Category: Blog

By: Kristen Drake

As PFAS contamination funding expands, historical liability insurance may play a critical role in funding cleanup, defense, and environmental claims.

Wisconsin is beginning to move real dollars toward PFAS contamination cleanup and environmental response efforts. Lawmakers have advanced a $133 million funding measure following years of stalled efforts, marking a bipartisan breakthrough on how to address the issue (Associated Press).

The funding is intended to support communities dealing with long-running PFAS impacts, including areas where contaminated private wells have forced residents to rely on bottled water.

As Clean Wisconsin’s Government Affairs Director Erik Kanter noted, the legislation reflects “years of work toward compromise.” He also described PFAS contamination as “a widespread, costly public health and environmental crisis” affecting everyone from consumers to farmers and manufacturers.

For organizations and municipalities facing PFAS-related liabilities, the significance goes beyond this funding package. PFAS contamination is systemic, long-tail, and tied to complex questions of liability, insurance coverage, and funding.

Funding Is Only the Starting Point for PFAS Liability and Recovery

Legislative funding is an important step. But for many communities and organizations, it is unlikely to be enough. PFAS contamination rarely stems from a single source or a single moment in time. That complexity is often tied to:

• Historical operations that are no longer active
• Companies that have merged, dissolved, or changed names
• Practices that were standard at the time but are now heavily scrutinized
• Regulatory frameworks that did not exist when the contamination occurred

Public funding may help address immediate needs, but it does not answer the bigger question: who ultimately bears the cost of decades of contamination, including environmental cleanup costs, third-party claims, and regulatory compliance obligations?

As investigations expand and more parties are identified, that question becomes harder to ignore. This is often where the focus shifts from funding to recovery.

Because if liability reaches back in time, the potential sources of funding often do as well.

Why PFAS Contamination Creates Long-Tail Liability

PFAS claims are complex because they are tied to historical conduct, and they are typically the result of repeated use, disposal, and migration over extended periods of time. Releases were not always known or understood when they happened, and contamination can migrate through soil and groundwater long after operations ceased.

As a result, today’s PFAS contamination claims and environmental lawsuits often date back to operations that took place 20, 30, or even 50 years ago. That kind of timeline creates real challenges. Records are incomplete. Entities have changed or no longer exist. Key facts must be reconstructed.

But it also changes the financial landscape. Because when liability reaches back in time, it expands exposure, as well as the potential sources of recovery. Insurance programs in place during those earlier decades were often broader in scope and may respond to claims being asserted today.

Those policies are rarely easy to locate or prove. But once identified, they can represent a critical funding source tied directly to the time at which the liability arose.

The Overlooked Resource: Historical Liability Insurance Coverage for PFAS Claims

One of the most underutilized sources of funding in PFAS matters is historical liability insurance coverage. Many organizations assume coverage is unavailable because too much time has passed or because policies cannot be readily located. In practice, those assumptions are often incorrect.

General liability policies issued decades ago may still respond to PFAS-related environmental claims, contamination lawsuits, and property damage or bodily injury allegations today, particularly where the policy language predates modern pollution exclusions. These policies were designed to cover everyday business risks, including slip-and-fall incidents, as well as property damage and bodily injury arising from operations. PFAS claims often fit within that same framework.

When identified and reconstructed through insurance archaeology, these policies can provide meaningful financial support for defense costs, environmental investigation, and remediation efforts. For many organizations, this is a funding source that already exists but has not yet been fully explored.

In particular, commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policies issued prior to 1986 are often key to PFAS-related recovery efforts. Three features of those policies are especially important:

1. Occurrence-Based Coverage
   Older CGL policies are typically written on an occurrence basis, meaning they respond to property damage that takes place during the policy period, even if the claim is not brought until decades later.

For PFAS, where contamination may have occurred in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s but is only now being discovered, those historical policy years may still be triggered.

2. Absence of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion
   CGL policies issued before 1985/1986 generally do not contain the absolute pollution exclusion that appears in later forms.

As a result, these earlier policies may provide coverage for environmental liabilities, including investigation, cleanup, and defense costs, that would be excluded under more modern policy language.

3. Coverage Does Not Expire
   Liability policies do not lose their applicability simply because time has passed. If coverage was triggered during the policy period, the right to access that coverage remains.

PFAS claims do not change that principle. If the damage occurred during a covered period, those policies may still respond today.

What This Means for PFAS Claims, Environmental Liability, and Insurance Coverage Strategy

The Wisconsin legislation signals a more concrete response to the scale of PFAS exposure. But public funding alone will not resolve the issue.

For organizations facing potential PFAS liability, environmental exposure, or regulatory enforcement, the strategy cannot stop at grants or appropriations. It requires a broader investigation into all available financial resources. That includes historical insurance. Organizations that take this approach are better positioned to fund investigation, cleanup, and compliance efforts.

In PFAS matters, coverage strategy is not secondary. It is part of the response.

A Shift in How PFAS Liabilities and Environmental Claims Are Funded

PFAS is not just an environmental issue. It is a long-tail liability problem that intersects with insurance coverage.

As funding expands and investigation moves forward, more organizations and municipalities are going to find themselves pulled into the question of who is responsible for contamination tied to historical operations.

Historical liability insurance programs were put in place years ago to respond to exactly this type of risk. When those policies are located and reconstructed through insurance archaeology, they can become a meaningful source of funding tied directly to the time when the liability arose.

If you are evaluating PFAS exposure, environmental contamination claims, or historical liability insurance coverage, it is worth understanding what insurance assets may still be available. For questions or more information, please contact us.

By James Pawlish

Insurance archaeology may help fund defense and settlements in sex trafficking claims.

The Rise of Civil Sex Trafficking Litigation Under the TVPRA

Human trafficking—particularly sex trafficking—has become one of the fastest-growing areas of civil litigation in the United States. A significant driver of this trend is the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which allows survivors of human trafficking to pursue civil damages against those responsible for their exploitation.

