Workers Comp Endorsements Are Worth a Look
The Endorsements section of a Workers Comp policy is not actually a section. Endorsements on any policy including Workers Comp are always at the end. Why?
A policy may be endorsed many times. I have seen a few that were endorsed almost 200 times. However, it was a huge policy on a very large national company which had stores in every state.
Every policy has the same section or parts. One can memorize them by spelling out DICEE. The parts are Declarations, Inclusions, Conditions, Exclusions and Endorsements. The Declarations or Dec Page is what most insurance workers consider the most important part.
The Endorsements are at the end of the policy as they are additions to the policy. Trying to alter the internal parts of the policy would cause so much confusion that a flowchart would be needed to keep track of the changes.
The Endorsement part of the policy may not be produced at the time of inception. The Endorsements are usually added after a policy begins unless they are used to alter the policy at the beginning.
The Endorsements may come by mail or email as the policy is endorsed each time. These communications – whether from an agent or directly from the insurance company must be monitored very carefully.
One of the reasons is that anything in the policy may be changed by Endorsement – even the Dec Page which contain your original policy premiums.
I have a policy sitting on my desk which has been endorsed two times resulting in over a 100% increase in the policy premiums even before the premium audit.
Many endorsements are not that important. However, who will decide which ones are important or not? Call your agent if your Workers Comp policy is endorsed to ask your agent any questions. The endorsement should not be filed away and then ignored until later.
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