Insurance Advisor.

Overview

Recommend a project insurance program for an AEC project: required policy types, recommended limits, and the OCIP / CCIP / traditional structure decision. Output is a recommendation memo in docs/insurance/ and a broker RFP checklist that the owner / owner's-rep takes to a licensed insurance broker for actual market quote and binding.

This skill is for the owner / owner's-rep / architect perspective. It is not broker advice — it does not bind policies, quote premiums, or substitute for a licensed broker's market analysis. The output names what to ask for; the broker delivers what the market provides.

Aligned with AIA A201-2017 Article 11 (Insurance and Bonds), AIA A201-2017 Exhibit A (Insurance and Bonds — separate document since 2017), AIA B101-2017 §2.5 (Architect's insurance), AIA A101 / A102 / A103-2017 owner-contractor forms, AIA A312-2010 Performance and Payment Bond, and IRMI Construction Risk Management.

When to use

Trigger on:

• Pasted project profile (value, type, jurisdiction, delivery method, owner type) with insurance question.
• Explicit asks: "insurance advice", "insurance program", "what limits", "OCIP or CCIP", "wrap-up insurance", "builder's risk", "PL limits for architect", "Article 11 review".
• Hand-off from contract-advisor when the executed contract requires the Article 11 / Exhibit A insurance schedule.
• Hand-off from bid-review when bidder qualifications include insurance proposals or bond-substitute structures.

Do NOT trigger for:

• Quoting actual premiums (broker only — this skill names the limits to request, not the price).
• Binding insurance policies (broker only).
• Claim adjustment after a loss (broker / adjuster / insurance counsel).
• State-specific insurance department compliance (insurance counsel).
• Performance / payment bond adequacy (use bond-advisor when it exists; for now, flag and refer to broker / surety).

Workflow

Step 1 — Bootstrap if needed

Check that docs/insurance/index.md exists. If not:

python scripts/init_insurance_workspace.py

Step 2 — Anchor the project context

Read docs/project.md if it exists. Pull:

• Project value (drives limit recommendations; small / mid / large / mega tiers per references/policy_types_reference.md).
• Project type (commercial / multifamily / institutional / healthcare / industrial / heavy civil — affects policy types required, especially Pollution and Builder's Risk).
• Jurisdiction (state-by-state Workers' Comp + auto + contractor licensing rules; NY, CA, FL each have specific requirements).
• Delivery method (DBB / DB / CMAR / IPD — drives who carries Builder's Risk and whether wrap-up makes sense — see references/delivery_method_insurance_matrix.md).
• Owner type (institutional / commercial / public / federal / non-profit — affects PI requirements; federal projects have FAR-flowed clauses).
• Project schedule / duration (Builder's Risk + extensions; long projects need extension provisions).
• Site profile (existing building present? environmental concerns? coastal / wildfire / seismic exposure?).

Step 3 — Map required policy matrix

Use references/policy_types_reference.md. For each of the standard policy categories, determine:

1. Who must carry it (owner / GC / sub / architect / EOR).
2. Recommended limits (per the project tier in the reference).
3. Required endorsements (additional insured for owner + architect, waiver of subrogation, primary & non-contributory).
4. Notice requirements (notice of cancellation, notice of material change).

Standard categories:

• Professional Liability (PL / E&O) — architects, engineers, design-builders.
• Commercial General Liability (CGL) — owner, contractor, subs.
• Builder's Risk — physical loss to construction; carried per delivery method.
• Workers' Compensation + Employer's Liability — statutory; varies by state.
• Auto Liability — owned / hired / non-owned.
• Umbrella / Excess Liability — over CGL, auto, sometimes EL.
• Pollution Legal Liability (PLL) — site-specific environmental risk.
• Contractor's Pollution Liability (CPL) — contractor's environmental impairment.
• Cyber Liability — for projects with data systems / OT / BAS exposure.

Step 4 — Apply the OCIP / CCIP / traditional decision

Use references/ocip_ccip_decision.md. The decision rests on:

• Project size — generally OCIP / CCIP makes sense above $25M total construction value; below that, administrative cost outweighs premium savings.
• Single-site vs. rolling — single-site favors wrap-up; multi-site portfolio does not.
• Owner sophistication — wrap-up requires owner staffing or a wrap administrator.
• State enforcement — some states (NY, CA) have specific wrap-up rules.
• Subcontractor mix — small-sub-heavy projects benefit more (wrap pulls coverage costs out of every sub bid).

Recommend OCIP (owner-controlled), CCIP (contractor-controlled), or traditional.

Step 5 — Cross-reference the contract's insurance articles

Ask for the insurance and bonds articles of the contract in force, pasted or as a file to read. Work only from that text.

Read them and report, clause by clause:

• Which parties each required coverage falls on.
• Which coverages the contract names, and which of the ones in Step 3 it does not name.
• Where the limits are set, and whether every limit field has actually been filled in. A blank limit field in a schedule or exhibit is the most common defect here and it survives review because the article around it reads complete.
• Additional insured requirements, waivers of subrogation, and deductible allocation, as written.
• Whether bonds are required, and under which clause.

Mark each line in the contract with its clause, or not in supplied text. Never state what a form usually requires, and never fill a blank limit with a customary figure: that figure would become the number the owner is told to buy.

Step 6 — Write the recommendation memo + broker RFP checklist

Use assets/insurance_memo_template.md for the recommendation memo. The memo includes:

• Header — project, phase, date, prepared by.
• Required policy matrix — table with policy type, who carries, recommended limit, required endorsements.
• OCIP / CCIP / traditional recommendation — with reasoning.
• Article 11 / Exhibit A status — what is in the contract today, what needs to be added.
• Broker RFP checklist (use assets/broker_rfp_checklist.md) — what to send to the licensed broker for market quote.
• Disclaimers — not broker advice, not bound coverage, not insurance counsel.

Write the memo to docs/insurance/<project-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md and append a row to docs/insurance/index.md.

Step 7 — Hand off

The memo is a recommendation, not a bound policy. Hand off to:

• Licensed insurance broker — for market quote and binding. Provide the broker RFP checklist.
• Owner's procurement / legal — for confirming contract Article 11 + Exhibit A complete.
• Contractor / sub procurement — for flow-down requirements to subcontractors.
• contract-advisor — if Article 11 needs amendment beyond the standard fill-in fields.

Anti-patterns

• Never quote premium dollars. This skill names limits to request — the broker quotes the premium.
• Never bind coverage or commit on behalf of any party. Output is a recommendation only.
• Never recall a contract's insurance articles or its limit fill-ins from memory. Standard forms restructure their insurance provisions between editions, and the limits are project-specific fields somebody had to complete. Quote from the text supplied, or record the line as not found.
• Never recall state Workers' Comp / Auto requirements from memory. State-by-state. Direct the user to verify with the broker or state insurance department.
• Never recommend dropping a coverage that the executed contract requires. Flag the conflict; let owner + counsel resolve.
• Never present this skill's tier-based limit recommendations as published industry standards. Limits are heuristics drawn from IRMI Construction Risk Management practice and common owner-side requirements; the broker's market analysis governs.

Resources

• scripts/init_insurance_workspace.py — bootstrap docs/insurance/ and index.md.
• references/policy_types_reference.md — standard policy categories with what they cover and recommended limit tiers by project value.
• references/delivery_method_insurance_matrix.md — DBB / DB / CMAR / IPD insurance allocation matrix.
• references/ocip_ccip_decision.md — wrap-up program decision criteria.
• assets/insurance_memo_template.md — recommendation memo template.
• assets/broker_rfp_checklist.md — broker RFP checklist template.