Who asks a marketing agency for what
| Who | What they usually want to see |
|---|---|
| Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding | General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella |
| Landlords & commercial leases | General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation |
| Banks, lenders & SBA loans | Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal |
Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.
How to check what you already have
- Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
- General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
- Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
- Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
- Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
- Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
- Media liability form. Which perils are covered (copyright, trademark, defamation, privacy), whether prior content is covered from the retroactive date, and the exclusions for patent and contract disputes.
- Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
- Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.
- Technology E&O declarations. The retroactive date, whether cyber coverages are included in the same form, contractual liability wording and the exclusions for guarantees of uptime.
What usually goes wrong for marketing agencies
- Copyright and trademark claims from content and stock imagery, excluded by general liability for agencies.
- Client ad accounts and credentials held with no cyber coverage.
- A retroactive date that moved when you switched carriers, cutting off earlier work.
- Contracts with indemnity clauses wider than the policy will support.
- Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.
- Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
What underwriters will ask a marketing agency
- Services and content types, client contracts and their exhibits, credentials and ad spend managed, and staff
- Services, largest engagement size and the contracts you sign
- Claims-made retroactive date and any prior claims or circumstances
- Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection
- Records held, payment card handling and any client network access
- Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers
Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.
Renewal timing
Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.