Commercial Umbrella — the most under-bought line in NJ contractor insurance.
Extra limits over your GL, Auto, and Employer’s Liability. A $1M GL isn’t enough for a serious bodily injury claim — and an umbrella gives you $1M, $2M, $5M, or more sitting on top of underlying coverage for fractions of what those higher limits would cost on each policy separately.
How Umbrella Actually Works
Your GL pays up to its limit. Your auto pays up to its limit. Your Employer’s Liability (sitting inside WC) pays up to its limit. When a claim exceeds any of those limits, the umbrella picks up — over the same loss, over the same defense — up to the umbrella’s limit.
Example. A worker falls from a ladder on your job site and is permanently injured. The settlement is $2.4M. Your GL pays its $1M. Your $2M umbrella pays the next $1.4M. You pay nothing out of pocket. Without the umbrella, you’re personally on the hook for the $1.4M gap. Your business is gone.
Why It’s Cheaper Than Raising Underlying Limits
Raising your GL from $1M/$2M to $2M/$4M doubles a primary limit — the carrier prices it as if both limits will be used. Adding a $1M umbrella prices for the rare event that the underlying limit is exhausted. Order-of-magnitude cheaper.
Rough NJ contractor pricing: $1M umbrella runs $400–$900/year for a small operation with clean GL/auto underlying; $2M is $700–$1,400; $5M is $1,500–$3,500. Larger operations and harder trades cost more. The umbrella is almost always the best dollar-for-dollar limit purchase a contractor can make.
Underlying Limits Have to Match
The umbrella sits over your GL, auto, and EL. The carrier requires those underlying lines to be at specific minimums for the umbrella to attach: typically $1M occurrence on GL, $1M CSL on auto, $500K/$500K/$500K on EL. If your underlying limits are below those, either the umbrella won’t issue, or it’ll require a higher self-insured retention.
This is why coordinating your underlying lines and umbrella in a single quote event matters. If we quote GL with one carrier and auto with another, we confirm both meet the umbrella carrier’s minimums. That’s the kind of detail that gets missed in a one-line-at-a-time agency relationship.
Who Needs How Much
- Solo / small ops, residential only — $1M umbrella is the typical floor.
- 5–15 employees, residential and small commercial — $2M.
- Larger contractors, significant commercial work — $5M is common; $10M for higher-end commercial GCs.
- Roofers, excavators, anyone with height/fall or struck-by exposure — bias higher. Severity is the issue, not frequency.
Contractors who buy this with us typically also buy:
General Liability
The umbrella sits over GL. Your GL needs to be at the right limit for the umbrella to attach cleanly.
Commercial Auto
Same. $1M CSL auto is typically required as the underlying.
Workers Comp
EL (inside WC) is the third underlying line. We confirm minimums at bind.
Common questions.
Is umbrella the same as excess liability?
What if I get sued for more than my umbrella covers?
Does umbrella cover professional liability?
Do I need umbrella if I’m a solo painter?
How fast can I bind an umbrella?
Add the limit you actually need for what it actually costs.
A $2M umbrella over a clean $1M GL/auto/EL stack often runs $700–$1,400/year. The single best dollar-for-dollar limit purchase in NJ contractor insurance.