Consumers are asking for insurance coverage of drones, which is why the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) has announced new forms and rules in the Agriculture General Liability Program (AgGL). The organization has also filed a new Personal & Advertising Injury Liability Aircraft Exclusion to address this new liability exposure.

To date the AgGL endorsements have been approved in 34 states.

AAIS’ new endorsements were created in anticipation of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) long-awaited Final sUAS Regulations for small commercial UAS (under 55 pounds). The new regulations were published June 21, 2016 and will become effective August 29, 2016. The economic impact of this ruling is expected to be first felt in farm and agribusiness as it is the fastest growing commercial sector using drones.

AAIS leads the national Property & Casualty insurance advisory industry in providing two specialized Agricultural General Liability (AgGL) products: one to meet the needs of large farms and one for commercial agricultural exposures. The AgGL program includes coverage of more than 300 expert classes, thus writing a separate commercial general liability policy is not necessary with the AAIS coverage forms.

With UAVs poised to change the field of agriculture, along with the expected FFA regulations allowing farm operations to monitor from 400 feet, the AAIS will soon be releasing even more additional forms and rules for drones.

“As an industry leader in the farming and agriculture sector, we anticipated the need our members would have and their demand has been great,” said Leslie Rippley, AAIS vice president of commercial lines, farm & agribusiness. “Thus, our first filing for Agricultural General Liability Unmanned Aircraft coverage offers large commercial farm and agricultural operations a solution tailored to their more complex exposures.”