Admiral Insurance Group offers a variety of specialty commercial casualty and professional liability insurance products. In business since 1974, with roots going back to 1952, Admiral is distributed through contracted licensed excess and surplus lines wholesale brokers. A member of the W.R. Berkley Corporation, a Fortune 500 Company, Admiral focuses on providing commercial insurance for areas that many insurers won’t cover.
In this review, we take an in-depth look at Admiral’s coverage options, ratings, digital experience, and more to help you decide if it’s the right commercial insurance provider to meet your needs.
Admiral Pros and Cons
If you’re thinking of using Admiral for commercial insurance products, it’s crucial to consider the company’s benefits and drawbacks:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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AdvisorSmith Rating for Admiral Insurance
- Overall rating: [2.7] / 5 stars
- Coverage options: [4] / 5 stars
- Cost: [2] / 5 stars
- Ratings and complaints: [3] / 5 stars
- Digital experience: [2.5] / 5 stars
- Customer service: [1] / 5 stars
Admiral Commercial Insurance Coverage Options
Admiral provides coverage for companies through wholesale-dedicated excess and surplus lines of commercial insurance. They specialize in supporting moderate to high-risk companies that need creative solutions that can’t be found with traditional commercial insurance providers. Commercial insurance products available through Admiral’s brokers include:
- Tech Errors & Omissions: This coverage is tailored specifically for technology service professionals.
- Professional Liability for Architects and Engineers: This policy is intended to meet the complex insurance requirements of all design professionals and can be project-specific.
- Contractors Professional Liability: This modular policy is designed for general contractors, artisan contractors, and at-risk construction management firms. Covers risks related to design, delivery, hiring of subcontractors, and potential pollution liability from construction activities.
- Professional Liability for Insurance Agents & Brokers: A coverage option that addresses the unique challenges that insurance agents and brokers face.
- Miscellaneous Professional Liability: For business professionals who need professional liability insurance but don’t fall under industry-specific products.
- Commercial Casualty: Provides coverage for property damage, defect, malfunction, or bodily injury. This coverage is intended for moderate to high-risk accounts, including manufacturers, distributors, contractors, construction, and installation.
- Health, Nutrition & Lifestyle Coverage: This insurance product provides protection for businesses in the dietary supplements industry.
- Liquor Liability Coverage: Intended for businesses that serve alcohol, this coverage protects against risks such as third-party bodily harm and property damage, legal costs, and additional claims not covered under other liability coverage.
- Cannabis Coverage: This casualty coverage is for cultivators, processors, wholesalers, and dispensaries in states where medicinal or recreational use of cannabis is legal.
- Product Liability: Product liability coverage is protection for a defective product. The coverage is applicable to businesses of any size that manufacture or distribute products.
Additionally, Admiral has a variety of insurance products for those in the healthcare industry, including medical malpractice and coverage for healthcare facilities, clinical trials, home health care, medical spas, and ambulatory surgery centers.
Admiral also advertises a comprehensive cannabis program (in addition to the cannabis coverage listed above) available through Berkley Connect Insurance Solutions.
Admiral Cost
Admiral doesn’t indicate the average costs of its insurance products. But that’s likely because of the highly specialized focus of its policies. It’s also because Admiral is an approved non-admitted insurance carrier in all states, plus Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada. Non-admitted insurers aren’t subject to local rules on rates.
Given the specialized high-risk coverage offered, it’s safe to say that Admiral’s premiums will likely be pricey. But it could be difficult – or impossible – to find the same coverage with other commercial insurance providers.
Admiral Ratings and Complaints
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of reviews available for Admiral. And by “not a lot,” we mean virtually none. (There are a ton of reviews on Trustpilot for Admiral insurance, but that’s for a company in the U.K., and we noticed some confusion between the two Admirals on another review site as well.)
The lack of reviews likely comes from policyholders dealing with individual brokers rather than the company. However, we did find a small handful of reviews on Admiral’s website. While it’s always best to take reviews on company websites with a grain of salt, one review regarding a settled claim caught our attention:
“I know this has had financial impact to Admiral, but I really appreciate the way your company has stepped up to handle this matter in a manner that has not detracted from our business continuation.”
