need it for: looking up my records at the doctor’s office (Cynthia Russell), if I’m calling the financial company that has my IRA (Cynthia Ellis Russell) or social media (Cindy Russell), for example.

For architects and engineers, it matters for insurance coverage, contract considerations and the name by which the public knows them.

A design professional liability insurance policy (and likely other types of policies) provides coverage for a specific firm name or names. If a claim is made against a firm name that’s not included on the insurance policy, coverage may not be provided for that claim.

Sometimes even a small difference has a big effect. For example, John and Julie’s Architectural Group is a Named Insured on a policy but it also uses the legal name of J&J Architectural Group in certain markets or maybe it used that name previously but changed it a couple of years ago. A claim is made against J&J Architectural Group and that claim is based on a project it took on under this alternate name or the prior name. However, this additional name wasn’t provided to the insurance broker (or the insurance company underwriter) so it’s not a Named Insured on the professional liability policy and because of this it may not have coverage for the claim.

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Parenting Advice That Can Save You Money on Professional Liability Insurance

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By Robert J. Connor, JD, CIC
Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Berkley Alliance Managers, a Berkley Company

October 4, 2021

Parents often struggle with ways to get their children to develop good habits that will serve them well later in life. There is the age-old debate of the carrot versus the stick and which one, reward or negative consequences works best.

At Berkley Design Professional, we come down squarely in the carrot column! We believe that positive reinforcement is the way to encourage our policyholders to develop beneficial risk management habits.

Berkley Design Professional policyholders can earn up to 40% in credits on their annual professional liability insurance policy. Yes, we did say 40%. How, you ask? I would be happy to explain.

Policyholders that use a limitation of liability clause in their contracts for professional services can earn up to a 25% premium credit each policy year. More specifically, we look at the percentage of fees that a design firm has under contracts with limitation of liability clauses with the liability limited to $250,000 or less and we take that percentage and cut it in half to arrive at the credit percentage–up to a maximum of 25% credit. For example, if a design firm has 40% of their fees derived from contracts that contain a limitation of liability clause limiting their liability to $250,000, then that firm would earn a 20% premium credit. It is that simple!

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