Definitions

What is an OCIP?

A plain explanation of owner-controlled insurance programs: what the term means, what the program covers, who is enrolled, who is left out, and the words you will meet in the paperwork. No pitch, no jargon left unexplained.

Jump to the glossary

If you have a live project and need to know whether a wrap-up is the right structure for it, the main OCIP page covers that decision instead.

In one paragraph

OCIP, defined

An Owner-Controlled Insurance Program is a single insurance program, bought and controlled by the owner of a construction project, that covers the general contractor and all enrolled subcontractors for work performed at that project site.

It normally provides general liability, excess liability and workers’ compensation, and it keeps covering completed work for years after the job finishes.

The same structure bought by the general contractor instead is a CCIP.

The term

What the letters mean

OCIP stands for Owner-Controlled Insurance Program. Each word is doing work.

Owner. The project owner or developer is the one buying it. That is what separates an OCIP from the alternatives.

Controlled. The buyer holds the policy, directs the claims, and keeps the benefit of a good loss year. Control is the part people underestimate.

Insurance Program. Not a single policy. A program, usually general liability plus an excess tower plus workers’ compensation, sometimes with other coverages attached.

You will also see it called a wrap-up, because the program wraps around every enrolled party on the site. Wrap-up is the generic term. OCIP and CCIP are the two ways of sponsoring one.

Insurance people sometimes call the coverage itself project liability insurance, because it attaches to one project rather than to one company’s annual policy. That phrase describes what the program does more accurately than the acronym does.

The alternative

What it replaces

To understand what an OCIP is, it helps to see what happens without one.

On a conventional project, every company on site brings its own insurance. The owner hires a general contractor. The general contractor hires thirty or forty subcontractors. Each of those carries its own general liability policy, its own workers’ compensation, and possibly its own excess layer. Different carriers, different policy forms, different limits, different renewal dates.

The owner’s protection then rests on a stack of certificates and additional insured endorsements that somebody has to collect, read, and chase when they lapse.

An OCIP replaces that stack with one program. The contractors stop building insurance cost into their bids and deduct it instead, and the owner buys the coverage centrally for the whole site.

Scope

What is inside the program

Most owner-controlled programs provide three things.

General liability. The core of the program. Covers bodily injury and property damage the enrolled parties cause to third parties while working on the site, and keeps covering the completed work afterwards.
Excess or umbrella liability. Sits above the general liability. Towers of $25 million to $100 million or more are routine on large projects.
Workers’ compensation. Covers enrolled contractors’ employees for injuries at that site, in place of each contractor’s own policy for those hours.

Some programs add contractors pollution liability, and a few attach limited professional liability. Those are additions rather than assumptions, and they are priced separately.

Limits of the program

What stays outside it

This is the part most often misunderstood. An OCIP is not general insurance for everyone involved. It covers defined parties, doing defined work, in one defined place.

Commonly outside an owner-controlled program.
Exposure	Why it sits outside
Anything off the project site	The program covers work at the designated site. Shops, yards, fabrication space and staging areas elsewhere are not part of it.
Vehicles	Automobile liability stays on each contractor’s own policy, including driving to and from the job.
Tools and equipment	Each contractor insures its own.
Builders risk	Covers physical damage to the work itself. Normally a separate policy, usually bought by the owner alongside the wrap.
Professional liability	Design and design-build exposure needs its own program.
Each contractor’s other projects	Entirely separate. Enrollment in one wrap has no bearing on any other job.

Because of that boundary, every enrolled contractor still needs its own insurance. Enrollment narrows what that policy has to do on one job. It does not remove the need for it.

Enrollment

Who is enrolled, and who is not

Enrolled parties are usually the general contractor and the subcontractors of every tier performing work at the site. Enrollment is normally a condition of the subcontract, so it is not optional for the trades it applies to.

Certain categories are excluded by the program itself, and the exclusions are fairly consistent across carriers:

Hazardous materials contractors, including abatement and remediation
Truckers, haulers and suppliers who deliver without performing installation on site
Design professionals of every kind
Contractors below a stated contract value, often somewhere around $25,000 to $50,000
Blasting and demolition contractors on many programs

Excluded contractors work under their own insurance and are usually required to evidence specified limits instead.

Duration

Why it keeps running after the job ends

Construction claims arrive late. A defect in work performed in year one may not become visible until year seven.

So an owner-controlled program buys completed operations coverage that continues for years after the project closes out. Ten years is common on commercial work. Where state construction defect statutes run longer, the extension can run longer, and it is frequently the most expensive single element of the program.

That long tail is a large part of why owners sponsor these programs at all. It is also why the length of the extension, and whether the limits are dedicated to the project or shared, are worth checking carefully.

Terminology

Other names for the same thing

Terms you will meet, and what they actually refer to.
Term	What it means
Wrap-up	The generic name for this structure, sponsored by anyone.
Wrap-up insurance / wrap insurance / insurance wrap	The same thing. Used interchangeably.
OCIP	A wrap-up sponsored by the project owner.
CCIP	A wrap-up sponsored by the general contractor or construction manager.
Project liability insurance	The liability coverage attached to one project rather than to a company’s annual programme. Often the more precise description.
Rolling wrap	One program covering every qualifying project a sponsor starts inside an enrollment window, rather than a single job.
Practice programme	A contractor’s own annual policy, as opposed to project-specific coverage.