Though Admiral is not Better Business Bureau accredited, it has a less than favorable BBB rating of C. According to the BBB, the rating is due to failure to respond to a complaint filed against the business.
When we look at the National Complaint Index Report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which tracks complaints made by policyholders about insurance companies, Admiral has an index score of 0.13 for 2021. That’s significantly better than the median complaint score of 1.0.
For its financial strength, Admiral has a rating of A+ from AM Best and A+ from Standard & Poor’s.
Admiral Digital Experience
At first, it looks like Admiral’s website has a lot going for it. But after a bit of a closer look, things weren’t nearly as impressive.
Admiral’s website is laid out in a fairly easy-to-navigate manner (though a search function would be helpful). And it does appear that there’s a lot of information about the available products. However, it’s obvious that Admiral’s website is geared towards brokers. Not that that’s bad, but it doesn’t really help business owners looking up insurance options. That probably explains why there isn’t an online chat option or the ability to get a quote online. There also isn’t a mobile app available from what we could find.
The website does provide an option to locate nearby brokers. But we can’t help but notice that it’s up to customers to take action and get in touch with brokers to start the quote/application process.
All-in-all, it’s an uninspiring digital experience.
Admiral Customer Service
This is a hard one to gauge. Admiral’s website does provide general contact information, but we’re doubtful that this actually goes to a customer service line for policyholders. In fact, one response from the company to a review on Glassdoor has us thinking that Admiral’s customer service is non-existent: “…we do not have Customer Service or Call Center as you mentioned regarding incentives.” So, based on that, we’re going to assume that the contact information listed is just for brokers.
Other Services and Features that Admiral Offers
Admiral offers policyholders additional (and free) risk management and loss control support through SmartRisk. Through SmartRisk, policyholders can access pre-claim assistance, contract review services, an online risk management resource center, and more.
What is Admiral’s Claims Process?
Based on the initial impression of Admiral’s digital experience, we didn’t have much hope for the claims process. But there was good news – with a small caveat.
The good news is that Admiral’s website outlines how a claim can be submitted (online, mail, fax, email). They also provide some examples of real claims situations and responses.
The caveat is that it appears that a broker, not a policyholder, must initiate the claims process.
How to Get Quotes from Admiral
Admiral doesn’t give any information on how to get an insurance quote for their products. Presumably, you would have to contact a local broker to get a quote.
As mentioned earlier, there is the option to locate brokers, but customers are responsible for reaching out for more information and to get the quote/application process rolling.
Bottom Line: Is Admiral a Good Company?
That depends. Have you been on an endless search for commercial insurance products to support your moderate or high-risk business? Then yes. Do you have a tech startup with a handful of employees and are looking for some traditional commercial insurance? Then definitely not.
Admiral is a good option for businesses that require highly-specialized coverage. Plus, Admiral has solid financial stability, allowing it to handle complex and high-risk accounts.
But if your business just needs a general liability policy or business owner’s policy, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
Alternatives to Admiral
If you want another excess and surplus carrier to compare to Admiral’s offerings, check out Westchester. A Chubb company, Westchester takes pride in being one of the largest and most diverse excess and surplus lines commercial property and casualty insurance underwriters in the U.S. Westchester provides insurance for large corporate, middle, and small markets with unique and complex risks. Plus, Westchester holds a financial strength rating of A++ from AM Best, which allows it to be flexible in creating innovative solutions to meet specific needs.
On the other hand, if you’re a small business owner looking for customized commercial insurance products without a massive price tag then we suggest looking into Embroker. With Embroker, you can shop online or work with a broker to get tailored insurance that meets your needs. Embroker works with leading insurance carriers to provide protection for businesses that are difficult-to-place or in emerging industries like crypto and cannabis. Plus, Embroker offers 24/7 support and real-time claims tracking, which goes a long way in providing policyholders with peace of mind about their commercial insurance coverage.
