The easiest application in the market, and the one where we read the exclusions hardest.
NEXT Insurance includes genuinely strong endorsements as standard and is effortless to buy from. These are the specific exclusions we see catch contractors out.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What NEXT writes, and what we use them for.
General liability
Their flagship product, and the one most people mean when they say they have a NEXT policy. Bought online in minutes, with a certificate you can issue yourself the same hour.
Without it — For a small trade or service business that needs a certificate today to get on a job, this is genuinely hard to beat on speed.
Workers compensation
Written for small payrolls in the classes they already like, and quoted alongside the liability rather than as a separate exercise.
Without it — Straightforward where the class is straightforward. A payroll with anything unusual in it — subcontractors, multiple states, an owner exclusion — is where we would look elsewhere.
Contractors general liability
GL for trade contractors, quoted and issued online in minutes.
Without it — Strong on this class, and the application is the least painful in the market.
Endorsements included as standard
Blanket additional insured for completed operations, blanket waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory.
Without it — Genuinely valuable: a lot of carriers charge extra for each of these, and contracts demand all three.
Bundled property and equipment
Property and contractors equipment packaged with the liability on many classes.
Without it — Competitively priced on the classes they want.
Excess add-ons
Excess limits available alongside the primary on a lot of classes.
Without it — Useful where a contract names a limit above the primary.
What the policy will not cover.
Pick a procedure to see what the exclusion actually means and whether it can be placed somewhere else.
This is taken from an actual NEXT contractor policy in our own book rather than from memory. The form numbers are theirs and yours will differ by class and state, so read it as what to look for rather than as your policy. What is NOT here matters too: for a small clean trade working directly for homeowners, this form does the job and does it fast.
What a NEXT contractor policy excluded
Tract and multi-unit residential
A Condominium, Townhome, Timeshare and Tract Home Exclusion removes work on condos and townhomes, on any location later converted to them whether or not you knew, and on any project where more than ten houses have been built or are at any stage of planning or construction.
Can it be placed? Yes, but with a different carrier. Ten houses is a small subdivision, so a contractor doing residential development work needs a market that writes it, and nothing on the certificate tells the general contractor this exclusion is there.
Subcontracted work
Two separate forms do it. One says an occurrence arising out of a sub’s work is not covered unless that sub has a written agreement with you AND has given you a certificate naming you as additional insured at limits equal to or above yours, and even then your policy is only excess over theirs. The other deletes the standard subcontractor exception to the damage-to-your-work exclusion, so faulty work by a sub is excluded from completed operations.
Can it be placed? Yes, but only by moving the policy. If you sub anything out and your paperwork is not perfect, this is where the claim stops, and it is the most common reason we move a contractor off this form.
Roofing
Roofs are excluded outright on the designated-work schedule we have seen. Not limited, not sublimited — excluded.
Can it be placed? Yes, but with a carrier that writes roofing. It is a class with its own market and its own pricing, and a general contractor form that happens to be cheap is not it.
Height and depth
Exterior work more than 30 feet above ground — three stories — and anything more than 6 feet below it. So the third floor and the trench are both outside the policy.
Can it be placed? Yes, but it needs underwriting rather than an online form. Both are rated exposures and a carrier that prices them will ask about your fall protection and your shoring.
Hot work
Welding, cutting and torch-down of every kind. On a roofing or metal trade that is most of the job.
Can it be placed? Yes, but expect questions and conditions. Hot work permits, fire watch and a documented procedure are what a carrier wants to see before they price it.
Sandblasting, and fire and water remediation
All excluded on the same designated-work schedule, which catches restoration contractors who think of themselves as general trades.
Can it be placed? Yes, but as their own class. Restoration is a specialist placement and pricing it as general contracting is how the exclusion arrives.
Anything under a wrap-up
Work on a project covered by an owner or contractor controlled insurance program is excluded, which is standard on many forms and still surprises people who just won a wrap-up job.
Can it be placed? Usually a non-issue, but check it. The wrap-up covers the site; what it does not cover is your off-site work and your completed operations after the wrap-up ends.