Originally enacted by Congress to provide criminal enforcement mechanisms, the statute was later expanded to allow victims to pursue civil claims against individuals and entities that benefit from trafficking activity.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), survivors may bring civil actions not only against the perpetrators themselves, but also against any entity that:

knowingly benefits, financially or otherwise, from participation in a venture that the entity knew or should have known engaged in human trafficking.

This language dramatically expanded the scope of potential defendants.

In recent years, survivors have increasingly filed lawsuits against hotels, motels, and hospitality companies that allegedly profited from sex trafficking occurring on their premises.

These lawsuits have created substantial exposure for the hospitality industry and, in turn, significant coverage disputes within the insurance industry.

Hotels and Motels Are Frequently Named as “Direct Beneficiary” Defendants

A large portion of modern TVPRA civil lawsuits involves claims against hotel operators, franchise systems, and property owners.

The allegations commonly assert that:

• Traffickers rented hotel rooms where victims were sold for commercial sex
• Hotel employees ignored the obvious warning signs of trafficking
• Management failed to intervene despite repeated suspicious activity
• The hotel financially benefited from room rentals connected to trafficking activity

Many complaints also contain disturbing allegations that victims were physically abused, threatened, or held captive within hotel rooms.

Because of these allegations, the litigation often includes claims involving:

• Physical injury
• Emotional trauma
• False imprisonment or detention
• Negligent failure to prevent trafficking activity

For insurers and insureds alike, these allegations create complex coverage questions under Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies.

Why Sex Trafficking Claims Trigger Insurance Coverage Disputes

The surge in TVPRA lawsuits has created significant litigation involving insurance coverage for sex trafficking claims.

Hotels facing trafficking lawsuits frequently tender these claims to their insurers under Commercial General Liability policies. The key coverage questions often center on whether the complaint alleges:

• “Bodily injury” caused by an “occurrence”, or
• “Personal and advertising injury,”such as false arrest, detention, or imprisonment.

Because the TVPRA allows liability where a defendant “should have known” trafficking was occurring, courts sometimes conclude that the alleged harm may be considered accidental from the insured’s perspective.

This interpretation has led many courts to hold that insurers may have a duty to defend hotels or other insured entities against trafficking lawsuits.

Additionally, when complaints allege that victims were confined or held captive, courts have sometimes concluded that the claims potentially implicate coverage for false imprisonment or detention under personal injury provisions.

As a result, insurers have faced substantial defense costs and potential indemnity exposure in TVPRA litigation.

Abuse and Molestation Exclusions Often Become the Central Coverage Issue

Many Commercial General Liability policies contain abuse or molestation exclusions, which insurers frequently rely on when denying coverage for sex trafficking lawsuits.

However, the effectiveness of these exclusions often depends on how the policy language is drafted.

Some exclusions apply only when the victim was in the “care, custody, or control” of the insured. In hotel trafficking cases, courts have frequently determined that trafficking victims were not under the hotel’s supervision or custody.

Because of this, courts have sometimes ruled that abuse exclusions do not automatically bar coverage in TVPRA lawsuits.

For example, in Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. v. Choice Hotels International, a federal court concluded that certain abuse exclusions did not eliminate coverage for trafficking claims because the victim was not in the hotel’s care or control. Similarly, in Millers Capital Insurance Co. v. Vasant, the court determined that the exclusion did not apply where the hotel lacked custodial responsibility over the victim.

These decisions demonstrate how policy wording can significantly influence the outcome of insurance coverage disputes in sex trafficking litigation.

Insurers Are Revising Policy Language to Address Sex Trafficking Exposure

As trafficking litigation has expanded, insurers have increasingly revised their policies to address potential exposure.

Newer policies often contain broader sexual abuse or exploitation exclusions, which may apply to claims “directly or indirectly resulting from” abuse or exploitation or those that “in any way involve” such conduct.

Some policies now explicitly reference sexual exploitation, abuse, or trafficking-related activity within exclusion language.

Courts analyzing these broader exclusions are more likely to conclude that insurers have no duty to defend or indemnify insured entities in trafficking lawsuits.

In addition, some insurers have argued that providing insurance coverage for entities that allegedly benefited from human trafficking violates public policy, creating further legal disputes in coverage litigation.

Why Historical Insurance Policies May Still Provide Coverage

Despite evolving policy language, many trafficking allegations involve conduct that allegedly occurred years or even decades earlier.

During earlier periods, many Commercial General Liability policies did not include the broad abuse exclusions that exist in modern policies.

Because of this, historical liability policies may still provide coverage for:

• Legal defense costs
• Settlement payments
• Indemnity obligations
• Claims spanning multiple policy years

Sex trafficking allegations often involve extended periods of conduct, which can trigger coverage under multiple insurance policies across several policy periods.

For attorneys and organizations involved in trafficking litigation, identifying historical insurance coverage may therefore play an important role in evaluating potential financial resources.

The Role of Insurance Archaeology in Sex Trafficking Litigation

One major challenge in coverage investigations is that many organizations no longer possess copies of their historical insurance policies.

Over time, policies may have been lost due to:

• Mergers or acquisitions
• Corporate restructuring
• Relocations
• Document destruction policies
• Simple passage of time

Insurance archaeology is the specialized process of locating and reconstructing lost or destroyed insurance policies through historical research and secondary documentation.

Even when original policies cannot be located, experienced investigators can often identify secondary evidence demonstrating the existence and terms of coverage.

Why Attorneys Investigate Insurance Coverage Early in TVPRA Cases

As sex trafficking litigation under the TVPRA continues to grow, attorneys increasingly examine historical insurance coverage as part of their litigation strategy.

Identifying historical policies may help fund:

• Defense costs
• Settlement negotiations
• Mediation and claim resolution
• Allocation among multiple insurers

For survivors pursuing civil remedies, insurance coverage can expand the financial resources available to resolve claims.

