Depending on the nature of your business and its risk exposures you may need one or more of the following types of liability coverages.

Umbrella Liability Insurance/Excess Liability Insurance

A big difference between property and liability risks is that you can put a value on the property you have at risk, but there is no way to predict the amount of damages you could be required to pay as the result of a catastrophic accident. If, for example, you were found liable in a school bus accident that injured children, the damages could be in the millions of dollars

Umbrella Liability, also known as Excess Liability Insurance, provides extra protection for catastrophic events. The primary policies are called underlying policies and are specifically listed, along with their limits, on the umbrella policy. Typically, the underlying policies are your primary general liability, auto liability, and the employer's liability section of your workers comp policy. The umbrella coverage starts to pay when a covered loss exhausts the primary policy's per occurrence limit.

Most umbrella policies exclude employment practices liability, professional liability, product recall coverage, workers compensation, and coverage for asbestos-related claims, pollution, war, and terrorism.

Errors And Omissions Liability Coverage/Professional Liability Insurance

If you provide any type of advice, expertise or professional service, you risk being sued by a customer, client, or other party who claims he or she was injured due to your negligent act, error, or omission. This type of negligence is sometimes referred to as malpractice.  Professional Liability Insurance, also called Errors and Omissions Liability Insurance, pays the cost of your defense and any damages awarded, up to policy limits. Insurance companies have developed many specialized policy forms that respond to the individual risks characteristic of particular professions and services.

Directors And Officers Liability Insurance (D&O)

D&O Insurance protects past, present, and future directors and officers of a for-profit or nonprofit corporation from damages arising out of alleged or actual wrongful acts committed in their capacity as directors and officers. Some policies extend the same coverage to employees. The policies provide protection in the event of any actual or alleged error, omission, misstatement, misleading statement, or breach of duty.

Many policies will also cover the corporate entity for claims involving the sale or purchase of the company's securities. A D&O policy does not cover exposures properly covered under other policies, such as bodily injury or property damage, which are covered under general liability.