Anything not in your business description
The widest one, and the easiest to miss. A Limitation of Coverage to Business Description endorsement means the policy responds only to the operation named in the schedule. Anything else your business does is not excluded so much as never insured.
Can it be placed? Yes, but it needs the description to be right at inception. Tell whoever writes the policy everything you do, including the thing you only do twice a year, because that is the one that turns up in a claim.
Overspray, on painting work
We see overspray excluded on painting classes. Drift settling on cars, glass and landscaping is a frequency claim rather than a severity one, which is exactly why a form built for speed removes it.
Can it be placed? Yes, and we write one painting policy that carries it. It is worth asking for by name rather than assuming.
The pattern is the point. A policy that issues in four minutes without a conversation manages risk by excluding rather than by asking, and that is a legitimate model that produces a genuinely good policy for the accounts that fit inside it. The trouble starts when an account does not fit and nothing on the certificate says so. Send us your schedule and we will tell you what is on yours.
What our NEXT clients ask us.
Is NEXT Insurance legit?
Yes, and more so than when people started asking. NEXT writes on its own paper as a licensed carrier and holds an A+ (Superior) financial strength rating from AM Best. Behind it now sits ERGO, the primary insurance arm of Munich Re, which completed a $2.6 billion acquisition in 2025, and the business rebranded as ERGO NEXT Insurance on January 15, 2026. More than 750,000 small businesses are insured there. Whatever you conclude about the policy form, the balance sheet behind it is one of the largest in the world. Our reservations are all on this page and every one of them is about what the form excludes, not about whether a covered claim gets paid.
What is ERGO NEXT, and did my carrier change?
The same company under a new name. NEXT Insurance became ERGO NEXT Insurance in January 2026, after Munich Re’s ERGO bought it outright, so a policy sold as NEXT and one sold as ERGO NEXT are the same product. If you are renewing and the name on the paperwork has changed, nothing has happened to your coverage. It is still a sensible moment to have the form read, because a rename is one of the few times anyone opens their policy. One thing is worth checking rather than assuming. Older policies were issued on other carriers’ paper before the company wrote on its own, so look at whose name is actually on your declarations page.
Is NEXT Insurance any good for contractors?
On the right account, genuinely yes, and we place them. The first thing they do better than most is what comes included. Blanket additional insured for completed operations, blanket waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory are all standard, and every one of those is something a construction contract demands and a lot of carriers charge extra for. The second is speed. A small clean trade can be bound and issuing its own certificate within the hour, which is sometimes the difference between starting a job this week and starting it next. Where we would not put a contractor is anywhere the exclusions above bite, and on a contractor the subcontracted-work wording is the one that bites most often.
What do the NEXT exclusions actually exclude?
The list is long enough to be worth browsing rather than reading: tract and multi-unit residential, subcontracted work, roofing, height and depth, hot work, sandblasting, restoration, and — the widest one — anything outside the business description on your schedule. Every item is above with what it means and whether we can place it elsewhere.
Should I buy direct from NEXT or through an agent?
The comparison people make is speed against scrutiny, and it is a false one. An agent can place NEXT too, at the same price, with the same speed, having first read the form against your operations. Buying direct does not get you a better rate; it gets you the same rate without anyone checking whether the exclusions match your work.
What do you actually place with NEXT?
A small and specific book, which is worth saying plainly on a page that is broadly positive about them.
What kinds of business does NEXT write?
Small trades and service businesses, and general liability far more than anything else: contractors, cleaning, personal trainers, event and beauty services, small retail and restaurants. Our own book with them is small and skews to convenience stores, ski facilities and film production, which says more about what we send them than about their appetite.
How does NEXT handle workers comp and billing?
Monthly billing is standard and is part of the appeal. On workers compensation, what we have seen is that it frequently arrives through a payroll partner and on another carrier’s paper, at a price worth comparing, so get it quoted separately before taking it as a bundle.
Why go through a broker instead of buying direct?
Because it does not cost you anything, which is the part that surprises people. Broker compensation is built into the carrier's rate whether you use one or not: buying direct does not remove the cost, it removes the person being paid to be on your side of it.
Also in this family
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.