For institutions facing allegations, historical coverage may provide critical support in managing litigation exposure.

Investigating Historical Insurance Coverage in Sex Trafficking Cases

Organizations involved in sex trafficking litigation may possess insurance assets that are no longer visible in their records.

Investigating historical insurance coverage can help determine whether liability policies issued decades earlier may respond to modern trafficking claims.

PolicyFind assists attorneys, risk professionals, and institutions with insurance archaeology investigations, helping locate and reconstruct lost liability policies that may fund defense and settlements in complex litigation.

If you are handling litigation involving TVPRA claims, hotel liability, or sex trafficking allegations, identifying historical insurance coverage may be a critical step in understanding the financial landscape of the case.

PolicyFind conducts confidential insurance archaeology investigations to locate and reconstruct historical liability policies that may respond to claims involving alleged conduct from decades earlier. Contact us today.

By Kristen Drake

It usually starts with a familiar sentence: “We don’t think those policies still exist.”

Organizations facing legacy claims exposure say it with confidence. A lawsuit appears, an environmental issue resurfaces, or a historical sexual abuse claim emerges, and the assumption is that older insurance coverage is missing or unrecoverable. In many cases, that assumption is wrong.

Finding old insurance policies is one of the most important and most misunderstood steps in managing long-tail liabilities and legacy claims. With the right plan, organizations can often reconstruct historical coverage tied to claims they assumed would be uninsured.

Below are the 10 most common mistakes organizations make when searching for historical insurance coverage, along with how to avoid them.

1. Assuming Missing Policies Mean Missing Coverage

One of the most damaging mistakes is assuming that missing policies mean coverage no longer exists. In historical liability insurance matters, policies are often proven through secondary documentation. Dismissing missing policies too early can leave substantial coverage untapped.

2. Limiting the Search to Current Insurance Records

Historical insurance coverage rarely lives in one department. Former brokers, archived correspondence, and off-site storage often hold critical evidence of insurance. Organizations that only review current insurance files frequently miss older coverage entirely.

3. Failing to Reconstruct Organizational History

Insurance archaeology requires understanding corporate history. Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, name changes, and leadership transitions all affect how insurance was purchased and where records may exist. Reconstructing this history is essential to reconstruct historical coverage accurately.

4. Looking Only for Complete Policy Documents

Many organizations believe they must locate a full policy to trigger coverage. In practice, partial documentation may be sufficient to establish coverage. Certificates, premium invoices, policy schedules, and broker correspondence may be sufficient to support recovery for missing policies.

5. Not Understanding What Evidence of Insurance Matters

Not all documents carry the same weight. Without knowing what insurers typically accept as proof of historical liability insurance, organizations may discard valuable records or focus on documents that do not advance recovery. Knowing which evidence matters is critical to successful insurance archaeology.

6. Conducting an Unstructured Policy Search

An unplanned search wastes time and resources. Effective insurance archaeology relies on a structured methodology that prioritizes the most productive sources, documents results consistently, and creates a defensible record of due diligence. This structure is especially important when attempting to find old insurance policies tied to legacy claims exposure.

7. Waiting Until Litigation or Regulatory Action Begins

Waiting until a claim is already underway limits options. Early identification of historical liability insurance strengthens negotiating leverage, informs defense strategy, and helps control costs before disputes escalate. Pre-claim policy recovery is often far more effective than reactive searches.

8. Failing to Preserve and Organize Search Results

Even when evidence of insurance is found, poor organization can undermine its value. Search results should be preserved, indexed, and clearly documented so coverage can be efficiently accessed when claims arise. Disorganized records often delay or weaken recovery efforts.

9. Overlooking Pre-1986 CGL Policies

Many long-tail liabilities are triggered by pre-1986 Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies, which often provide broader coverage than modern forms. Organizations focused only on current insurance programs frequently overlook historical liability insurance that remains available for environmental claims, sexual abuse claims, and asbestos, talc, or silica exposure matters.

10. Trying to Handle Insurance Archaeology Internally

Most internal teams are not equipped to conduct a comprehensive historical insurance search while managing day-to-day responsibilities. Insurance archaeology requires specialized experience, persistence, and familiarity with insurer expectations. That expertise often determines whether coverage is partially recovered or fully realized. 

How PolicyFind Helps Organizations Recover Historical Insurance Coverage

Insurance archaeology plays a critical role in managing historical liability insurance tied to legacy claims exposure. With the right approach, organizations can often find old insurance policies, document evidence of insurance, and reconstruct historical coverage that meaningfully reduces financial risk.

PolicyFind works with organizations to identify, document, and recover historical insurance coverage, including pre-1986 CGL policies that are frequently overlooked but highly valuable. Our process is structured, defensible, and designed to support recovery before claims escalate.

If your organization is facing legacy liabilities or unresolved insurance questions, an early conversation can clarify what coverage may still be available and what next steps make sense.

Contact PolicyFind to learn how proactive Insurance Archaeology can help your organization locate historical policies and unlock funding for current and future liabilities.

By Samantha DeElorrieta

Many organizations are sitting on valuable assets they do not realize they have. Historical liability insurance, including decades old general liability coverage, can protect organizations from legacy claims exposure that surfaces long after operations or policies have changed. In 2026, auditing your historical insurance is not just good housekeeping. It is a practical risk management step that can save time, money, and stress when it matters most.

What Is a Historical Insurance Audit and How Insurance Archaeology Fits In?

A historical insurance audit involves reviewing legacy records such as insurance files, accounting documents, and board or committee meeting minutes to determine what insurance coverage an organization carried and when.

During an audit, it is important to identify and document the following information whenever possible:

• Insurance carrier
• Policy period
• Type of coverage, including general liability, umbrella, or excess
• Whether the policy was occurrence-based or claims-made
• Any self-insured retention limits, sometimes listed as deductibles on older policies
• Occurrence limits and aggregate limits

For most organizations, the primary focus should be on historical general liability policies. Depending on operations and risk profile, some organizations should also review historical workers’ compensation coverage.