One warning worth having. Searching for CCIP on its own mostly returns Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, which has nothing to do with insurance. In a construction context, CCIP always means a contractor-controlled insurance program.

Reference

Glossary

The words that appear in wrap-up paperwork and cause the most confusion.

Wrap-up terminology.
Term	Meaning
Bid deduction	The insurance cost a contractor removes from its bid because the wrap is providing that coverage instead.
Completed operations	Coverage for damage or injury caused by work after it is finished and handed over.
Enrollment	The process of bringing a contractor into the program before it starts work.
Self-insured retention (SIR)	An amount the sponsor pays on each claim before the insurer responds. Similar to a deductible, handled differently.
Dedicated limits	Limits reserved for this project alone, rather than shared with the sponsor’s other work.
Aggregate	The total the policy will pay across all claims in a period. Once exhausted, nothing is left for later claims.
Payroll audit	The reconciliation at close-out between estimated and actual payroll, which adjusts the final premium.
Class code	The workers’ compensation classification for a type of work. Payroll is reported by class code.
Experience modification	A factor reflecting a contractor’s loss history. Payroll inside a wrap generally comes out of the contractor’s own rating.
Additional insured	A party added to someone else’s policy. Weaker than being a named insured, and the wording varies a great deal.
Statute of repose	The outer time limit for bringing a construction defect claim in a given state. Drives how long the tail needs to run.
Program administrator	Whoever runs enrollment, payroll reporting, claims coordination and audit for the life of the program.

FAQ

Common questions

What does OCIP stand for?

Owner-Controlled Insurance Program. It is a single insurance program, purchased and controlled by the project owner, covering the general contractor and all enrolled subcontractors for work at one construction site. It normally provides general liability, excess liability and workers’ compensation, and extends completed-operations coverage for years after the job finishes.

What is the difference between OCIP and wrap-up insurance?

None, really. Wrap-up is the generic term for the structure. OCIP describes a wrap-up sponsored by the project owner, and CCIP describes one sponsored by the general contractor. All three describe the same basic arrangement, which is one insurance program covering multiple contractors on one project.

Is an OCIP one policy or several?

Several, normally sold and administered as one program. A typical structure has a general liability policy, an excess or umbrella tower above it, and a workers’ compensation policy. Contractors pollution liability is sometimes added. People refer to it in the singular because it behaves as one program with one sponsor, one administrator and one claims process.

Does an OCIP cover everything that happens on the project?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. It covers enrolled parties for work performed at the designated site. Vehicles, tools, off-site fabrication, builders risk, professional liability and each contractor’s other projects all sit outside it. A wrap-up is broad within a narrow boundary, and the boundary is the job site.

Who pays for an OCIP?

The sponsor pays the premium, so on an OCIP that is the project owner. The cost is partly recovered because enrolled contractors remove their own insurance cost from their bids, which is called a bid deduction. Whether the arrangement saves money overall depends on loss experience, the retention level, and how rigorously those deductions were verified.

How long does an OCIP last?

Through construction, plus a completed-operations extension afterwards. Ten years is common on commercial work, and residential work in states with long construction defect statutes can run longer. The construction period is the short part. The tail is where most of the exposure and a good deal of the cost sit.

Do subcontractors still need their own insurance?

Yes, always. The wrap covers enrolled parties only for work at that one site. Your shop, your yard, your vehicles, your tools, your employees travelling between jobs and every other project you are running remain on your own policy. Most programs also require enrolled subcontractors to maintain stated limits for off-site work and to evidence it.

Is an OCIP the same as builders risk?

No. Builders risk is first-party property insurance covering physical damage to the work itself while it is being built. An OCIP is liability insurance covering injury and damage the enrolled parties cause to others. They are frequently bought at the same time and coordinated with each other, but they answer different questions and are normally separate policies.

Who you would be working with

Cary W. White

Managing Director · ISU Insurance Services of San Francisco

Cary handles the wrap-up placements here. He has spent 38 years in construction insurance. The first ten were on the carrier side, underwriting builders’ risk and complex property exposures. The 28 since have been in retail brokerage, advising residential developers, general contractors and other construction clients on project-specific and annual programs.

He is also one of the original authors of the project liability application that much of the industry still uses to submit wrap-ups to carriers. In practice that means he knows what each question is actually asking for, and where a thin answer will cost you at quote.

cwhite@isusf.com · 415-613-5589

Pricing

Price your project

Tell us about the project and we will give you a straight answer on whether a wrap makes sense for it. If it does not, we will say so. That answer is worth more to you than a placement that costs more than it saves. This goes straight to Cary White, who handles wrap-up placements for our construction clients.

The project

Project name or description

State

City

Project type

Hard construction value

Estimated start date

Duration (months)

Structure and exposure

Who would sponsor the program

One project or rolling

Coverages sought (optional)

Limits sought (optional)

Estimated number of trades (optional)

Estimated total payroll (optional)

Loss history, last five years (a summary is fine, loss runs can follow)

Current or incumbent program (optional)

You

Name

Title

Company

Your role on the project

Phone

Anything else we should know (optional)

We will come back with a price range and what else underwriters will need. No obligation, and we will tell you if a wrap is the wrong answer.