WHAT IS A WRAP-UP?

You may hear them referred to as wrap-ups, OCIPs or CCIPs (Consolidated Insurance Programs referring to Owner and Contractor controlled programs respectively). Each of these indicates a consolidated insurance program typically providing worker’s compensation and general liability coverage to all enrolled contractors and subcontractors for operations occurring at a specific project site. In short, it is the majority of the insurance for a large construction project wrapped-up into one tidy package.

Learn the business case for wrap-ups and the cost benefits by downloading, How to Make Money with a Wrap-Up

A wrap-up is a risk management and financial product that provides greater control over construction exposures. Under a wrap-up, the sponsor provides insurance coverage, loss control and claims management, on behalf of themselves, the CM/GC, and all subcontractors of every tier. In turn, each contractor is required to remove the cost of insurance from their contract/bid. The result is a more efficient, cost-effective risk management program covering your project.

Wrap-Up Essentials Ebook

COMPREHENSIVE INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR ALL

Purchasing power equals better coverage, which means a more comprehensive insurance policy that covers every aspect of the job site. This translates to no gaps in coverage or expired subcontractor policies.

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Available insurance coverage under the OCIP/CCIP typically includes:

  • Workers Compensation and Employers Liability (Injury to Employees)
  • General Liability/Completed Operations (Injury to Third Parties or Third Party Property Damage)
  • Excess/Umbrella Liability (Provides high limits of insurance) not additional coverage but additional limits

When appropriate the following can be included:

  • Builders Risk (1st Party Property Damage to property that will become a permanent part of the project)
  • Professional Liability (Covers liability arising out of architect, design, and engineering errors)
  • Environmental Liability (Covers liability arising out of environmental impacts)
  • Contractor Default Insurance (Covers default of subcontractor, a replacement for surety bonds)

Dealing with an ever changing market, residential exclusions
Large multifamily residential complexes and subdivisions are becoming more and more difficult to cover. Many insurance carriers have dropped residential coverage for contractors due to excessive claims, or the residential coverage is still available but at a prohibitive price. The purchasing power of a wrap-up allows the coverage to be purchased and allows smaller contractors access to bid on a project otherwise unavailable to them.

Subcontractors will still be required to carry certain insurance coverage for the protection of themselves and the project team. These include:

  • Contractors Equipment (Cranes, Mobile Equipment, Small Tools)
    Auto Coverage
  • Workers Compensation for activities unrelated to this project
  • General Liability for activities unrelated to this project
  • Excess / Umbrella Limits as required by contract

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HIGHER LIMITS OF COVERAGE

An OCIP sponsor has greater insurance purchasing power than individual contractors and subcontractors, making them better equipped to procure a quality, efficient, and cost effective insurance package for all parties engaged at the project site. Greater purchasing leverage means better coverage for the entire project and higher limits.

Why are higher limits so important?
Imagine you are the owner of a large project that experiences a heavy loss. After your subcontractors’ insurance limits have been reached, there are remaining damages. These costs fall upon you, the owner, to cover. With a wrap-up, your potential financial risk is managed more effectively. A wrap-up protects you and your project because an OCIP/CCIP offers very high limits of insurance, all 100% dedicated to the construction activities at your project site(s).

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SAFER CONSTRUCTION SITE

A wrap-up offers one standardized safety program for the project to which all parties adhere, rather than many individual versions per contractor. Loss Control Services are available under the OCIP/CCIP through various service providers including the owner, the contractor, the insurance carrier, the broker the program administrator, or through a third party vendor that specializes in providing loss control services for the construction industry. A single safety program must have a coordinating entity to monitor loss control vendors. Often, one or two safety individuals are dedicated to objectively oversee and coordinate the safety program for the project. This means having a system in place to continuously monitor project performance and take rapid steps to target and correct safety issues.

What does a site safety program typically entail?

