Sweeping enhancements to the ISO General Liability program are coming. Here’s what you need to know.

August 18, 2020 / 3 min read

For over five decades, the ISO General Liability program has helped insurers address a wide range of liability loss exposures—from slip-and-falls to emerging risks and new technologies. As part of our mission to keep the program responsive to the evolving general liability loss exposures of today’s business operations, we’ve undertaken a major revision of the program—one of the most significant in years.

New classes and updates across the entire program

The updates to the General Liability program didn’t occur in a vacuum. We listened closely to customer feedback solicited through ISO Panels, customer surveys, and support inquiries; studied market trends and emerging risks; and crafted enhancements to the program that are designed to help insurers write a wider range of general liability risks with greater precision and confidence.

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The program includes a complete revision to the classification system with the addition of 70 new classes plus associated forms, rules, and loss costs, where applicable.

Some of the new liability classes address:

e-sports
3D printer manufacturers
gig economy exposures
mobile risk exposures such as food trucks or mobile dog grooming
unmanned aircraft and the various mercantile, manufacturing, and contracting exposures

We’re also making significant updates to our:

telecommunications and technology classes
liquor liability classifications to account for evolving exposures

As part of keeping our program responsive and up to date with today’s liability environment, we’re also discontinuing and/or consolidating over 100 other classes. In response to feedback we've received, we’re also simplifying the underwriting and rating of classifications that are designated as "products/completed operations are included." Current multistate mandatory endorsements will be withdrawn and a related revision made to the coverage form.

Other enhancements include changes to premium bases and combining not-for-profit and other than not-for-profit classifications. Some classifications that previously had refer-to-company or estimated loss potentials now feature manual loss costs.

Like all the insurance programs in ISO Core Line Services, the General Liability program offers insurance policy language that is informed by our unparalleled industry and regulatory monitoring.

A program built for the future of the insurance workforce

The insurance workforce is changing. Many seasoned employees are beginning their (well-earned) retirements while an influx of new talent is taking the helm. One of the guiding principles of the new ISO General Liability program is that it’s designed to be accessible to the next generation of insurance professionals. In addition to various policy and endorsement updates, the manual rules related to those endorsements will contain search-friendly titles to help users quickly find what they’re looking for. Other manual rules that accompany the program are being streamlined and will have ample, clearly articulated information throughout, should an insurance professional require it.

An investment in the future of your insurance business

For insurers already invested in the current ISO General Liability program, updating to the new program enables them to maximize their investment by helping ensure their policy language and rules are more narrowly tailored to today’s liability risks. Thanks to the addition of new classifications, insurers can more precisely write new lines of general liability business.

We intend to begin filing the new program in the second quarter of 2021 with the effective date being approximately 18 months from the filing, providing a long runway for insurers to update to the new language and classification changes.

To learn more about the new ISO General Liability program, please don’t hesitate to email either of us at: KD'Auria@verisk.com or Joseph.Lam@verisk.com.