Why Historical Coverage Still Matters

General liability and workers’ compensation policies in many states can respond to long-tail claims. These are claims made years, or even decades, after the policy period has ended. In these situations, the policy in effect at the time of the alleged incident, not when the claim is filed, determines coverage.

As a result, insurance policies from the 1960s, 1970s, or 1990s may still be highly relevant today.

Why Audit Now?

The short answer is simple. For organizations with potential legacy claims exposure, understanding historical liability insurance before litigation begins is a strategic advantage, not an administrative task.

Auditing your historical insurance now allows you to clearly understand both what coverage exists and where potential gaps may be.

Understand limits and financial exposure
Knowing historical policy limits and self-insured retentions allows organizations to plan accordingly. Many discover that older policies carried limits of $50,000 or $500,000. Others learn they had a $250,000 self-insured retention, meaning the organization is responsible for that amount before insurance responds.

Identify liquidated or insolvent carriers
Some insurance companies are no longer in business. If a carrier that insured your organization decades ago has since been liquidated, there may be no coverage available for that period. Identifying this early avoids surprises later.

Clarify what exists
Some organizations have complete policies going back 50 years. Others find only references to insurance carriers in meeting minutes, with no policy details. In some cases, entire periods of coverage history are missing. Knowing exactly what you have and what you do not is essential, and too often overlooked until it is too late.

Address gaps proactively
Once gaps are identified, insurance archaeology can assist with locating lost policies, reconstructing coverage, and filling in missing years using secondary evidence.

The Litigation Reality

Organizations of all sizes are increasingly facing lawsuits tied to alleged incidents that occurred many years ago. Public companies, family-owned businesses, large churches, and congregations of ten people alike have been impacted.

When litigation arises, organizations are already managing attorneys, court deadlines, depositions, and document production. Searching for decades-old insurance records at the same time adds unnecessary stress and risk.

In addition, many policies include late notice provisions. If an insurer is not notified of a claim within the required timeframe, coverage can be denied. Knowing your historical carriers and policy years allows for prompt, accurate notice and helps avoid preventable coverage disputes.

The Bottom Line

A historical liability insurance audit is not about the past. It is about protecting your organization’s future.

By understanding your historical coverage now, you reduce uncertainty, strengthen your risk position, and place your organization in a far better position if a claim ever arises. In 2026, this is one of the most practical and proactive risk management steps an organization can take.

Take the Next Step

If your organization has not reviewed its historical insurance coverage recently, now is the time to start.

A preliminary audit can often be completed using records you already have on hand and can quickly identify strengths, gaps, and potential exposure. From there, you can determine whether deeper insurance archaeology support makes sense for your organization.

If you would like to discuss how a historical insurance audit could benefit your organization, contact PolicyFind. We are happy to help you evaluate your records and outline clear next steps.

By Kristen Drake

Exploring the fascinating world of insurance archaeology.

Introduction: Why It Still Matters

For many dry cleaners, the topic of environmental cleanup feels distant, something to think about only when regulators come knocking. But as many in our industry have learned, what happened decades ago can resurface today in the form of environmental investigations or cleanup requirements. The good news? There’s often funding available for those challenges, hidden in plain sight within old insurance policies.

That’s where Insurance Archaeology comes in. Officially, it’s “the practice of locating and retrieving the proof of the existence, terms, conditions, and limits of lost or destroyed insurance policies.” At PolicyFind, we liken it to genealogy with an insurance twist. By uncovering evidence of coverage purchased long ago, we help business and property owners unlock funding that still applies today.

From the Early Days to Real Results

PolicyFind was originally founded to serve dry cleaners. Over twenty years ago, our CEO, Steve Henshaw, well known to readers of this publication, assembled a team of investigators, geologists, and engineers to pair two ideas that didn’t usually meet: cleaning up contaminated properties and finding insurance coverage to pay for it. The goal was simple: turn liabilities into assets.

Many dry cleaners we work with fall into one of three categories:

1. They worry their property may be contaminated due to older operations.
2. They know contamination exists, but have delayed action because of cost.
3. They aren’t required to address it yet, so they’ve set it aside.

If any of those sound familiar, this article is for you. Insurance archeology is not only for those already in cleanup; it can and should be done early to protect your investment and ensure resources are available when needed.

Understanding the Value of Old Policies

Steve Henshaw was among the first to recognize how valuable historical general liability policies could be. These occurrence-based policies never expire. They cover damage that occurred during the time the policy was in effect, regardless of when a claim is made. When leveraged properly, these old policies can fund environmental investigation, remediation, and even legal defense.

The most significant coverage is usually found in policies issued before 1986, the point at which the Absolute Pollution Exclusion became common. In practical terms, that means insurance written before the mid-1980s can still respond to contamination discovered today.

From Hidden Policies to Real Cleanup

Locating these policies is part detective work and part documentation recovery. PolicyFind researchers interview former employees and agents, dig through archives, and trace the paper trails left behind by mergers, transfers, and renewals. We then work with coverage counsel to use that evidence to place insurers on notice and pursue recovery.

This process has helped our clients fund millions of dollars in cleanup costs and defend against regulatory claims without draining business or personal finances. Here are just a few examples.

A Family Cleaner Avoids $600,000 in Cleanup Costs

A family-run dry cleaner in Wisconsin discovered PCE contamination beneath their facility. The state’s Dry Cleaner Fund initially helped, but $600,000 in additional costs remained. PolicyFind located historical liability insurance that had been forgotten for decades. Once the evidence was submitted, the insurer assumed the costs and cleanup continued without interruption, protecting both the property and the family’s financial future.

California Cleaner Uncovers Forgotten Coverage

A retired dry cleaner in Chico, California, faced cleanup demands from the state environmental authority related to historical contamination. PolicyFind conducted targeted insurance archaeology and located general liability coverage from the 1981 policy period. That discovery provided the foundation for the insurer’s defense and coverage obligations, sparing the client significant personal expense.