  • Dedicated safety personnel visiting periodically from your loss control vendors – one from your broker and one from your insurance carrier
  • A full time site safety person provided by the general contractor who coordinates the entire safety program while monitoring the site and the loss control vendors
  • Your insurance carrier will set additional safety requirements beyond those required by OSHA (e.g. for every 50 people on the site, one employee is dedicated part time to site safety as part of their full time job description)
  • Incentives (like lunches and t-shirts) for accident free work zones motivate everyone on the project from the top down

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REDUCED LITIGATION

One insurance carrier for your project means quicker claim turnaround and less time spent on paperwork and cross litigation before deciding who pays for your claim. Cross litigation is a major downfall of the traditional approach to large projects. It is expensive and creates hostility in the workplace by pitting individual’s and their independent carriers against one another, and consumes an inordinate amount of time with paperwork for everyone. The only parties that stand to benefit financially from cross litigation are the insurance company that eventually wins a suit and the attorneys involved for each side. With an OCIP/CCIP your insurance provider is concerned with your claim, not trying to make money off your injury, because they are paid up front and serve everyone on the site.

For example, let’s say I get hurt on the job. I report this to my insurance carrier, but it’s actually the plumber’s fault that I got hurt. My insurance carrier then sues his insurance carrier. They, in turn, sue the insurance carrier of the guy that hired the plumber, who decides that it is the fault of the prime contractor, then the general contractor, then the owner. After all this, someone blames it on the guy who got hurt in the first place, me, and we’re back to square one. In a wrap-up the insurance carrier services your claim and gets you back to work.

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ELIMINATION OF REDUNDANCIES IN BOTH COST AND SERVICES

One job site, one loss control manual specific to the job at hand that applies to everyone on site, and one carrier to administer it all. This means everyone on site follows the same loss control procedures and consolidated claims handling, saving staff time and money. The Loss Control Manual is developed for every OCIP/CCIP to address the specific risks of the project, rather than the general needs of the field. The manual considers risks such as location, project scope, traffic, etc.

Some things a Loss Control Manual would take into account

  • Local population (Manhattan suburb or Alaskan village?)
  • Proximity to railroad tracks, major intersections, popular attractions and so on
  • Landscape concerns like water diversion, sink holes, intense digging
  • Specific concerns for project scope, like those for an extremely tall project where there are tie off minimums for particular heights to factor in, etc

Where to find savings through administrative efficiencies

  • Consolidated claims through one administrator speeds up the turn around time so an injured person gets the care they need quickly, no waiting to determine who’s policy covers what
  • Because one party handles claims there is no need for costly legal counsel
  • Carrier site visits allow the carrier to check on their wrap-up as well as the individual contractors, ensuring that the site is adequately covered.
  • Documentation, like Conflict of Interest forms that are typically gathered and tracked by the general contractor, is handled instead by the administrator.

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ECONOMIES OF SCALE

A large project or a combination of mid-sized projects will benefit financially depending on several factors, such as: location, type of construction, the construction manager, the subcontractor environment, the insurance market, and how the OCIP is purchased in the insurance market. By underwriting a large project, your insurance company spreads the risk across the large number of project employees. Two cost factors influence your financial savings, Fixed and Variable:

Fixed Costs: These costs are built into the project. Traditionally, a subcontractor includes insurance costs in his bid, then the general contractor includes their insurance, and the owner adds contingency coverage on top of that creating three tiers of insurance, paid at higher, individual rates. In a wrap-up your project saves by lowering the fixed cost portion. Due to economies of scale you can purchase a single plan for the entire project for less than the traditional cost of insurance. With a single insurance carrier you purchase your insurance in bulk, so you have more participants paying less for greater coverage.

Variable Costs: The variable portion is dependent on the amount of risk the sponsor assumes and the number of claims made over all. The higher risk might mean the sponsor covers a $250,000 deductible per claim for the overall project. This provides incentive for safety first and a strong claims management program. The safer the site, the more money the sponsor saves.

By negotiating savings to lower your Fixed costs at the outset, and accepting higher risk variables to reward low-incident sites, your project saves a great deal of expense.

