Commercial coverage · General Liability

The base layer of nearly every commercial coverage.

General Liability defends third-party bodily injury and property damage claims arising from your operations, premises, and products. It's the line most carriers expect to see in force before they'll quote anything else.

Verdict ladder

From a slip & fall to a class action.

Slip & fall

$220K

Premises tort

$580K

Product defect

$1.4M

Class-action wave

$4.6M

GL gap library$78M peer median tower

What this covers

Plain English. Not the marketing version.

GL responds to claims by people outside your company. Customers, vendors, visitors. For bodily injury or property damage you caused. It typically includes defense, premises liability, products-and-completed-operations, and personal & advertising injury (libel, slander, copyright, false arrest). It does not cover injuries to your own employees (that's Workers' Comp), professional services failures (that's E&O), or damage to your own property (that's commercial property).

When this matters

The moment carriers expect to see this.

Customer contracts often require evidence of $1M occurrence / $2M aggregate as a minimum. Many landlords, GCs, and major buyers will not engage without a current Certificate of Insurance naming them as Additional Insured. Without it, you can't bid, lease, or onboard.

For your eyes only

Questions worth asking about your current general liability coverage.

Four specifics a well-served buyer should already be hearing about this coverage in this market. Read silently. Answer internally.

Does your additional-insured endorsement extend to completed operations, or only to ongoing operations?
If a single mid-year claim erodes the aggregate, what's your plan for the remaining policy term?
Are defense costs inside or outside your limit, and is your CFO clear on the difference?
Does your contractual-liability carve-back cover the indemnity language in your standard MSA?

What we flag most often

What ARIA flags most often on General Liability.

Every flag names the issue, the specific finding, and where it applies, the consequence. Once you upload your declarations, ARIA's full output also cites the exact policy page that proves each one.

Contractual liability carve-back
Most GL forms exclude liability assumed under contract, except when the contract qualifies as an 'insured contract.' The form wording controls whether your indemnity obligations are actually covered.
An indemnity obligation in a customer or lease agreement can become uninsured if the carve-back is too narrow.
Aggregate erosion
A single mid-year product-liability or premises-liability claim can erode the policy aggregate, leaving the rest of the policy year exposed.
A second claim in the same year may face reduced or no available limit even though the policy is technically in force.
Additional insured form variance
CG 20 10 12 04, CG 20 38, and CG 20 37 grant materially different scope. Many landlord and GC contracts require ongoing AND completed-ops AI status. Only some forms provide it.
Cross-liability
Default policies frequently include an Insured vs. Insured exclusion that can defeat claims between affiliated entities or co-insureds on the same policy.
Defense within / outside limits
Most GL forms have defense outside limits (good), but some primary GL policies erode limits with defense. Read the declarations page carefully.
Mobile equipment vs. auto
Equipment classified as mobile equipment (forklifts, scissor lifts) vs. auto can shift coverage from GL to Commercial Auto. Misclassification is common.

Peer benchmark

Where peers your size sit. Premium, not pretense.

Annual premium distribution for a comparable business in your industry and revenue band, drawn from anonymized placements. Your specific position is computed when ARIA reads your declarations page.

GL premium. $25M SaaS

$25M revenue · 100 FTE

P25 · $9KMedian · $14KP75 · $21K

Illustrative dataset · n=128 mid-market placements · refreshed quarterly

Ask ARIA

“Analyze our GL dec page and tell me which additional-insured form we have, what our products aggregate is, and whether our contractual liability carve-back covers our standard MSA indemnity.”

Critical for

Industries where this coverage is non-negotiable.

Construction & Contractors
Manufacturing
Hospitality & Hotels
Real Estate & Property Management
All commercial businesses (de facto)

Ready when you are

Have ARIA read your General Liability policy.

The first gap usually surfaces in the first minute of ARIA reading your declarations page.

Prefer to explore first?Run the 60-second SnapshotRather talk it through?Talk to Ryan Gaston

Nothing binds until a licensed Risk Strategist signs the placement

ARIA · live across every page

ARIA · loading

Plain English. Not the marketing version.