Beacon Hill Blog

by Mike Tighe

Many insurance agents understand the importance of including environmental liability insurance in their clients’ insurance programs, and many have become successful at identifying the coverages needed by the classes of business they work with most often. In order for insureds to receive the most appropriate coverage for their operations, they must work closely with their agents to analyze what is, and isn’t, included in their policies.

We have assembled a list of the top 3 terms that can cause confusion in an environmental insurance policy. We have chosen these topics because they are ones that are often misunderstood or have a more narrow definition of coverage than the insured may require.

Transportation
The vehicle exclusion in some pollution forms is absolute. In addition to excluding over the road pollution claims, your policy may leave a gap should a job site pollution incident occur involving a vehicle or the loading/unloading of one.

Restoration Costs
Your pollution policy may clean up the damage to your insured’s property. It may also leave your insured with a large hole left for the insured to restore back to being a useful piece of property.

Natural Resources
While policies include third party property damage coverage and associated clean up, your client may incur non-covered expenses for natural resource damages for land held in trust by the government. The insured may be required to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars reintroducing fish, biota, birds, animals, and other wildlife back to the area.

These are just a few examples of why it’s so important to help your clients understand their policies! If you have questions about other environmental insurance terms, feel free to contact Beacon Hill or refer to our environmental insurance glossary.