MLIS Curriculum

This course provides an overview of the legal liability exposures to which professionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers, accountants) and managers (e.g., directors and officers, supervisory personnel, trustees, and fiduciaries) are subject. The course also introduces you to the different insurance policies that have been designed to cover these exposures. It concludes by discussing the distinctive loss control, underwriting, claims management, and marketing issues pertaining to professional and management liability.

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This course provides an in-depth look at the important provisions common to nearly all types of errors and omissions, professional. and management liability insurance policy forms. These types of insurance include physicians, lawyers, and accountants professional liability insurance and various types of E&O insurance. Of course, they also include directors and officers (D&O), employment practices (EPL), and fiduciary liability insurance. The four major types of provisions this course analyzes are: (1) insuring agreements; (2) limits, deductibles/retentions, and coinsurance; (3) conditions; and (4) exclusions. The course concludes with a section addressing coverage coordination issues, whereby professional and management liability policies must be coordinated with each other and with other types of insurance coverage.

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This course provides a detailed look at how claims-made coverage triggers operate and provides practical knowledge on how to avoid problems when arranging claims-made programs. It begins with an explanation of the significance of coverage triggers, introduces both claims-made and occurrence coverage triggers, and provides an example of how claims-made coverage triggers apply in a claim situation. Next, the course distinguishes between the two different kinds of claims-made policies: those written with pure claims-made coverage triggers and those containing claims-made and reported coverage triggers. It introduces the concept of the retroactive dates and how they operate. The course discusses discovery provisions and also addresses the two factors that complicate the application of claims-made coverage triggers. Next, the problem of coverage gaps in claims-made policies, and how to close them by means of extended reporting periods and prior acts coverage, is reviewed. The course discusses the rationale for using claims-made coverage triggers as well as the advantages and disadvantages they present for both insureds and insurers. Since a handful of professional liability coverage lines are sometimes written on an occurrence basis, these coverage triggers—and how they differ from claims-made policies—are also explained.

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This course provides a detailed look at the legal liability exposures faced by the directors and officers of for-profit, publicly-held corporations. The major areas this course addresses include: (1) the common law and statutory legal liability exposures to which the directors and officers of publicly-held corporations are subject, (2) legal defenses available to directors and officers when a claim is made against them, (3) the types of situations that give rise to these claims, (4) the factors that insurers consider when underwriting D&O policies for publicly-held companies, and (5) the most effective methods of preventing and controlling claims against corporate directors and officers.

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This course provides a detailed look at the key provisions contained within a corporate directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance policy and how they function within various claims scenarios. The course begins by describing the policy’s three key insuring agreements and then examines the covered persons, covered organizations, and covered acts provisions. Next, it analyzes two of the policy’s most important defined terms: “covered damages” and “covered losses.” It continues with an analysis of the extent to which the policies cover employment practices liability exposures and describes the policy’s defense coverage provisions and defense procedures. The manner in which a D&O insurance policy’s limits, retentions, and coinsurance provisions apply is considered next, followed by a look at the policy’s most important conditions. The course reviews the exclusions section of the policy and the claims-made coverage trigger provisions. The final chapters analyze excess D&O liability insurance policies.

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This course provides a detailed look at (1) the liability exposures that give rise to employment-related claims and (2) the insurance policies that have been developed to cover these exposures. The first part of the course describes the most important common law exposures to employment litigation and continues by discussing the leading statutory exposures to such claims. Next, the underwriting of employment practices liability (EPL) insurance is explained, followed by a description of methods to control employment claims. The first part of the course concludes by examining the various sources of EPL insurance coverage. The second part of the course takes a detailed look at the specific coverage terms within employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policy forms, including covered persons/organizations and covered acts provisions. Next, it discusses third-party liability coverage, along with “damages” and “claim” definitions. Claims management, defense cost, and “special conditions” are also described. The course concludes with an analysis of exclusions and coverage triggers contained within the policies.

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This course provides a detailed look at (1) the fiduciary liability exposures that were created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 and (2) at the insurance policies that have been developed to cover these liability exposures. The first part of the course describes the basic fiduciary duties set forth in ERISA, examines the specific types of pension and benefit plans governed by ERISA, and analyzes the particular claims exposures created by these duties. Next, the course discusses the way in which fiduciary liability insurance is underwritten, provides methods of controlling exposures to fiduciary liability claims, and explains how fiduciary liability coverage is coordinated with other types of management liability insurance policies. The second part of the course takes a detailed look at the specific provisions within fiduciary liability insurance policy forms, including insuring agreements, covered persons/organizations, provisions pertaining to status changes, key definitions, limits/deductibles, conditions, exclusions, and coverage triggers.

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