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What ISR Insurance Covers
ISR insurance covers property damage, machinery breakdown and business interruption for medium to large Australian businesses with complex or high-value risks.
Also known as industrial special risk insurance, an ISR policy covers exposures that exceed the limits of a standard business insurance pack. The structure is flexible and tailored to your operations. It sits within our business insurance range at Fortis Risk Solutions. Large warehouses and manufacturing plants are the sites that most often outgrow a business pack and move to an ISR wording.
ISR Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
What Industrial Special Risk (ISR) Insurance does not cover
An ISR policy insures physical loss or damage that is not excluded, which makes the exclusion list the real definition of the cover. Exclusions found across ISR insurance wordings include:
- Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, rust and inherent vice in stock
- Faulty design, materials or workmanship, although resulting damage is often given back
- Mechanical and electrical breakdown, unless machinery breakdown is added
- Cyber events, including damage caused by malicious code, unless the write-back is agreed
- Goods in transit by sea or air, which belong on a marine cargo policy
- Erosion, subsidence and earth movement beyond the limited write-backs
- Unexplained stock shortages that only show up at stocktake
FRS reads the schedule against your site plan, machinery list and supply chain, then arranges the write-backs or the separate policies that close the gaps worth closing.
How Industrial Special Risk (ISR) Insurance premiums are set
ISR insurance is underwritten on the individual site rather than off a rating table. The price is built from declared values and from the physical protection at each location. What moves it:
- Declared values for buildings, plant, stock and the interruption section
- Construction, including framing, wall and roof materials, and the age of the building
- Fire protection: sprinklers, hydrants, extinguishers and alarms monitored back to base
- Occupancy and process, such as spray painting, hot work, cooking or plastics storage
- Natural hazard exposure at the address, particularly flood, storm and bushfire
- Housekeeping and maintenance seen at survey, including electrical testing records
- The deductible accepted and any sub-limits agreed for hazardous exposures
A risk survey usually pays for itself. FRS prepares the site for the surveyor and puts every improvement in front of the underwriter, because documented protection is what changes the rate.
How to claim on Industrial Special Risk (ISR) Insurance
Large property losses move fast and the first day sets the tone. A loss adjuster is usually appointed to site, so what you record before they arrive carries real weight. The FRS process:
- Call FRS as soon as the loss is found, so an adjuster can be appointed and reserves set
- Make the site safe, protect undamaged stock and stop further loss from water or weather
- Report theft, arson or malicious damage to police and keep the report number
- Photograph everything before clean-up and hold damaged plant until it is released
- Open a separate cost record for the loss, covering overtime, hired plant and freight
- FRS lodges the claim, briefs the adjuster and negotiates progress payments through to settlement
Contacts and the notification form sit on our make a claim page.
Industrial Special Risk (ISR) Insurance compared with a Business Pack
| Question | Industrial Special Risk | Business pack |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | All physical loss or damage to declared property unless excluded | Only the events named in the sections you selected |
| Who buys it | Manufacturers, warehouses, property groups and multi site operators | Shops, offices, cafes and single site trades |
| Typical trigger | Fire, impact, water damage, machinery losses and events nobody listed | Fire, storm, burglary and other named perils |
| Sits with | Marine cargo, construction and liability policies | Cyber, motor and liability policies |
ISR insurance suits a business whose assets or interdependencies have outgrown a packaged wording, or one whose financier asks for a specific policy form. The step up is not automatic, so FRS quotes both and shows what the broader wording actually buys against a business pack.
Industrial Special Risk (ISR) Insurance FAQs
ISR insurance mainly suits large enterprises with assets over $5 million, particularly heavy industry and large-scale manufacturing.
ISR gives an all-risks base cover that includes more perils automatically, higher limits and, usually, worldwide cover. Policy wordings are flexible and can be tailored to your operations. The same policy can carry business interruption insurance, and specialised engineering risk teams support the placement.
ISR policies are bespoke and negotiated, not off-the-shelf products. Without specialist advice, businesses can end up with:
- Inadequate sums insured
- Unclear policy wordings
- Claims disputes over technical exclusions
As your broker, FRS acts as risk adviser, negotiator and claims advocate, so the policy responds as intended. Where you also own the buildings you trade from, we check how the ISR sits against commercial property owner insurance.