NEXT Insurance, a digital small business insurer, announced it is expanding its insurance offerings for small businesses with the launch of commercial umbrella/excess liability in 41 states and the expansion of liquor liability coverage in seven additional states.

Commercial umbrella/excess liability insurance includes the same coverage, conditions, and exclusions as its underlying general liability policy and provides coverage when that policy’s per-occurrence or aggregate limits are exhausted. This expansion will be launched on a direct and agents channel.

NEXT’s umbrella/excess liability coverage will sit over customers’ general liability policies and provide higher limits for coverage offered in that policy. Customers will be able to add this optional coverage to a general liability policy post-purchase to modify their insurance needs as their business needs continue to grow. With this expansion, customers can now add umbrella/excess liability coverage to their policy in the Customer Portal.

NEXT is also furthering its commitment to restaurant small business owners with the expansion of liquor liability coverage to seven additional states including Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Utah, and Iowa. Available as a part of NEXT’s general liability coverage, NEXT’s liquor liability covers losses resulting from the intoxication of customers and is designed for small businesses such as cafés, diners, pop-up restaurants, and fine dining.

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Howden, a global insurance group, announced the launch of a blended insurance product that brings together professional indemnity, crime and cyber liability into one policy and under one limit.

The product has been developed with a panel of specialist insurers, including the Lloyd’s market, in response to a rise in sophisticated cyber claims, such as ransomware and phishing.

Howden is a global insurance group founded in 1994. It operates in 50 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand.

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McKenzie Intelligence Services, a provider of geospatial intelligence to (re)insurers, announced it is piloting CAT360, an initiative in which ground-level imagery is introduced to MIS’ Global Events Observer platform in addition to the already provided satellite and aerial imagery.

This product is designed to provide reinsurers with multi-view imagery to assess damage following hurricane events. Based on client feedback post-pilot, multi-view imagery will become available on GEO for insurers across the U.S., including for other natural catastrophe perils.

The CAT360 initiative combines ground-level imagery from specialist vehicles and cameras with space and air imagery onto a single platform. Its objective is to give carriers the ability to proactively respond to customers even before first notice of loss.

The new ground-based 360-degree imagery is immediately available to MIS’ beta program clients and complements other data sources, feeding into carriers’ damage assessment work in the delivery of post-event intelligence via the GEO platform.

MIS said in a company press release that it is constantly testing and evaluating new technologies and partners on behalf of its clients, and while CAT360’s initial focus is on hurricanes, it may be rolled out to cover other U.S. natural catastrophe perils based on feedback.

Sources: NEXT Insurance, Howden, McKenzie Intelligence Services