Question:

 

Ken:

First of all, thank you for the information that you are sending, it is extremely valuable to all of us alarm dealers.

Now, my question;

On the advice of my Insurance Agent, we have been passing up jobs with companies that require that we additionally insure them. According to my insurance agent, it allows our customers to control our insurance.

Is there a cure for this ?

We are currently in a position to work with a property management company, that would eventually provide us with a considerable number of monitored accounts. However they are requiring us to additionally insure them, their partners, etc.

Is there a way to additionally insure them, but limit their control and access to the policy ?

Thanks again

Mike Miller

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Answer:

The is absolutely no reason you should be passing up jobs because the subscriber insists that you name it as an additional insured on your policy. Most insurance carriers will give you that additional insured certificate without charge; some will want a nominal charge.

While I agree that you are not going to offer this to all your subscriber it is acceptable when it's the only way you are going to get that large lucrative job.

I decided to run your question past an insurance broker who specializes in the alarm and security industry. Her response is below.

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Ken,

I have heard this before. Someone wrote an article about just saying "no" to additional insured requests. If my clients did that they would have a difficult time making money. My advice to the alarm dealer is to find a new agent before he loses too much work. Is this simply advice from the agent or does the insurer decline the requests to issue the endorsements?

My guess would be that this is coming from the agent and not the carrier. Additional insured requests/endorsements are fairly standard today. This is an extension of coverage but doesn't allow the additional insured to control the dealers policy. If you look at the risk from the other parties perspective then you will see that many requests are reasonable. If they were unreasonable then the insurance carriers wouldn't provide them on a regular basis. I would want an alarm dealer to name me as additional insured for while they are on my premises performing services. Some policies that are written contain a Blanket Additional Insured Endorsement. This provides automatic additional insured status where required by contract. There are many different additional insured forms. Some provide broad coverage and some very limited. These should be reviewed and discussed with their agent prior to issuing. It is important to manage your risk and monitor how many entities you add as additional insured. However, I think it ridiculous to advise that additional insured endorsements should never be offered and to continually pass on business opportunities.

Kindest regards,

Alice Cornett Giacalone

Senior Vice President

Berrian Insurance Group

800-917-2542