Who asks a private investigation firm 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 |
| Cities, counties & permits | General liability, auto and workers' compensation at the limits in the permit or contract |
| Landlords & commercial leases | General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation |
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.
- Auto schedule. Every vehicle listed with the right garaging address and use; symbols that include hired and non-owned auto; physical damage with the lender as loss payee where the vehicle is financed.
- 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.
- Bonds. The obligee (board, municipality or owner), the penal sum and the expiry date; a bond is renewed with the licence or the job, not with the policy year.
- Hired and non-owned auto. Look for the symbols 8 and 9 or an endorsement by that name on the auto or general liability policy; without it, staff in their own cars are uninsured on company business.
What usually goes wrong for private investigation firms
- Surveillance that crossed into stalking or trespass, which is both a licence and a liability matter.
- Background reports used for employment without the consumer-reporting rules being followed.
- Firearms or assault-and-battery exclusions on a policy for a business whose work can involve either.
- Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.
- A personal auto policy on a truck with the company name on the door.
- Employees using their own cars for deliveries or errands with no hired and non-owned coverage.
What underwriters will ask a private investigation firm
- Licence and bond status, services and surveillance share, employment background work, and vehicles
- Licences held, whether staff are armed and the kinds of assignments taken
- Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection
- Records held, payment card handling and any client network access
- Each vehicle, its garaging address, radius and who drives it
- Driver list with licence states and dates of birth for motor vehicle records
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
Claims-made policies make continuity the point: keep the retroactive date where it is, report circumstances as they arise, and never let a renewal lapse into a gap. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out and shows the retroactive date on every quote.