Contractors & trades
Electrical, HVAC, plumbing, concrete, framing, drywall, flooring, fencing, landscaping and pools. General contractors and artisan trades, including crews carrying tools and equipment between job sites daily.
Nashville, Tennessee · Independent commercial brokerage
Commercial insurance for the risks other agents hand back.
Ibex Risk Management places coverage for contractors, trades, storefronts, property owners and professional firms across Middle Tennessee. We go to admitted carriers first, and the surplus lines market when the risk calls for it.
- Licensed in Tennessee
- Independent, not captive
- Admitted & surplus lines markets
- No fee to shop your coverage
Coverage
Built around how carriers actually underwrite.
Appetite is decided by class of business, not by product brochure. Coverage below is grouped the same way. Find the description that matches your operation.
Storefronts, shops & restaurants
Retail, food service, salons, gyms and the everyday service businesses operating out of a lease with a build-out and a handful of employees. Property and liability packaged together, with workers’ compensation alongside.
Landlords & property owners
Lessor’s risk only, mixed-use buildings, small retail strips and light industrial. Including older construction, partial vacancy, and tenant mixes the standard market avoids.
Professional & consulting firms
Consultants, agencies, IT and technology services, bookkeepers, real estate and other firms whose exposure is advice rather than premises. Errors and omissions is the policy that decides whether a claim is survivable.
Fleets & commercial auto
Owned vehicles, hired and non-owned exposure, and employees driving personal vehicles on company business. That last one is the gap that surprises owners most often at claim time.
Renters
Tenant coverage for belongings and personal liability, quoted and issued online. Often required by a lease, and usually the least expensive policy we write.
Hard-to-place
Declined is not the same as uninsurable.
Most accounts are declined because of the class of business, a loss year, or a property condition, not because the risk is genuinely unwritable. The surplus lines market exists precisely for these, and we have a direct path into it.
Why accounts get declined
Roofing and work at height. Excavation depth. A class the carrier exited. One bad claim year. A vacant unit. Older wiring or roof age. Prior cancellation. None of these are the end of the conversation.
What we can access
Surplus lines general liability, monoline commercial property, excess casualty, builder’s risk, vacant property, special events and unusual classes, alongside the admitted market for everything that qualifies there.
What it costs you
Surplus lines carriers price freely and are not backed by the state guaranty association. We will tell you plainly which market a quote comes from, and why, before you bind anything.
Our approach
An independent brokerage is a different job.
Not a discount version of a big-name insurer. It is a different function entirely. The difference shows up in three places.
We answer to you, not a carrier
A captive agent has one company’s rates and one company’s appetite. When that company says no, the conversation ends. We represent the client, so a declination from one market is the start of the work rather than the end of it.
Admitted first, surplus lines when warranted
Admitted carriers file their rates with the state and stand behind the Tennessee Insurance Guaranty Association, so they get the first look every time. Surplus lines is a deliberate second step, never a shortcut.
You don’t pay us
Commission comes from the carrier and is built into the premium whether or not you use a broker. Shopping your coverage costs nothing, and we are paid the same regardless of which carrier you choose, so the recommendation is the honest one.
Tell us about the operation
One conversation, roughly fifteen minutes. What you do, who you do it for, payroll and revenue, vehicles, prior claims. If you already carry a policy, the declarations page answers most of it for you.
We take it to the market
The same submission goes to every carrier with appetite for your class, in one round rather than one at a time. If the admitted market declines it, the surplus lines submission is already moving.
You see the options side by side
Limits, deductibles, exclusions and premium compared in one place, with a recommendation and the reasoning behind it, including where a cheaper quote is cheaper because it covers less.
Service standards
What you can expect after the policy is bound.
Placing coverage is the easy part. Most of the value of a broker shows up in the twelve months afterwards.
Certificates of insurance
Same business day in most cases, and usually within the hour during business hours. If a job or a lease is waiting on one, say so and it moves to the front.
Contract insurance requirements
Send us the subcontract or lease before you sign. We check the required limits, additional insured wording, primary and non-contributory status and waivers of subrogation against what you actually carry.
