The easiest application in the market, and the one where we read the exclusions hardest.

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.

Is NEXT Insurance any good for contractors?

On the right account, genuinely yes, and we place them. Two things they do better than most. The endorsements. Blanket additional insured including completed operations, blanket waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording are included as standard on their contractor product. Those three are exactly what a general contractor’s subcontract demands, plenty of carriers charge separately for each, and having them without a fight is worth real money on a working contractor’s policy. The process. The application is close to painless — quote and bind online in minutes with a certificate immediately available. If you are a small contractor who needs a certificate today, that is not a small thing. They also bundle property, contractors equipment and excess add-ons on a lot of classes at competitive prices, so the whole program can sit in one place.

What do the NEXT exclusions actually exclude?

This is the part worth reading before you buy, and it is where we see people caught. What follows is taken from an actual NEXT contractor policy on our own book rather than from memory — the form numbers are theirs, and yours will differ by class and state, so treat this as what to look for rather than as your policy. 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 regardless of whether you knew, and on any project where MORE THAN 10 HOUSES have been built or are at any stage of planning or construction. That last number is the one to sit with: ten houses is a small subdivision, so a contractor doing residential development work is very likely outside cover with nothing on the certificate to say so. Subcontracted work. Two forms do this. 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. If you sub anything out and your paperwork is not perfect, this is where the claim stops. The work itself. A designated-work schedule excluded roofs entirely, exterior work more than 30 feet (three stories) above ground or 6 feet below it, hotwork of every kind including welding and torch-down, sandblasting, fire and water remediation, and anything under a wrap-up program. And the widest one: 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 in the first place — which is the single easiest way to have a policy that looks right and answers nothing. We also see overspray excluded on painting work. We write one painting policy and that is the policy that carries it. The pattern: the buying process is effortless and the coverage can have sneaky gaps, and those two facts are related. A form that issues in four minutes without a conversation manages risk by excluding rather than by asking. That is a legitimate model, and it produces a genuinely good policy for the accounts that fit inside it.

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. That check is the whole value here, because this is a product where the gaps are specific rather than general. And if it turns out NEXT is not right for what you do, we have the rest of the market to go to, which somebody on their website does not.

Why go through a broker instead of buying direct?

Six reasons, and the first one surprises people. It does not cost you anything. Broker compensation is built into the carrier’s rate whether or not you use one — buying direct does not remove it, it just means nobody is being paid to be on your side. You are declining the representation, not the cost. Somebody negotiates for you. An agent represents YOU rather than the carrier, which matters most at the two moments that decide whether insurance was worth buying: when the account is being underwritten and priced, and when a claim is being adjusted. Direct writers have neither role available to you. You stop queueing. A certificate, an endorsement, a vehicle added, a limit raised — through an agent those are usually same-day, often same-hour. Through a service queue they are a wait, and you explain your business again to whoever answers. You get the same person. We assign a dedicated account manager from day one, so the person handling your renewal already knows what you do, what your contracts require, and what went wrong last time. Nobody starts from your policy number. We re-shop it every year. Not the same carrier re-rated — a genuine comparison across multiple carriers and products, because the market that was right for you at $400,000 of revenue is frequently not the one that is right at $1.2M. That is the single largest source of savings we find, and it is structurally unavailable if you buy direct. And we will tell you when to stay. If the policy you have is the right one, that is an answer we are willing to give, and it is why the comparison is worth doing at all.