Directors and officers
Defense and damages for alleged wrongful acts in managing the organization. Side A, B, and C structure determines who is actually protected when the entity cannot indemnify.
General liability covers what happens to other people. Management liability covers what happens because of decisions made in your office.
California is the EPLI state
Wage and hour, PAGA, harassment, and leave claims arrive at a rate no other state matches. Defense costs alone exceed most small company reserves.
What the policy covers
The pieces, and what each one is actually for.
D&O
EPLI
Employment practices liability
Wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and failure to promote. Third party EPLI extends it to customers and vendors.
Sublimit
Wage and hour defense
Defense only, sublimited, and excluded outright on many forms. In California this sublimit is the single most negotiated item on the policy.
Fiduciary
Fiduciary liability
Breach of ERISA duties in managing retirement and welfare plans. Plan sponsors are personally exposed and a fidelity bond does not cover this.
Crime
Crime and employee dishonesty
Employee theft, forgery, and funds transfer fraud. Social engineering is a separate insuring agreement and it is the one that pays most often.
Nonprofit
Combined nonprofit forms
Many carriers package D&O, EPLI, and fiduciary for nonprofits with a shared limit. Shared limits are cheaper and they run out faster.
Read this part
Where these policies fail
Claims made coverage is unforgiving about dates and definitions. These are the failure points we check on every renewal.
- Retroactive date erosion. Switching carriers without matching the retro date can quietly delete years of past acts coverage.
- Wage and hour excluded rather than sublimited, on accounts where wage and hour is the most likely claim.
- Prior knowledge and prior acts exclusions triggered by anything anyone reported before inception.
- Insured versus insured exclusions written broadly enough to bar claims by a former officer or a bankruptcy trustee.
- Defense inside the limit, which means every dollar of defense reduces what remains to settle with.
How we approach the placement
Work the inputs before working the market.
Step 01
Size the exposure
Employee count, states, classification of exempt staff, board composition, plan assets, and funds transfer volume. Each drives a different insuring agreement.
Step 02
Set the retention honestly
Retentions on EPLI are meaningful. We show what a single defended claim costs at each retention level so the choice is informed.
Step 03
Negotiate wording, not price
Wage and hour sublimit, definition of loss, allocation, and consent to settle provisions. This is where the value in this line lives.
Step 04
Build the renewal record
Documented HR practices, handbook review, and training records materially change what markets will offer at the next renewal.
Who buys this
Nonprofits and foundationsPrivate companiesProfessional firmsStaffing agenciesHealthcare organizationsSchools and academiesAssociationsRestaurants and hospitalityTechnology companiesManufacturersPlan sponsorsHomeowner associations
Not on the list is not the same as not placeable. Ask.
Questions we get
Straight answers.
We are a small nonprofit with a volunteer board. Do we really need D&O?
Volunteer board members can be named personally. California's volunteer protection statutes reduce but do not eliminate exposure, and they do nothing about the cost of being defended. Most funders and many bylaws now require the coverage.
Is EPLI worth it if we have never had a claim?
The claim frequency is not the argument. The defense cost is. A demand that never reaches a courtroom still routinely costs six figures in California, and that number does not scale down for small employers.
What is social engineering coverage?
It responds when an employee is tricked into sending money to a fraudulent account. Standard funds transfer fraud coverage often will not respond because the transfer was authorized. It is a separate insuring agreement with its own sublimit and it should be on every policy.
Next step
Send us the submission
Loss runs, current declarations, and five minutes of context. You will hear back the same business day with what we can do and which markets we are approaching.