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ALLOWS FOR COMPETITIVE USE OF MBE & WBE COMPANIES

Wrap-ups level the playing field so that smaller businesses, like Women and Minority Business Enterprises (WBE & MBE), have equal opportunity to get on the job. Some owner and government run projects have built in incentive programs to encourage the use of MBE and WBE companies. WBE/MBE contractors often can’t afford the kind of insurance needed to qualify for large projects, so they don’t have a chance to bid. But a wrap-up has the purchasing power to get the insurance needed at a more reasonable price for everyone on the site. Umbrella coverage for all contractors allows for competitive bidding among big and small subcontractors equally. By providing coverage to all contractors through a wrap-up, the cost of insurance can be removed from the bid prices so that insurance costs are no longer a factor in choosing the lowest or most qualified bidder.

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WHEN IS A WRAP-UP A GOOD IDEA?

  • Either the Owner or General Contractor is willing to act as a Sponsor and, depending on the level of risk involved, increase savings potential while gaining greater control over construction related risks.
  • There is a need to ensure adequate coverage for all contractors of every tier by controlling the type, amount, and quality of insurance coverage protecting the site.
  • A desire exists to level the playing field allowing small, minority, and women owned businesses to more effectively bid on available contracts.
  • One consistent Safety Program is necessary for the entire project.
  • The project itself is high profile or being constructed in a high profile location.
  • For a bi-line OCIP/CCIP, the project (or combination of projects) exceeds $100,000,000 (except in NY where minimum project size would be greater) excluding soft costs such as land acquisition, design and engineer costs.
  • For a GL-Only OCIP/CCIP, there is no minimum project size, feasibility varies based on a financial analysis.
  • Traditional insurance leaves room for coverage gaps and under-insured losses.
  • There is a wish to calm the chaos by having one insurance company managing the entire site, rather than one insurer per subcontractor.

HOW IT WORKS

In order to make a Controlled Insurance Program happen, several parties must come together:

PROGRAM SPONSOR

There must first be an entity interested in purchasing the program. This can be an owner, construction manager, general contractor, lender, or another party with an insurable interest.

INSURANCE BROKER

  • A licensed insurance professional is required to broker the program on behalf of the sponsor
    Insurance Provider (Carrier).
  • The insurance carrier underwrites the risk associated with constructing the project.
  • The carrier also typically provides claims handling and loss control oversight.

WRAP-UP ADMINISTRATOR

  • The administrator handles a multitude of information that must be tracked, collected, and analyzed in a wrap-up program.
  • Other than a safe worksite and minimal claims the wrap-up Administrator is the most significant variable in determining the success or failure of a program.
  • View our services section for more details on what we do.

CLAIMS PROFESSIONALS

The insurance carrier will provide some claims management service as should the insurance broker.

LOSS CONTROL PROFESSIONALS 

  • Scheduled number of visits provided by the carrier.
  • May have some oversight provided by the broker.
  • The general contractor and each contractor will assign site safety duties to at least one individual depending on the number of workers on-site.
  • Outsourcing – a dedicated professional may be placed on the site by the program sponsor to provide daily dedicated safety services.

IS THE PROCESS DIFFICULT?

CR Solutions makes the process quite simple. We offer as many services as our clients need. Our participation simply depends upon our clients’ experience with wrap-ups. Rest assured, we can provide any necessary assistance to a project sponsor and answer any questions along the way.

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FEASIBILITY STUDY

  • We will analyze the project budget, expected duration of construction, method for engaging subcontracts, lending requirements, etc. and compare this information to current market conditions in order to approximate the financial feasibility of instituting a wrap-up.
  • We will also review other risk management considerations that may effect the appropriateness of the utilization of a wrap-up.

MARKETING SUBMISSION

  • We can provide templates and/or suggested language to include in a submission to the markets.
  • We will also provide the payroll/trade breakdown with information collected from CR-Insight®.

QUOTE ANALYSIS

  • After the quotes are received from the proposing carriers they need to be reviewed to determine which program best fits the needs of the client.

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BINDING THE PROGRAM

  • Once the appropriate program is chosen the sponsor gives the broker, who in turn gives the carrier, the order to BIND……and the program is now in place.

WRAP-UP ADMINISTRATION BEGINS

Still have more questions? Don’t hesitate toSend us a note