Excess med mal insurance -- where do you find this?

[Anonymous]

My spouse is a primary care physician, and the practice carries standard med mal insurance of 1m / claim. We are fortunate to have material financial resources, and the limitations on the med mal coverage have always been a cause of concern. However, we have not been able to find an insurer to provide excess med mal coverage, and I know our standard umbrella policy excludes it. Does anyone know where one can turn for excess med mal coverage in Maryland? Thank you in advance for any leads.

Alternatively, if anyone has a great insurance broker they love in MD, I'd love a referral.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t it be better if he asked colleagues in the same profession for advice on this? They could probably provide better info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t it be better if he asked colleagues in the same profession for advice on this? They could probably provide better info.

+2

I work in commercial insurance and wouldn’t even know where to start for your husband, but people in the same situation would have insight.

[Anonymous]

In the meantime, make sure all assets are titled "tenancy by the entirety" as it grants immunity from the claims of separate creditors. We've twice now had to hold up closing on a house because the closings agents screwed this up and we refused to close until it was fixed. Its an incredible legal tool for married people.

Also, OP keep as much of your own money separate as you can because you cannot be sued for something your husband does.

[Anonymous]

OP back, thanks for the advice thus far. Incidentally, I'm the husband; physician spouse is the wife.

Re asking colleagues: We have tried, and none carry excess coverage. For most physician families, it seems that the physician is often the primary wage earner. Here, that is not our situation; the physician income is a very small fraction of our annual income. In all events, we'd like at least 10m in excess med mal coverage, and we have yet to hear from a physician friend with such coverage in place.

Re commercial insurance poster--I know! Our insurance broker has no idea where to turn. Which is why I posted here with hopes that someone else may have thought through this before.

Re structuring assets--Yes, we do that to a bit. But my wife doesn't love the idea--reasonable in my view--that we should structure our finances such that she is not titled on the bulk of the assets we bring in. Moreover, rather than hedge against risk by trying to render her judgment proof, we'd much rather have adequate insurance in the event of a catastrophic loss, as we do for the balance of our risk factors. The whole point is that, in the event of a claim, we'd like to be able to resolve it via an in limits settlement; we do not want to get hit with a significant judgment and then attempt to avoid payment.

[Anonymous]

I would start with the same carrier of the practice’s insurance.

A google search for excess liability for medical practice produces hits but that is largely stabbing in the dark.