What umbrella and excess liability renewals are costing businesses right now

The moment usually arrives a few weeks before renewal. The umbrella layer that sat comfortably above your general liability for years comes back quoted higher, or with fewer carriers willing to write it at all, or with a lower limit attached to stricter underlying requirements. Across the commercial market, carriers are re-underwriting casualty books and reducing the limits they will write, and published benchmarking and carrier statements show exactly what that means for buyers.

What is happening to umbrella programs

An umbrella policy sits above your general liability, commercial auto, and employers liability coverage, paying catastrophic claims that exhaust the underlying limits. The layer where it starts paying is called the attachment point. For a firm with $1 million in general liability and a $5 million umbrella, the attachment point is $1 million. Most umbrellas follow form, meaning they adopt the terms and exclusions of the underlying policies, and most require specific minimum underlying limits before they will attach at all, according to a 2026 commercial umbrella guide published by GetBusinessCoverage.

Benchmarking data from Patriot Global Insurance Services, covering 2016 through 2025, shows contractors buying steadily more umbrella capacity. In 2016, the average umbrella limit purchased by U.S. construction contractors was about $3 million, or about $4 million in New York. By 2025 those averages had risen to approximately $7 million nationally and $12 million in New York. Growth accelerated after 2020, when insurers reacted to rising claim severity, larger jury verdicts, and expanding statutory liability exposures.

Coverage needs vary by contractor type, the same benchmarking shows. Lower-hazard trade contractors typically carry up to $5 million in umbrella limits, higher-risk trades often carry $5 million to $10 million, private general contractors generally fall between $5 million and $15 million, and public works general contractors frequently need $25 million or more to meet contractual requirements. Heavy civil contractors may carry programs reaching $15 million to $50 million, often structured across multiple excess layers.

Why carriers tightened limits

The pricing pressure traces back to claim severity. On Markel's Q1 2026 earnings call, reported by Certificial on April 29, 2026, CEO Simon Wilson explained the mechanism in plain terms: when cases go to court or settle, the numbers are often much bigger than they were 8 to 10 years ago. He described the industry response to what people call social inflation as reducing limits. Markel's specialty insurance unit cut its construction-related book from roughly 40 to 45 percent of the division down to around 20 percent over the past year, and possibly slightly below that. CFO Brian Costanzo confirmed on the same call that gross written premium in the Wholesale and Specialty division declined 9 percent versus Q1 2025, driven partly by decreases in binding contractors and casualty.

Markel is one of several carriers using the same playbook, and the pullback is not limited to construction casualty. Nationwide is also pulling back, citing catastrophic weather losses and inflation, pausing some property writings in habitational and lessor's risk across the entire U.S. from June 30th, non-renewing monoline auto policies from June 26th, and requiring pre-quote documentation for auto, property, and powersports business in more than two dozen states, as reported by Artemis.bm. When a major carrier demands full documentation before underwriting, quotes can change or be withdrawn, which pushes buyers to start renewal conversations earlier.

What does this mean for what buyers are paying? The GetBusinessCoverage guide puts per-layer costs at $300 to $700 per $1 million of umbrella for low-risk buyers such as consultants and office-based services, $700 to $1,500 for standard small commercial risks like restaurants and small contractors, $1,200 to $2,500 for mid-risk trades such as plumbers and electricians, and $2,500 to $6,000 for high-severity trades like roofing and tree work, with very high-risk operations such as demolition and hazmat trucking paying more. These are per-layer ranges, so a $10 million umbrella for a high-risk trade can be several times the cost of the same limit for a low-risk buyer.

What buyers are doing about it

For procurement and risk leaders, the practical consequence is that the limits some of your subcontractors and suppliers can obtain at renewal have already changed. The Markel cut is an operational signal, not just a market commentary point: if your contracts require vendors to carry specific umbrella limits, some of those vendors will come up short through no fault of their own. Buyers who track supplier insurance requirements in tiers should expect to revisit them.

1. Start earlier than last year Carriers such as Nationwide now want full documentation before underwriting, so quotes take longer and can change or be withdrawn.
2. Check your underlying limits Most umbrellas require minimum underlying limits, such as $1 million general liability, before they attach; if you cut those, the umbrella may refuse to attach at all.
3. Layer instead of buying one big limit Large programs, especially heavy civil and public works, are commonly split across multiple excess carriers at different attachment points.
4. Review your contract requirements If a contract demands umbrella limits your carriers will no longer write, negotiate the requirement before renewal, not after the certificate expires.
5. Get the market read in writing Ask your broker which carriers are writing your line of business in your state right now, and what attachment points they will accept.

Who this hits hardest

Risk managers and contractors are facing the sharpest increases in their programs. Construction firms have seen umbrella coverage climb in both size and complexity over the past decade, with higher limits, more layered structures, and widening regional differences between national markets and New York. High-severity trades, including roofing, tree work, and towing, pay the most per layer and are also the trades carriers are most willing to walk away from. Low-risk office-based buyers are feeling the market too, but the ranges suggest their per-layer costs remain far lower.

One place to start is data. Commercial Broker Guide publishes market data on premium changes by line of coverage, rankings of the largest brokers of U.S. business, and a directory of brokers by specialty and state, so a contractor can look for a broker who actually writes construction umbrella in their state rather than calling firms that do not. Every figure on the site names its source and the date it was checked.