Historic Policies Fund $2 Million Cleanup Effort

In another case, a dry cleaner retained PolicyFind and coverage counsel after the State of California linked the operation to groundwater contamination. Through comprehensive insurance archaeology, our team located four years of historical liability coverage, forming the legal and financial foundation for a $2 million environmental investigation. The work defined contamination stretching more than a mile and a half long and over 400 feet deep. Thanks to PolicyFind’s efforts, the dry cleaner avoided out-of-pocket costs, and the insurer continues to fund the ongoing response.

Turning a Liability into a Property Sale

In Indiana, a dry-cleaning business preparing to sell its property learned that contamination might delay or derail the sale. PolicyFind reconstructed the company’s insurance history and helped coverage counsel work with multiple carriers. The settlements exceeded the cost of cleanup, allowing the sale to proceed smoothly. What began as a liability ended as a successful transaction.

Coverage That Keeps a Community Moving Forward

A Midwestern city faced redevelopment challenges at a former plating facility contaminated with hexavalent chromium. PolicyFind uncovered historic coverage tied to a bankrupt former operator. That discovery provided the legal and financial basis for the city to pursue cost recovery. With funding in place, cleanup and redevelopment are now underway, bringing new jobs and community revitalization.

Beyond Dry Cleaning: Industrial and Municipal Success

While PolicyFind was built for drycleaners, insurance archaeology has proven valuable across many sectors. We’ve helped municipal sewer districts pursue recovery for PCB contamination, manufacturers address solvent releases, and national corporations recover millions through policy buybacks. In every case, the principle remains the same: old insurance is an asset that still pays today. These recoveries reduce public spending, accelerate redevelopment, and preserve business and property value.

City of Lodi Strengthens Brownfield Recovery Through Insurance Archaeology

In 2003, the City of Lodi, California, turned to PolicyFind after previous consultants failed to locate evidence of coverage for a contaminated Brownfield site. Our team conducted advanced insurance archaeology, combining corporate history analysis with targeted archival research. The investigation uncovered additional evidence of historical liability insurance tied to companies identified as Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs). These findings expanded the City’s funding options and strengthened its ability to pursue cost recovery for site remediation and redevelopment.

How Insurance Archaeology Works in Practice

PolicyFind’s process blends investigation and strategy. We start by reconstructing the operational and insurance history of a site. Our team tracks down potential carriers, brokers, and archived files, then develops a coverage evidence log that documents each policy year. Once verified, this documentation supports claim submission and negotiation.

Because there is no central database for old insurance records, our work often involves on-site reviews, state archives, and historical corporate research. These efforts regularly uncover the key to millions of dollars in cleanup funding.

Key Takeaway: Your Past Still Has Value

If the earlier version of this article introduced the why behind insurance archeology, this updated piece shows the how. Historical insurance recovery is no longer an abstract concept; it’s a proven, practical tool for protecting businesses and communities.

Old policies may be buried in boxes, stored in basements, or long forgotten, but they still hold real value. With the right expertise and a focused insurance archeology investigation, those policies can transform yesterday’s coverage into today’s solution, helping dry cleaners, property owners, and municipalities protect what matters most.

This article was first published in Cleaner & Launderer, who is committed to sharing solutions that help the industry thrive. This article was written to remind dry cleaners and business owners that the past can pay forward, and that the right approach to environmental responsibility can strengthen both community and business for years to come.

Ready to uncover coverage that still protects you today?
Contact PolicyFind to learn how insurance archaeology can help fund your environmental cleanup or strengthen your property’s value.

By: Dru Carlisle

Understanding why finding old insurance policies now can protect you from future claims is crucial. This proactive measure can help you avoid potential financial challenges later.

In an era of expanding liability exposures, whether from newly reopened statutes of limitation (for example, the Child Victims Act in various states), environmental contamination liabilities, or emerging toxic-tort risks, one often overlooked asset for organizations is their historical liability insurance. Understanding the importance of finding old insurance policies can inform you about how they protect you against future claims. Firms that operated decades ago may have general liability (GL) or excess policies that remain unused simply because they’re lost, forgotten, or inadequately documented. That’s where Insurance Archeology comes in.

At its core, Insurance Archeology involves researching, reconstructing, and retrieving historical insurance policies (and/or evidence of coverage) that may provide defense costs or indemnity for exposures that are only now surfacing. These hidden coverage assets can be worth millions of dollars in defense or indemnity.

Why Now Is the Time to Act 

Several trends make the proactive retrieval of old insurance policies more important than ever:

• Statutory and legislative changes: Laws like the Child Victims Act open up new potential for claims that relate to decades-old conduct, meaning organizations need coverage that spans far back in time. Finding old policies now can safeguard you against such future claims.

• Environmental and contamination liabilities: Many historical operations (dry-cleaning, manufacturing, waste-handling) may have caused latent environmental damage. Since many GL policies from earlier eras did not contain absolute pollution exclusions, older policies may still respond.

• Litigation sophistication & defense cost escalation: As litigation grows more complex and regulatory demands become more aggressive, having historical insurance as a defense or cost-sharing vehicle becomes a competitive necessity. 

• Corporate change, mergers & acquisitions: When companies change hands, merge, or restructure, the insurance trail often gets broken. Without proactive search, coverage can go missing just when it’s needed most.  

The Cost of Waiting to Find Old Insurance Policies

If you wait until a claim is filed or litigation is already underway, you risk several barriers, such as being unable to find old policies that could have protected you from future claims.

• Late notice issues: Carriers may deny coverage if they believe notice was delayed, or that insufficient proof exists of historical policy terms.

• Lost or purged records: Older files may have been purged, destroyed, or discarded, making retrieval far more difficult (and expensive) after the fact. 

