“Hey Ben, I am adding wills and estate planning to my practice, but I did not put a percentage for these categories on my application. What do I need to do to add this coverage to my policy?"
In this instance, nothing needs to be done to the insured’s policy to include coverage for drafting wills and providing estate planning services to his or her clients. The AIM policy covers every area of practice, and the coverage is not limited to only those areas the insured listed on the application. When we ask insureds to break down their practice areas on the application, we use this information for underwriting purposes – to evaluate the risk the company is taking on and then to price it accordingly.
While nothing needs to be done to “add the policy coverage,” it is important that you contact AIM when you have a change like this.
In many cases, the new practice area will not significantly change the insured’s overall practice. But we need to document the file. Should a claim arise out of the new practice area, and we do not have documentation in the file, problems may arise with our claims staff. A simple phone call and a file note will head off these problems.
In some instances, though, the new practice area may create a material change in the risk. For example, the insured has a corporate and business transactions practice but he or she recently was admitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and wants to begin offering patent law services. Since patent law is a high-risk area of practice (not because of frequency of claims but because of the severity of the claims), the insured’s practice is now significantly different from what it was when the policy was written. This change may necessitate additional underwriting and possibly additional premium.
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