Construction Insurance

Sureties look for contractors with strong financials, disciplined management, and consistent profitability. Clean financial statements, accurate work-in-progress (WIP) reporting, and solid internal controls often matter as much as job history when determining how much bonding capacity you can support. 

Key ways to increase capacity:

• Strengthen your balance sheet by retaining earnings and managing debt
• Provide timely, CPA-prepared financials with accurate WIP and job costing
• Manage backlog carefully and avoid overextending your team or cash flow
• Show a track record of on-time, on-budget project completion
• Reduce risk with strong safety, contracts, and subcontractor controls

How Liberty helps: 

We package these elements into a proactive bonding strategy, align you with the right surety markets, and pursue increases before major bids—so capacity never slows your growth.

The limits you need are driven by the contract, owner, and project profile—not a one-size-fits-all rule. Public projects and larger private jobs typically specify minimum general liability, excess/umbrella, auto, workers’ compensation, and bonding limits in the bid documents or supplementary conditions.

What We Review on Every Bid

We scrub the insurance and indemnity sections of your contract to identify required GL per-occurrence and aggregate limits, completed-operations duration, and any special endorsements. This includes additional insured requirements, primary and noncontributory wording, and waivers of subrogation.

We match umbrella limits to project size and risk. Smaller projects may only need a modest excess tower, while larger GCs, heavy civil contractors, and wrap-up projects often require significantly higher limits to satisfy owner and lender requirements.

We align bonding with contract values, confirming bid, performance, and payment bond requirements. This includes any maintenance or warranty bond provisions tied to the contract amount and duration.

We consider your role in the project. A trade contractor under a wrap-up may only need certain practice limits, while a GC holding the prime contract typically carries higher limits and broader responsibility.

Builder’s risk insurance covers the project itself—buildings under construction, materials, and certain soft costs—regardless of whether the work is performed by you or your subcontractors. However, the details are critical. Many policies protect the financial interests of the owner and prime contractor first, and do not automatically extend full protection to every subcontractor’s property or interests.

Key Questions We Help You Clarify

• Who is an insured? We confirm whether the policy includes “contractors and subcontractors as their interests may appear” or specifically names subs as additional insureds on the builder’s risk policy.
• What property is covered? Most policies cover the structure, temporary works, and materials on-site or in transit. Subcontractors’ tools and equipment are often excluded or only minimally covered.
• Whose policy responds? If the owner carries builder’s risk, we ensure your contract and the policy align. If you, as GC, carry it, we align subcontract agreements and additional insured status to eliminate gaps.
• What is not covered? Builder’s risk does not replace your general liability or your subcontractors’ GL and workers’ compensation for bodily injury or third-party property damage arising from construction activities.

How Liberty Protects Your Project

Liberty’s construction team reviews your builder’s risk wording alongside your subcontracts so you know exactly how subcontractor work and materials are treated—and where you need separate coverage or contract language to close gaps.

Your workers’ compensation experience modification rate (EMR or mod) reflects how your injury frequency and severity compare to other contractors in your trade. It directly impacts your premium and—for many GCs and public owners—your ability to prequalify for work. A high mod can knock you out of bid lists, while a strong mod opens doors and cuts costs.

Two-Front Strategy to Improve Your Mod

Fix the data and reserves first. Verify payroll classifications, check for clerical or out-of-state misclassifications, and audit open claims reserves. Correcting errors and overstated reserves can materially reduce your future mod.

Reduce both frequency and severity. Build a genuine safety culture, enforce site-specific safety plans, and train foremen to own safety so small incidents don’t turn into recordable or lost-time claims.

Claims Management Best Practices

Implement return-to-work programs. Light-duty and modified-duty programs get injured workers back on the job faster, reducing indemnity costs and lowering the impact each claim has on your mod.

Manage medical care and claims proactively. Use preferred medical providers where allowed, stay in close contact with adjusters, and actively manage claims to closure rather than letting them drift.

Plan for the long game. The experience rating formula typically looks back several policy years, so a structured safety and claims strategy today pays off over multiple renewal cycles.

Liberty’s Experience Mod Improvement Program

Liberty’s construction group builds an experience-mod improvement playbook combining safety consulting, claims advocacy, and data audits—all aimed at driving your mod down and strengthening your position with both carriers and project owners.

Even if you are not a traditional design firm, many contractors today take on design-build, design-assist, value engineering, and delegated design responsibilities that create professional liability exposure. Errors in plans, specifications, or professional advice—whether provided by you, your design subs, or consultants you coordinate—can trigger claims that a standard general liability policy may not fully address.

When Contractors Should Consider Professional Liability

You’re signing design-build or CM-at-risk contracts, or providing constructability reviews, sequencing plans, or means-and-methods guidance that the owner relies on for project decisions.

You subcontract design work to engineers or architects but remain contractually responsible for their performance in the eyes of the owner. Your exposure doesn’t disappear just because someone else drew the plans.

You perform value engineering, select systems or products, or coordinate complex trades like MEP, structural components, or building envelopes where an error could cause significant cost overruns or rework.

You work on high-stakes projects—healthcare facilities, data centers, public infrastructure—where even an alleged professional mistake can lead to large defense costs and delay claims.

How Liberty Structures Your Protection

Liberty structures contractors professional liability (often combined with pollution and protective coverage) to sit alongside your GL, umbrella, and builder’s risk. This ensures your practice is protected even when you’re not “the designer” on paper but still carry professional exposure in the contract.