• Gaps in coverage reconstruction: If you haven’t proactively reconstructed your historic insurance program, you may not know which years or carriers to search, limiting your ability to match policies to exposures. 

• Reduced leverage: Without evidence of older policies, policyholders may find themselves with fewer options for defense cost sharing or indemnity and may face full exposure to liability themselves. 

Why Engage PolicyFind Proactively 

Working with PolicyFind before a claim arises provides key advantages:

• Comprehensive search & reconstruction: We use proprietary libraries, historic archives, and other investigative techniques to uncover evidence of coverage.  

• Strategic timing: By locating policies before a claim or litigation arises, you preserve your ability to engage carriers, give timely notices if required, and better legal defense strategies. Finding these old policies now is key to protection from future claims.

• Cost control: Historical policies often provide funding for defense costs, investigations, and remediation, potentially saving large dollars for your organization or you personally.  

• Improved risk-management: Having visibility into your full historic insurance portfolio positions your organization to anticipate and manage long-tail liabilities, rather than reacting under pressure. 

A Practical Checklist 

1. Assemble your historical footprint: Identify the years your business operated (or the years previous owners operated), locations, mergers, and acquisitions that took place through corporate history, etc. Knowing how finding old policies can help protect from future claims, prioritize these actions. 
2. Engage an Insurance Archeology specialist: Partner with PolicyFind who has expertise in reconstructing insurance programs. 
3. Secure and coordinate coverage evidence: Once policies or evidence of them are located, work with your insurance archeologist to document and catalogue your insurance history. 
4. Understand your defense strategy: Work with counsel and your Insurance Archeologist to make timely notice to carriers. 
5. Retrospective review: Periodically revisit your historic program because new exposures, new statutes, or new claims may emerge even years later. 

The Insurance Archeology Bottom Line

In today’s environment, historical insurance is not just an archival “nice-to-have.” It is a strategic asset. Waiting until a claim or lawsuit surfaces may diminish your ability to locate and leverage coverage and may leave you exposed to liabilities that could have been shared, defended, or indemnified. By proactively engaging in Insurance Archeology with PolicyFind, you place your organization in a far stronger position to respond to today’s evolving liability challenges.

Contact PolicyFind to learn how proactive Insurance Archaeology can help your organization locate historical policies and unlock funding for current and future liabilities.

 

By: Kristen Drake

Earlier this month, I joined a national discussion at Perrin Conferences’ Sexual Abuse Litigation and Coverage about the evolving landscape of sexual abuse and sex trafficking claims. The conversation underscored an important truth: organizations often have untapped insurance assets that can help them respond responsibility and compassionately.

At PolicyFind, we define insurance archaeology as the process of locating and documenting proof of old insurance policies that may have been lost or destroyed over time. These policies, often written decades ago, can represent significant financial protection for institutions that are now working to do the right thing, whether that means funding survivor settlements, supporting ongoing litigation, or addressing claims transparently.

What Insurance Archaeology Investigations Looks Like in Sexual Abuse and Trafficking Claims
My focus on the panel was the process and components of insurance archaeology, what it looks like in practice when we are brought in to help an organization locate historic coverage that may respond to sexual abuse or trafficking claims.

I walked through some of the key components of an investigation. We always start with a collaborative approach and what I call ‘boots-on-the-ground work’, reviewing old boxes, archives, and internal files that might contain policy references or correspondence. We also talk to people. Long-tenured staff, former brokers, or even retired administrators often remember which carriers or agents were involved, and those memories can point us to new evidence.

From there, we review company records such as meeting minutes, annual reports, and accounting ledgers. My team cross-references those findings with our internal policy library and database of historical insurer information. Together, these steps help us reconstruct a timeline of coverage and identify which insurers may have issued policies during key periods.

Of course, those steps describe a best-case scenario. In many cases, our insurance archaeologists face real challenges: clients with no existing documentation to review, or long-tenured staff and former brokers with limited recollections. When that happens, we rely on proprietary processes that have consistently produced leads to historical insurance over more than 20 years of investigations.

Turning Evidence into a Clear Coverage Map
Once we have located evidence, organizing it becomes just as important as finding it. We build detailed coverage maps, track the source and quality of every document, and create logs that link each piece of evidence to the related claim period. This structure makes it easier for legal teams and carriers to evaluate the findings and for clients to understand exactly what was uncovered.

Our goal is to turn what might look like a stack of old papers into a clear, usable coverage picture. For many organizations, that process transforms uncertainty into a plan for how to move forward.

Why Recovering Historical Coverage Matters for Survivors and Institutions
Working on these matters reminds me why this work is so meaningful. Behind every insurance archaeology project are real people and institutions trying to take responsibility in difficult circumstances. Finding and validating old coverage does not erase the past, but it gives organizations the resources they need to respond with honesty and compassion.

If your organization is navigating complex sexual abuse or trafficking claims, and you are unsure whether historic coverage might exist, our team at PolicyFind can help. Through decades of insurance archaeology investigations, we’ve helped institutions uncover lost-long coverage that allows them to respond with integrity and compassion. Sometimes, those policies are still out there, waiting to help you do what is right.

Photo courtesy of Perrin Conferences.

By: Kristen Drake

At the recent National Asbestos Litigation Conference hosted by Perrin Conferences, I had the privilege of speaking on a panel addressing Ethics and Successor Liability Issues. While my co-panelists focused on questions of liability, ethics, and successor responsibility, I spoke from the perspective of an insurance archaeologist.

What struck me during the session was how often our work serves as a bridge, connecting promises made decades ago with the realities of litigation today. Liability insurance policies issued in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s still carry weight in the courtroom, and whether or not those policies can be located and proven often makes the difference between survival for companies and justice for victims. Insurance archaeology exists to make sure those promises continue to be honored.

What Insurance Archaeology Really Is

At its core, insurance archaeology is the process of locating, retrieving, and documenting historical liability coverage. It is a specialized discipline combining proprietary research methods with public and private databases, corporate history research, and archival investigations.

