what is the 100-day insurance plan?

why does the operating partner own the sponsor items?

Most post-close insurance work lands on the portfolio-company CFO or controller. That works for certificates and audits. It breaks on the items that sit between the fund and the company.

• Board designee D&O. Weil’s private equity group wrote in 2019 that assigning portfolio-company D&O to management, without a board-level review of the terms, “can be a big mistake.” In Goggin, the Delaware Superior Court applied a capacity exclusion and found no coverage for two directors who also acted for investment vehicles. Weil.
• Fund versus company overlap. McGuireWoods (July 23, 2026) describes insurers on fund and portfolio-company D&O, fiduciary, and cyber policies each saying the other policy is primary, which stalls payment. McGuireWoods via JD Supra.
• Holding companies and blockers. The same McGuireWoods article notes that holding companies, blockers, and investing vehicles can fall outside the definition of “Insured” on both the fund policy and the portfolio-company policy.

Those are sponsor questions. The operating partner is usually the person who sees both sides. The company-team checklist is the first 100 days. This page is the longer operating-partner version. The longer read on board seats is whether portfolio-company D&O covers sponsor designees.

what should you confirm about the policies at closing?

Do not treat the purchase-agreement label as a coverage result. Read each policy. McGuireWoods explains that canceling a claims-made policy at closing without run-off can leave pre-close wrongful acts uninsured, and that buyers typically arrange multi-year run-off, often discussed as six years, before closing. Source.

Coverage is subject to underwriting and policy forms. Only a binder or policy creates coverage.

what has to be finished in the first 30 days?

Goal: nothing promised at closing is still open, and nobody has to guess who to call.

• Reconcile the binder to the closing plan. Insured entities, effective dates, locations, limits, deductibles, and payment status. Flag anything that differs.
• Close insurer conditions. Subjectivities, inspections, signed applications, and loss runs still owed. Each one gets an owner and a date.
• Lender deliverables. Read the credit agreement for evidence of insurance, additional insured status, lender loss payee on property, and notice of cancellation. Lippes Mathias explains that lender loss payee status can protect the lender from defenses the insurer could raise against the borrower, and that a plain loss payee does not. Those rights come from endorsements. Lippes Mathias. If the agreement sets a post-closing window, calendar that date. The agreement decides whether a miss is a default.
• Certificates. List the customers, landlords, and general contractors who need updated evidence. Check the contract for additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary and noncontributory wording before the certificate is issued. New York DFS has explained that a certificate is information and does not confer rights the policy does not give. New York DFS. Since 2009 the standard ACORD certificate says notice follows the policy, so a notice right needs an endorsement. Big I.
• Tails. Confirm in writing that any D&O, E&O, cyber, or employment-practices tail the purchase agreement required was bound, with the length and limit the agreement states.
• Change-of-control notices. Confirm every insurer that needed notice or consent received it, and keep the responses.
• One claims owner. McGuireWoods notes that a “claim” under many of these policies can include a written demand, not only a lawsuit, and that late notice can put coverage at risk. Name the person who receives injury reports, cyber incidents, demand letters, and regulator contact, and who tells the broker the same day.

what should the sponsor confirm by day 60?

Goal: the fund and the company are covered the way the sponsor assumes they are.

• Board designee D&O. Read the portfolio-company policy for the capacity exclusion, the insured-versus-insured exclusion, and the definition of “Insured.” Ask whether sponsor designees are covered in their director capacity, and whether the fund’s management liability or general-partner liability policy covers outside directorships excess of the company. Hunton Andrews Kurth describes that outside-director extension as often sitting on a double-excess basis: it responds when the company cannot indemnify and company insurance is unavailable or exhausted. Hunton.
• Which policy pays first. Where both the fund and the company carry D&O, fiduciary, or cyber coverage, McGuireWoods recommends other-insurance wording that makes the company policy primary, plus a priority-of-payments clause on the company policy. Ask the broker and coverage counsel to line those clauses up with the indemnity agreement.
• Cyber before the systems move. McGuireWoods flags post-close gaps when IT systems are integrated, when the target’s cyber policy is near renewal, and when a pre-close incident surfaces later. Confirm the retroactive date, acquired-entity wording, and which breach counsel and forensics firms the policy approves before the migration starts.
• The exposure schedule. Update payroll, revenue, locations, vehicles, and contracts to the business as it runs now, including hires, sites, and any add-on already signed. Underwriters price the business they are told about.
• Audits and collateral. Know when workers’ comp and general liability audits land, and which letters of credit or premium-finance agreements came with the program.

what should be closed or consciously accepted by day 100?

Goal: diligence gaps are bought, changed, or accepted on paper, and the first renewal is not a surprise.

• Diligence findings. A common pair on founder-run targets is cyber and employment practices liability. Decide: buy, change the limit or retention, or accept and record why.
• Benefits handoff. Work with the benefits advisor and ERISA counsel on plan continuation, any retirement-plan merger or termination, and who files Form 5500. The U.S. Department of Labor describes COBRA as continuation of group health coverage for a limited time after qualifying events such as termination of employment. Whether a PEO exit is a qualifying event for this workforce is their question, not a broker’s conclusion. DOL.
• PEO exit, if the company used one. NCCI describes two common workers’ comp structures. On a multiple coordinated policy, each client has its own policy and its own mod, and ending that client’s leasing contract cancels that client policy. On a master policy, one policy is issued to the PEO and one mod is applied at the PEO level, though some states require client-level experience to be kept. Multiple coordinated policies. Master policy. Set the replacement workers’ comp effective date to the PEO end date, and ask for the client-level split of payroll and claims NCCI uses when a client leaves. Experience-rating data reporting.
• Workers’ comp mod. Report the ownership change on the form the bureau requires. In NCCI states that is the ERM-14. Ask whether experience will be combined or left in place before you model the next add-on. What happens to the mod.
• One-page board summary. Coverage by entity, open items, decisions deferred and why, and renewal dates. It is the document that saves time at the next add-on and at exit.

when should the first renewal start?

This is a planning cadence for the operating partner and the broker. It is not a carrier rule, and it does not extend a policy expiration. If a policy expires inside the first 100 days, that renewal moves ahead of everything else on this list. The company-team page is the first renewal after an acquisition. The longer version, including the audit bill and the renewal bridge, is why insurance went up at the first renewal.

New ownership often changes payroll, locations, and contracts, and carriers re-underwrite. A process is more useful here than any statement about price. This page does not promise savings.

what does an illustrative 100-day file look like?

Coverage is subject to underwriting and policy forms. Only a binder or policy creates coverage.

what belongs on the 100-day checklist?

If the company’s current broker already runs certificates, claims, and audits well, keep them on that work. Add deal-focused help where the sponsor’s board seats, the credit agreement, or a PEO exit changed the job. Questions for that choice are in how to choose a broker for the portfolio.