Founder Shield vs USI Insurance Services Cyber Insurance

Founder Shield is a retail insurance brokerage, described on its site as “the innovation arm of The Baldwin Group,” and places Founder Shield Cyber Liability Insurance with third-party carriers rather than underwriting the policy itself. ⁷Company-reported. About-us page; applies to Founder Shield's brokerage model generally, restated here for this line.

USI is a broker, not an insurer, for cyber coverage. It places cyber and privacy liability policies for clients and layers on its own manuscripted program, PrivaSafe, rather than underwriting the risk itself. ^11,9Company-reported. PrivaSafe program page and USI's property & casualty and technology practice pages.

Founder Shield says it places policies, including Founder Shield Cyber Liability Insurance, only with carriers rated A- or better by AM Best, chosen for the client's industry. It does not name the issuing insurer for this line; that depends on which carrier the policy is placed with. ³Company-reported. General carrier-selection FAQ, not specific to this line's placements.

USI does not name the insurer that issues PrivaSafe or other cyber policies on the pages reviewed. PrivaSafe is described as a manuscripted (custom-drafted) coverage form that USI negotiates with the market, so the carrier varies by placement. ¹¹Not publicly disclosed. PrivaSafe program page as read on 2026-09-23; no dedicated cyber carrier list was found.

Founder Shield calls cyber coverage a priority for healthcare, financial services, SaaS and e-commerce companies, citing their exposure to data breaches and business interruption. ⁶Company-reported. Cyber Liability product page.

USI markets PrivaSafe to middle-market firms, saying they are particularly vulnerable to cyber events because they have limited in-house access to security expertise. The page also says any business that gathers personal or health information, manages a network, or accepts electronic payments is a potential target. ¹¹Company-reported. Program page marketing description, not an underwriting appetite statement.

Founder Shield lists loss or damage to electronic data, income loss and extra expense from a system outage, cyber extortion payments, and breach-notification and reputation-management costs as the branches of cyber coverage it places. ⁶Company-reported. Product page; the issued policy and declarations control actual coverage.

Founder Shield says cyber policies typically exclude loss of value from stolen IP, internal technology system upgrades, and possible future lost profits. ⁶Company-reported. Product page; specific exclusions depend on the issued policy.

USI describes PrivaSafe as covering three areas: liability costs (including inability to protect information and related tort liability), compliance and corrective costs (data breach and forensic costs, privacy regulatory costs, payment-card standards), and direct costs (network interruption, data reconstruction, cyber extortion, bricking, voluntary shutdown, reputational harm business interruption, and cyber crime). ¹¹Company-reported. PrivaSafe program page; actual insuring agreements and exclusions are set by the issued policy form.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

USI says PrivaSafe can prevent uninsured or underinsured losses up to $10 million, includes up to $2 million in notification-cost coverage in addition to the policy's aggregate limit, and $250,000 in defense-cost coverage outside the limit (with additional limit available). ¹¹Company-reported. Program page figures describe the PrivaSafe structure generally; a buyer's actual limits, sublimits and retentions are set on the policy declarations.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

USI says PrivaSafe includes pre-breach services to help avoid cyber threats and post-breach services designed to streamline incident response and recovery, on top of USI's general property & casualty cyber specialists. ^11,12Company-reported. Program page and property-casualty practice team description.

You request Founder Shield Cyber Liability Insurance through Founder Shield's website or an insurance advisor rather than binding coverage directly; Founder Shield says its placement team then approaches carriers on the client's behalf. ^7,3Company-reported. About-us and carrier-selection pages describe the general placement process, not a line-specific application form.

To review cyber exposure with USI, the program page says a buyer should be ready to provide current cyber policies (if any), an assessment of its largest financial and operational cyber vulnerabilities, and its most recent audited financials. ¹¹Company-reported. PrivaSafe program page intake description.