At PolicyFind, we operate as an independent, third-party investigator. We are agnostic as to the outcome of litigation. Our singular goal is to reconstruct as much of a defendant corporation’s historical liability insurance program as possible. We do not tilt the scales; we level the field.

Who We Work With

Insurance archaeology impacts everyone in the courtroom. Over the years, our team has worked with:

• Policyholders and defendant corporations who need to recover lost or forgotten coverage history to respond to litigation.
• Plaintiffs’ firms when counterparties are unable or unwilling to provide coverage information.
• Insurers who require clarity for allocation purposes across long-tail claims.

Across hundreds of entities, we’ve seen the same challenge play out: the truth of coverage history is often tangled like a knotted ball of yarn. Our job is to sort through it, needle by needle, until the corporate insurance history is reconstructed with accuracy and clarity.

The Challenge of Time

Time is our greatest adversary.

• Key personnel are deceased, taking with them decades of institutional memory.
• Documents are gone, lost to mergers, dissolutions, warehouse cleanouts, and the simple attrition of recordkeeping.
• Companies themselves may no longer exist, leaving behind nothing but unanswered questions.

Contrary to some assertions in litigation, most defendants are not knowingly discarding policy information. More often, they don’t know what they have or what they should be looking for. That is precisely where insurance archaeology steps in.

Through corporate history research, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, state archival records, and even interviews with retired co-workers, we pursue every possible lead. The work is painstaking, but the outcome can be decisive: identifying coverage that unlocks millions in protection for claims today.

The Litigation Landscape in 2025

This year, KCIC, which also presented at the conference, shared its Mid-Year Asbestos and Talc Filing Trends. Their data underscores why insurance archaeology is more essential than ever:

• Asbestos filings are up 4% year-over-year, with 2,183 filings through July 31, 2025. Projections suggest a 6% increase by year’s end.
• Mesothelioma filings continue to rise, with 52 more cases this year than at the same point in 2024.
• Talc-related filings are growing at an even sharper rate, KCIC projects a 25% increase in 2025 compared to 2024. Today, 22% of all asbestos filings include a talc allegation, more than double the percentage from 2021.

Against this backdrop, clarity of historical coverage is no longer optional; it is vital.

Successor Liability and Gatekeeping

One of the thorniest issues in asbestos litigation is successor liability. When companies merge, dissolve, or enter receivership, questions of “who pays” inevitably follow. Who is liable when the original corporation no longer exists? Who holds the rights to the historical coverage?

Receiverships and dissolutions often create gaps where coverage information is effectively locked away. In some cases, carriers are appointed to manage dissolved or insolvent companies’ obligations. In others, plaintiffs’ attorneys must try to access coverage information indirectly, creating additional delays and disputes.

Too often, active defendant corporations compound the problem by gatekeeping information. But withholding or restricting access only prolongs uncertainty. As I emphasized during the panel, the solution is simple. Let us in. Insurance archaeologists aren’t there to tilt the outcome; we are there to reconstruct the truth.

Why Insurance Archaeology Is a Smart Investment

For in-house counsel and risk managers, pursuing insurance archaeology is more than just an exercise in corporate history; it is a smart investment in risk management.

• For defendants, reconstructing coverage ensures access to defense and indemnity that might otherwise be lost.
• For plaintiffs, clearer coverage histories mean more opportunities for settlement.
• For insurers, having the full picture enables equitable allocation across long-tail claims.

In every case, the work serves the broader goals of efficiency and fairness.

Meeting the Burden Responsibly

At the end of the day, ethics and successor liability aren’t just about who bears the burden, but how companies meet that burden responsibly.

Insurance archaeology is the bridge. It ensures that promises made decades ago still deliver today. It safeguards the interests of victims seeking justice while also supporting the survival of companies facing massive litigation.

The past and the present are linked. By recovering the past, we protect the future.

The challenges of asbestos litigation don’t have to be faced alone. Our team specializes in reconstructing coverage histories with accuracy and independence. Reach out to PolicyFind to explore how insurance archaeology can support your litigation strategy.

 

By: Kristen Drake

When it comes to real estate transactions, particularly those involving legacy industrial sites or properties with environmental risk, the past is never truly behind us. Historical liabilities can jeopardize deals, but they can also represent untapped financial opportunities. That’s where insurance archaeology comes in: a specialized practice that uncovers dormant insurance assets to mitigate risk, secure funding, and move transactions forward.

What Is Insurance Archaeology?

Insurance archaeology is the process of locating and reconstructing historical insurance coverage, often decades old, that can respond to present-day liabilities. These policies may cover environmental cleanup, legal defense, or settlement costs tied to contamination or injury claims that surface long after the original insured has moved on.

For real estate professionals, this means more than simply finding an old policy. It’s about piecing together corporate histories, tracking mergers and acquisitions, and proving the existence and terms of coverage that may no longer be on paper. Ultimately, it transforms forgotten insurance records into a viable resource for addressing environmental risks identified during due diligence.

Why It Matters in Real Estate Deals

Environmental concerns are a common stumbling block in transactions. A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) may flag potential issues, triggering a Phase II investigation. If contamination is confirmed, projected cleanup costs can halt or derail the deal entirely.

Historical insurance can change the equation. By locating coverage that responds to environmental liabilities, PolicyFind has helped clients salvage transactions that might otherwise have collapsed under the weight of cleanup obligations. Quite typically, prospective buyers or sellers will request insurance archaeology support immediately after Phase I ESA results, recognizing the role it could play in keeping the deal viable.

How the Process Works

PolicyFind’s approach is rigorous, strategic, and multi-layered. Our team combines digital research, corporate record review, and on-the-ground investigation to reconstruct complete coverage charts that identify available policies, their limits, and carrier solvency.

