Attachment and Exhaustion
What this clause says
This Policy shall attach only after the insurers of the Underlying Insurance shall have paid, in legal currency, the full amount of the Underlying Limit as damages.
What this actually means
Attachment language says exactly what has to happen before the excess layer starts paying. The dangerous formulation is exhaustion by payment of damages, because it does not count defense costs, and on a policy where defense erodes the primary limit that creates a gap between the top of the primary and the bottom of the excess.
What it means for an operator
This is the most consequential piece of small print in a senior care tower and it is almost never discussed at renewal. If the primary is $1M written defense-inside and the claim consumes $400,000 in defense and $600,000 in settlement, the primary is exhausted. If the excess attaches only on payment of $1M in damages, it has not attached, and the $400,000 difference is yours. Ask for attachment on exhaustion by payment of damages and claim expenses, and confirm it on every layer rather than on the first excess alone.
Why the Policy Checker does not score this
This term is worth understanding and cannot be checked from a declarations page. There is no single field that would answer it, and scoring it from an assumption would produce a confident wrong finding, which is the one thing a tool like this must never do. It is defined here and left out of the check.
See this in your policy
Check this term against your own program.
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Common questions about this clause
- Do defense costs count against the limit on a senior care liability policy?
- What is a quota share layer in a senior care excess tower?
- How should a senior care operator size limits against nuclear verdicts?
- Does my excess policy follow form over abuse coverage?
- Does a single-community operator need excess liability at all?