Subcontractor certificate tracking
For general contractors: we track your subs’ certificates and expiration dates, so an uninsured sub does not become your loss, or your payroll charge at audit.
Claims
Report it to us and we open it with the carrier, chase the adjuster and stay on it. No portal, no ticket queue, no phone tree.
Mid-term changes
New vehicle, new employee, new location, new service line. Tell us within thirty days and we endorse the policy before it becomes a coverage gap.
Renewal review
We re-market before renewal rather than letting it roll. If the incumbent is still the right answer, we will say so.
Questions
The ones we actually get asked.
What is this going to cost?
It depends on class of business, revenue, payroll, the limits you need and claims history. That is why nobody can quote honestly from a webpage. As a rough shape, general liability for a small service business often lands under $100 a month, a contractor’s package with tools and equipment costs more, and workers’ compensation is priced almost entirely off payroll and class code.
Fifteen minutes gets you a real number instead of a range.
What’s the difference between an admitted carrier and surplus lines?
Admitted carriers file their rates with the State of Tennessee and participate in the Tennessee Insurance Guaranty Association, which steps in if the insurer becomes insolvent. Surplus lines carriers do neither. In exchange they can write risks the admitted market refuses and price them freely.
Neither is the bad option. Which is right depends mostly on whether the admitted market will take your business at all, and we will tell you plainly which one a quote comes from.
Do I need workers’ compensation in Tennessee?
In construction and the trades, yes, from the first employee, with no small-employer exemption. Outside construction and coal mining, the requirement generally begins at five or more employees, full or part time.
Plenty of businesses under that threshold carry it anyway, because general contractors, landlords and larger customers ask for a certificate before letting you on the job.
My last agent said nobody would write my business. Is that true?
Usually it means their carriers wouldn’t. A captive agent has exactly one appetite to work with, and even a small independent agency may have only four or five.
If you were declined over class of business, a rough loss year, or a vacant or unusual property, there is very often a surplus lines market that will look at it. That is the entire reason the surplus lines market exists.
How fast can I get a certificate of insurance?
Same business day in most cases, and usually within the hour during business hours. If a job or a closing is waiting on it, call rather than email and say so.
Do I have to move everything at once?
No. Most accounts move one line at a time as each policy comes up for renewal, so nothing lapses and nothing is cancelled short. Send the declarations page 45 to 60 days before a renewal date and we will have options ready well before it matters.
By trade
Detail for the classes we write most.
Each page covers how carriers actually underwrite that trade, the class codes behind the premium, and what to have ready before a submission.
Contractors and trades
General liability, workers compensation, tools and fleet for Nashville contractors.
Roofing
The hardest common trade to place. Usually surplus lines, and worth understanding why.
HVAC
Completed operations is the coverage that matters when a unit fails months later.
Electrical
Underwritten on fire exposure and on what happens two years after the panel upgrade.
Plumbing
Water damage drives the losses. The wording on resulting damage decides the claim.
Workers compensation
Construction is held to a stricter Tennessee threshold than most industries.
Certificates and contracts
Why a certificate gets rejected, and what CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 actually mean.
Declined coverage
What a declination means, and how the surplus lines market differs.
Request a quote
Start here. It takes about a minute.
No charge, no obligation, and no commitment to move. We will come back to you with what the market says.
Already decided you want quotes? Go straight to the full application. About ten minutes, saves as you go, and gives me everything I need to take you to the market without a call.
Prefer not to fill in a form? Email quotes@ibexrisk.com or call (629) 213-4098. Sending the declarations page from your current policy is the fastest route to a real comparison.
Contact
Already a client?
Certificates, policy changes, claims and renewal questions all go to the same place. No portal and no ticket queue. Certificates are usually same day.
- Phone(629) 213-4098
- New businessquotes@ibexrisk.com
- Service & certificatesservice@ibexrisk.com
- Office
5016 Centennial Blvd, Ste 200
Nashville, TN 37209 - Hours Monday–Friday, 9–5 Central