California-based commercial insurance brokerage Steve Muehler Commercial Insurance has expanded its product offering to include captive builders risk insurance. The brokerage is part of Steve Muehler Companies, a portfolio of firms that provide insurance, mortgage banking, commercial insurance, and investment banking products and services. The firm notes that the expansion is an alternative to the current industry standard for construction insurance, which is insurance services organisation’s commercial general liability policy. This policy has 17 specific coverage exclusions, which is insufficient in meeting the requirements of the California real estate market for a broad, yet customisable, risk management solution. Under Steve Muehler’s new captive insurance product, construction companies will be able to insure risks, utilise more comprehensive coverages and mitigate serious financial and operational losses. Steve Muehler, senior managing member of Steve Muehler Companies, comments: “Construction projects require a new and more broad risk management solution that can be customised to find that company’s unique needs, not a ‘cookie cutter – round peg, round hole’ approach that the industry is known for today.” “Unlike with traditional policies, if there is undistributed earned surplus, which essentially means there are no claims made in a given year, the funds can be distributed as a dividend or as a secured loan back to the operating company,” Muehler explains. “With our captive insurance programme, premiums are lower simply because in the commercial markets, ‘special coverages’ tend to be more expensive.”
