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In the intensely competitive market for small business coverage, insurers have to be able to stand out from the crowd without spending a lot of time and money to do so.
The AAIS Businessowners Program, revised
in 2004, provides insurers with a standard industry program for insuring small businesses, offices, apartment buildings, wholesalers, and restaurants without the expense of maintaining an independent program.
The 2004 revision expands
eligibility to include restaurants, warehouses, wholesale
operations, and 20 additional retail operations.
The revision introduces a countrywide manual
with countrywide rules, classifications, and rating information,
plus individual state pages that include territorial definitions,
state-specific exceptions to countrywide materials, and
state-specific rating information.
To understand the benefits of a standard program, consider what AAIS has done in recent years on behalf of its Businessowners
affiliates:
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Developed and filed endorsements to shield insurers from "known injury or damage" claims arising from "continuous trigger" claims inspired by the Montrose ruling
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Developed and filed endorsements to limit or exclude coverage for claims arising from construction defects, mold, and synthetic stucco, which are inter-related causes of action
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Developed and filed endorsements and rating information to comply with the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002
The core program itself makes it easy for an insurer to build a policy for a specific risk. You simply choose between two base forms, named perils or open perils, each of which provides all the standard principal coverages, including time element.
After that, you trigger built-in commercial crime coverage by entries in the declarations, then select from a range of coverage options, including:
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An option to add in equipment breakdown coverage
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A choice of four endorsement packages that provide additional commercial property and inland marine coverage
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Separate options for writing employment practices liability coverage and employee benefits liability coverage (each with a claims-made trigger)
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Additional liability coverage options, such as printers errors and omissions
The 2004 revision expands building property
coverage to include the value of building glass, and adds new
additional coverages and coverage extensions. The
program manual now specifies that the products/completed work
aggregate liability limit will be twice the each occurrence limit.
Previously, they were equal. Also, the new manual provides a
mechanism for rating off-premises liability exposures in
situations where these are more than incidental to the risk. For
more information, contact the marketing department at info@AAISonline.com
or by calling 800/564-AAIS.
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