IPD Insurance

Schinnerer & Company, a major insurance firm, is now offering a new insurance policy for integrated project delivery. It provides one project-specific policy, which covers the exposure of designers, construction managers, contractors, and subcontractors with design responsibilities.

The policy is tailored to such multi-part contracts as the ConsensusDOCS 300 standard Tri-Party Agreement for Integrated Project Delivery and the AIA C191 Standard Form Multi-Party Agreement for Integrated Project Delivery.

This coverage would only protect against claims when the professional liability claim is made by a true “third party.” No claims would be permitted by IPD team members. This limitation avoids the moral hazard where parties agree on project decisions that intentionally or implicitly exploit insurance coverage. As currently envisioned, coverage limits will be $1 million per claim with a maximum of $5 million in the aggregate.

Schinnerer intends to target projects with construction values between $10 million and $300 million for this new coverage. Health care facilities, office buildings, and certain residential and commercial projects will be prime candidates. However, not all projects are to be insurable. It will not be available on extremely large or high risk projects, such as correctional facilities, airports, power plants, and stadiums.

Schinnerer’s IPD insurance represents a promising step forward, and another example of the innovation being fostered by IPD.