There are two major headings when it comes to Marine Insurance.
The most common form that many business owners are familiar with is Inland Marine which covers property that is mobile in nature, but moves over land and is not water borne.
The second form is Ocean Marine, often called “Wet” Marine and covers property on the water. Common exposures in Ocean Marine are Cargo Insurance, Hull, and other forms of wet marine coverages.
Inland Marine has a variety of coverage forms used to insure different types of property:
• Contractors Equipment – such as backhoes, excavators, rollers, pavers, as well as hand tools and equipment
• Diagnostic Equipment – such as CAT scan machines, MRI machines, X-Ray machines, etc.
• Office Computer Equipment
• Fine Arts – covering art works in commercial buildings, museums, collections, etc.
• Jewelers Block – A policy covering the property of a jeweler, either in transit or while located in the jeweler’s store.
• Builder’s Risk Coverage – which will insure buildings and other projects while in the course of construction.
• Goods while being shipped overland by your vehicles or vehicles, of others, rail and air.
• Bailees Coverage which insures the property of others while in the care, custody or control of others, such as dry cleaners, jewelers, tailors, and other businesses.
• Inland Marine Insurance can also cover “instrumentalities of transportation: such as bridges, roadways, piers, pipelines, television & radio antenna towers.
Wet Marine is an interesting policy form, and actually is the origin of the commercial insurance business dating back to the late 17th Century, where in London, merchant shippers shared the risk of voyages by contributing “premiums” to a common subscription in Edward Lloyds Coffeehouse. That practice continued to grow into what is now known as the global insurance marketplace of Lloyds of London.
Wet or Ocean Marine Insurance Policy Forms are Used to Insure:
• The hulls of ships and aircraft – from recreational boats and yachts to ocean liners, cargo ships, oil tankers, working barges, fishing trawlers and more.
• The cargo found on many of those vessels.
• The liability exposures of watercraft, known as Protection & Indemnity; or P&I in marine language
The policy language is often written in what may seem like ancient prose, but it’s done so to comply with international maritime law. Coverage forms are complex and require specialized handling to assure that coverage is designed and executed properly. The Coyle Group is knowledgeable in this area of insurance and in fact, our principle; Gordon Coyle holds the AMIM or Associate in Marine Insurance Management designation, so you can have confidence that cargo or other marine coverages will be properly designed and implemented.
For more information on Marine Insurance, or any other form of business insurance, please contact us!
