Ace the 2026 CISR Commercial Casualty II Exam – Unleash Your Insurance Expertise!

The term describing defense coverage that applies within the self-insured retention in an umbrella policy is first-dollar defense. This means the insurer steps in to pay defense costs even while the claim is still within the SIR amount, so the insured isn’t paying those defense expenses out of pocket up to that level. This is different from defenses that would be paid only after the SIR is exhausted (outside the SIR) or from terms that aren’t standard labels for this arrangement. In short, first-dollar defense provides defense cost coverage right as the claim sits inside the SIR.