Public Officials Professional Liability

ACE recognizes that public officials’ responsibilities to their constituencies are growing more and more complex. Their management and professional liability insurance program needs to reflect this. Using our underwriting expertise in the directors and officers, professional liability, and employment practices liability (EPL) arenas, ACE Professional Risk has developed a hybrid policy that provides comprehensive coverage to address the exposures created by the day-to-day operations of a public entity.

Benefits:

• Coverage available on an Admitted basis in most states
  Policy may be tailored to meet specific coverage needs of the public entity
• Sound claims handling by experienced claims professionals
• Loss Control and Risk Management Benefit: ACE EPL Helpline
  • ACE Professional Risk recognizes the complex employment challenges that public entities face today. In an effort to help our policyholders reduce losses and avoid litigation, ACE Professional Risk provides all Public Officials Professional Liability policyholders with access to this interactive value-added service at no additional cost.

Coverage:

• Distinctive and Identifiable Coverage Grants for Management Liability, Professional Liability and Employment Practices Liability
  • Unlike most Public Officials Liability (POL) policies in the market, the Public Officials Professional Liability policy provides specific coverage for public officials’ management liability exposures including first dollar protection for non-indemnifiable claims
  • Professional Liability coverage is automatically extended to employed architects, engineers, accountants and lawyers
• A Modified Defense Outside the Limits Provision
  • The policy’s aggregate limit is not eroded by claims expenses until the Insured has incurred an equivalent amount of Claims Expenses
• Broader Definition of “damages”
  • Unlike many competing policies, ACE covers the public entity for:
    • Punitive and exemplary damages (where allowed
    • Front and back pay (EPL coverage)
    • Liquidated damages awarded pursuant to the Age
    • Discrimination in Employment Act and the Equal Pay Act (EPL coverage)
• Broader Definition of “insured person,” including
  • Public officials and employees serving with an outside tax exempt entity
  • Persons providing services under a mutual aid agreement
  • Public officials and employees acting as directors or officers of 501c(3) non-profit organizations
• Broader EPL Coverage, including Coverage for Third Party EPL Claims
  • The Public Officials Professional Liability policy extends EPL coverage for:
    • Mental distress, injury, anguish, or tension, pain and suffering, shock and humiliation arising out of a
    • Wrongful Employment Practice and
    • Employment-related libel, slander or defamation
    • Public Officials Professional Liability also covers third-party liability arising out of discrimination or harassment of non-employees by employees
• A Separate Limit For Crisis Management
  • A separate $25,000 limit covers expenses incurred by the public entity to hire a crisis management firm and to disseminate information regarding a specific crisis
• Additional Policy Highlights
  • Full prior acts coverage available in most instances
  • Duty to defend policy wording
  • Automatic 60-Day Extended Reporting Provision
  • Full severability of the application, and of the fraud and personal profit exclusions
  • Optional Extended Reporting Provision available for up to three years
  • Optional coverage available for privacy liability arising out of lost computer equipment, network security breaches and identity theft