Van Oppen & Co 2 powered by Inszone Insurance

About

We are an independent brokerage firm specializing in insurance strictly for Architects, Engineers and Environmental Service firms.  We also collaborate only with underwriters who also specialize within this industry, ultimately understanding the major risks and needs when it comes to your liability insurance.  The lines of coverage include:

General Liability
Professional Liability (E&O)
Contractors Pollution Liability
Commercial Auto (including MCS-90 & Pollution)
Cyber Liability
Workers Compensation
Excess/Umbrella Liability
Employment Practices Liability
Property/Inland Marine
Directors & Officers Liability
Contract Bonding
Site Pollution Coverage
Certificates of Insurance and Online Access to Your Insurance Program 24/7.

We are partnered with a national law firm to support insured clients in the USA and Canada.  In addition to helping with Insurance requirements on your contracts we assist insured clients analyze contracts to point out issues that may be unbalanced and provide other Risk Control support. Here are some of the additional services our insured clients benefit from:

Contract Review:  

This service consists of an overall contract review.  In addition to reviewing insurance provisions in your contracts, we have a legal team on retainer to provide a 10-point review of contracts as needed and highlight wording for fairness and balance. We will help point out troublesome issues when they exist to help you negotiate with your clients towards a fair balance of risk in your contracts with them.
Circumstance Reporting:  Most A&E Professional Liability insurers allow for “circumstance reporting” and have specific wording built into the policy form.  We encourage you to always contact us when there is a situation that conceivable might lead to a claim.  Your insurer is your partner in the potential liability, and we are your advocate to help protect your position and help with strategies to limit potential consequences and claims payouts.  When a circumstance arises, please call us to coordinate these services if they are available.  Our goal is to collaborate with you or your attorney of choice or help recommend lawyers who specialize in representing A&E and Environmental Professional firms when appropriate.

Regional Seminars:  

We host seminars with expert speakers consisting of local specialty law firms and insurance companies. Our clients receive two complimentary registrations each year as well as discounted additional registrations for these seminars being held across the country in premier locations such as Denver, Boston, and Los Angeles throughout the year.

Training and Webinars:  

In house training and webinars are available to help firms and their staff understand trends, claims case studies and methods for mitigating risk.  We support our insured clients by hosting these meetings when requested.

Subpoena Review:

Often even when one is not a defendant, trouble starts with a Subpoena on a project on which you have worked.  We encourage the use of an attorney, preferably with the blessing and financial support of your insurer (when possible)  to organize the response.   We collaborate closely with our insured clients and insurers when this a subpoena is received.

Risk Control

Insurance is only one method of controlling risk. Insurance claims are distracting to a firm’s business focus. Frequent or severe claims will eventually lead to a higher cost of risk, as premiums go up and insurance policy terms become more limited. We encourage our clients to partner with insurers and specialty attorneys and consultants for assistance in reviewing contract requirements with regard to indemnity and other areas of operations. This goes beyond just looking at the scope of insurance being called for. Contracts are an important tool in allocating risk and are best viewed very carefully before signing. VOC2 endeavors to partner with clients to facilitate proactive contract review and put clients in the best possible position to mitigate claims. When an incident does occur and a claim is unavoidable, we work with insurers to limit damage. We do this by caring for our clients, and by putting them in touch with the right professionals, whether that be their insurer or a specialty consultant. In addition to getting our clients a good deal on an insurance program, we aim to help keep their long-term cost of risk under control, and allow their firms to grow, without the distraction of claims and a high cost of risk.