CGL and E&O – Partners in Protection

Apr 2018

Whether your client’s protection needs extend to general liability (GL), errors and omissions coverage (E&O), or both, South Western Insurance Group Limited gives brokers multiple options. The company’s standard GL insurance is available for a wide range of industries, while their E&O offers an effective solution when there is exposure on the consultation or professional side. But these coverages are also available together. “We can do stand-alone E&O, we can do stand-alone liability,” says Barb Pattenden, Director of Insurance Operations, “and then we also have a really good combined product that offers both under a single policy. We are like a one-stop shop that way.” “Although we specialize in architects & engineers,” Pattenden elaborates, “we work with a wide range of E&O classes that includes consultants and those in the environmental, IT, security, and oil & gas industries. There really is not a lot that we cannot do.” So whether your consultant client is looking for a confirmation of insurance before they start a job or needs a professional line E&O policy as well as the standard GL, South Western Insurance Group Limited takes care of it all. “We have a variety of options available to meet a variety of scenarios,” Ghazal Hamid, Toronto Branch Manager, explains. “And while individual liability needs will always be dictated by the level of professional exposure involved – and by which coverages will best mitigate that exposure – the key is to match the right coverage to the right industry and the right individual.” One of the central features that sets South Western Insurance Group Limited’s combined liability product apart is the fact that it provides a combined wording element, rather than individual wordings. “What used to happen in the past when an individual wanted E&O coverage as well as GL,” says Hamid, “is that they ended up with two separate policies. That can lead to a lot of grey areas. What we have at SWG is a combined product that speaks to itself – the GL speaks to the E&O, and the E&O speaks to the GL. Not only does that streamline things tremendously when it comes to the types of claims and mitigations that accompany this class, making a combined product like ours available in the first place probably puts us above the majority of our competitors.” Pattenden agrees. “This is just one more example of why brokers come to SWG. We are really good at what we do. And we are particularly effective in the E&O space because, not only have we got highly experienced underwriters handling that class of business, we have great markets that provide great coverage for most exposures.”