ACORD 131

What the ACORD 131 is for

The ACORD 131 requests a layer of liability coverage above the primary policies. Its most important content is the schedule of underlying insurance, because an umbrella is only as sound as the underlying limits it is written to attach over.

The failure mode this form is designed to prevent is a gap between the underlying limit shown on the umbrella and the limit actually carried on the primary policy. If the primary is reduced at renewal and the umbrella's underlying requirement is not, the insured pays the difference personally.

What it collects

Described in our own words, block by block. This is a summary of the information the form gathers, not a reproduction of the form itself.

Coverage requested

The limit sought, whether the layer is umbrella or straight excess, and whether it is occurrence or claims made.

Retention

The self-insured retention that applies where the umbrella drops down over an exposure the underlying does not cover.

Schedule of underlying insurance

Each underlying policy with its carrier, policy number, term and limits, so the attachment point is documented.

Exposure information

The sales, payroll, vehicle counts and other exposures the umbrella will be rated on.

Coverages excluded or restricted

Exposures the excess layer will not follow, which is where the real difference between markets shows up.

Check before it leaves the agency

The defects that cause trouble later are nearly always the same handful. Run these before the form goes out.

• The underlying limits shown match the limits actually carried on the current primary policies, checked against the declarations rather than from memory.
• Every liability policy the umbrella is meant to sit over is scheduled, including auto and employers liability, not only general liability.
• Employers liability limits meet whatever the umbrella requires as underlying, since this is the most commonly missed attachment point.
• The retention is understood by the client, particularly where the umbrella drops down over an uncovered exposure.
• Where any underlying policy changes mid-term, the umbrella carrier is told, because the attachment point moved.

What the ACORD 131 does not do

• It does not fill a gap in an underlying policy by itself. An umbrella that requires a limit the primary does not carry leaves the insured to fund the difference.
• It does not follow form automatically. What the excess layer will and will not follow is a policy question, not an application one.

Which edition?

ACORD revises its forms, and the edition date is printed in the bottom-left corner beside the form number. This page deliberately does not name an edition, because a hard-coded one goes stale and a stale edition on a reference page is worse than none. Produce the form from your own management system, which will give you the current version, and read the corner if a carrier or a contract has asked for a specific one.

At renewal

BindCheck reads a bound renewal against the prior policy and reports every form, limit, deductible and endorsement that changed, with each finding cited to the page it came from. That matters for this form because what you put on an ACORD is only correct for as long as the policy behind it is unchanged: a certificate, an evidence form or a schedule of interests prepared from last term's facts is a defect nobody sees until the party relying on it needs it.

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