WHAT WE DO
FROM TREASURE HUNT TO TREASURE MAP

Insurance archaeology originally developed as an asset recovery tool for companies caught up in two huge waves of retroactive liability claims: asbestos contamination and environmental cleanup imposed by Superfund legislation. Companies faced with liability for actions that took place decades ago discovered that old Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) policies were applicable if damage occurred within the policy period. Necessity spurred treasure hunts for the valuable old policies, and insurance archaeologists developed a specialized set of tools to aid this search.

In the past decade, as the potential legal liabilities faced by organizations of all types and sizes have continued to multiply, and as insurers have grown ever-more creative in finding grounds for claims denial, companies have increasingly recognized that a complete audit, recovery and organization of their past and present insurance policies is an essential best practice of risk management. With current and potential legal liabilities taking up an ever larger proportion of any company's risk portfolio, managing the insurance portfolio has become as essential as managing expenses, revenue and assets.

The process of notifying decades worth of insurers of a claim and then dealing with the inevitable and overwhelming requests for documentation that follow can severely tax any company's ability to pursue coverage. A company that does not come prepared with full details of all possible coverage will be at a disadvantage in dealing with its insurers. Moving proactively to locate and organize historic insurance policies and to document all secondary evidence of coverage saves time and money in the hour of need -- when it's time to seek defense and indemnification for liabilities of long ago.