We also support clients by:

• Identifying other potentially responsible parties
• Tracing insurance coverage through corporate mergers and dissolutions
• Auditing current policies to reveal coverage gaps
• Negotiating with carriers for cost-sharing and settlements

The Value We Deliver

Historical insurance policies are often overlooked financial assets. At PolicyFind, we have uncovered billions of dollars in usable coverage for clients across industries, from developers and municipalities to large corporations and small businesses.

For real estate transactions, this means the difference between walking away from a deal and securing the resources to remediate, redevelop, and close with confidence.

Final Thoughts

Insurance archaeology is not just a niche service; it’s a strategic advantage. In today’s real estate market, where legacy environmental risks are common, the ability to unlock historical coverage can determine whether a deal succeeds or fails.

Don’t let contamination or legacy liabilities derail your transaction. For developers, brokers, lenders, and municipalities, historical insurance can mean the difference between walking away and closing with confidence.

Partner with PolicyFind to uncover yesterday’s policies and turn potential environmental risk into a redevelopment opportunity. We specialize in keeping deals alive, funded, and moving forward.

By: James Pawlish

When organizations discover they have been named in a lawsuit or face environmental contamination tied to past business operations, it can be overwhelming. What many don’t realize is that their greatest financial resource may already exist, within their own history.

Insurance Archaeology is the process of identifying and leveraging liability insurance policies issued decades ago to fund today’s cleanup obligations. These policies, often overlooked or forgotten, can cover millions of dollars in investigation, remediation, and legal expenses. Unfortunately, myths and misunderstandings prevent many businesses, municipalities, and property owners from pursuing these opportunities.

At PolicyFind, we’ve spent decades unraveling the myths. Here are the top five misconceptions about historical insurance recovery, and the truths that could change how you view environmental liability.

1. “Old Insurance Policies No Longer Matter.”

The misconception: Because the policies were written decades ago, many assume they have expired or have no bearing on today’s claims.

The reality: In fact, the opposite is true. Occurrence-based general liability policies never expire. This means they cover damages arising from events that occurred during the policy period, even if the contamination isn’t discovered until decades later.

For example, if a dry cleaner operated from 1960–1980 and a solvent release is found today, an occurrence-based general liability policy written during those years may still provide coverage. Courts across the country have consistently upheld the continuing validity of these policies. They don’t expire with time, making them one of the most enduring corporate assets a business can hold.

Why it matters: Even if your operations ended long ago, your insurance legacy may still protect you.

2. “We Don’t Have Our Old Insurance Policies, So Recovery Isn’t Possible.”

The misconception: Companies often assume that without the actual policy document, recovery is impossible.

The reality: This is where insurance archaeology comes in. Specialists can reconstruct missing coverage through secondary evidence, broker records, old accounting files, regulatory filings, or even correspondence referencing policy numbers. Court rulings have established that secondary evidence can be just as valid in proving coverage as the policy itself.

At PolicyFind, we routinely uncover evidence in places our clients never thought to look: archived municipal files, corporate board minutes, storage facilities, and even personal files of former executives.

Why it matters: You don’t need the original paper policy. If coverage existed, there are often breadcrumbs that can be followed to prove its existence.

3. “Pursuing Historical Insurance Recovery Is Too Expensive.”

The misconception: Businesses believe the process is cost-prohibitive, especially when they’re already facing expensive remediation and legal bills.

The reality: In practice, historical insurance recovery is an investment that pays for itself many times over. A single policy can unlock millions of dollars in coverage.

Why it matters: The potential return on investment is enormous. What may seem like a cost is a pathway to substantial financial relief.

4. “Insurance Companies Never Pay on Old Claims.”

The misconception: Many believe insurance carriers always deny historical claims, making the process futile.

The reality: While insurance carriers can contest these claims, the courts have been clear: ‘if coverage existed, it remains enforceable.’ Over the past 30 years, thousands of insureds, from multinational corporations to family-owned businesses, have successfully recovered under old liability policies.

Recovery isn’t automatic, but with thorough documentation and experienced advocates, policyholders routinely secure funding. Insurers know this, which is why many claims are resolved through negotiation and settlement rather than litigation.

Why it matters: History is on the side of policyholders who can prove coverage.

5. “Historical Insurance Recovery Is Only for Large Corporations.”

The misconception: Smaller businesses or municipalities assume this strategy is reserved for Fortune 500 companies.

The reality: Some of the most successful recoveries have been for small enterprises and local governments. Dry cleaners, auto repair shops, gas stations, plating shops, and small manufacturers often operated under the very types of policies most useful today. Municipalities, too, may have coverage extending back decades that can be applied to brownfield sites, landfills, or abandoned industrial properties.

In many cases, the scale of the recovery is life-changing. A small business facing financial ruin from cleanup costs can stabilize and even thrive once coverage is secured. A city strapped for redevelopment funds can transform abandoned lots into tax-generating properties.

Why it matters: Historical insurance recovery levels the playing field, empowering businesses and communities of all sizes to address legacy contamination.

The Bigger Picture: Why Dispelling These Myths Matters

The stakes are high. Long-tail and latent injury liabilities don’t just affect the bottom line; they impact future fiscal health, growth, property values, community health, redevelopment potential, and even reputations. Misconceptions about historical insurance cause businesses and communities to settle cases for millions out of their own pockets, walk away from resources that could transform liabilities into opportunities.

By pursuing insurance archaeology and recovery, organizations can:

• Access critical funding for environmental investigations and cleanups.
• Offset legal and consulting costs associated with regulatory compliance.
• Unlock redevelopment potential for properties once considered too risky.
• Protect balance sheets from unexpected environmental liabilities.

At PolicyFind, we’ve seen firsthand how dispelling these myths empowers organizations to reclaim control of these challenges. Historical insurance recovery isn’t just about recouping costs or providing funds to injured parties—it’s about creating a foundation for growth, revitalization, and long-term resilience.

Don’t let misconceptions block access to coverage you already own. PolicyFind can help uncover historical insurance that protects your future.