Commercial Umbrella Gap

Step by step

1. Each underlying line — general liability, commercial auto, employers' liability — starts with the limit you carry.
2. The umbrella limit is added only to the lines listed on its schedule. A line the umbrella does not schedule keeps its underlying limit alone.
3. When you are not sure what the umbrella schedules, no line is treated as scheduled and the towers are shown on their underlying limits alone — the umbrella may lift some or all of them once the schedule is confirmed.
4. Work type sets the illustrative severe claim: office or professional $750,000, retail and light trades $2,000,000, construction and transport $5,000,000.
5. The gap on each line is the severe claim minus that line's tower, never below zero.
6. The headline is the largest of those gaps — the line where a claim would break through first.
7. General liability is always measured, because every business faces a public-injury claim. Commercial auto and employers' liability with a zero limit are treated as not applicable rather than as a gap, so a business with no vehicles is not told it has an auto problem.

The formula

Tower = underlying limit + (umbrella limit if that line is scheduled). Gap = max(0, severe claim − tower), per line.

Assumptions and their default values

Some of these change with the state you select.

Important disclosures

1. This tool is educational only. It illustrates potential exposure using the assumptions shown — it is not insurance advice, a price, or an offer of coverage, and it does not determine whether any coverage amount is right for you. Policy language varies; review your actual policy and discuss your situation with a licensed insurance professional.
2. An umbrella responds only above the underlying limits it requires. Where the underlying limit carried is below what the umbrella schedule demands, the difference can fall back on the business even though both policies are in force.
3. Umbrella and excess policies differ: a true umbrella can be broader than the underlying policy, while an excess policy typically follows the underlying form exactly. Which one is in place changes what a claim reaches.
4. Illustrative severe-claim figures are broad averages by work type. Real liability judgments and settlements vary enormously and can far exceed them.
5. Employers' liability is Part B of a workers' compensation policy and is not the same as workers' compensation benefits themselves, which are set by statute and not subject to these limits. An injury to a member of the public is a general liability matter; an employee's injury is answered first by workers' compensation benefits, with employers' liability responding to suits outside them.