What Threshold Brands requires of its franchisees

General liability at $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate is the consistent floor across Threshold Brands' active portfolio. Men In Kilts operates under the confirmed entity Men In Kilts, US, LLC — a Massachusetts limited liability company. FDD extractions for the remaining nine brands are at various stages of completion. Requirements shown for brands with pending extractions reflect Rikor's benchmark for their respective trades.

Commercial auto at $1 million combined single limit applies to all Threshold brands operating service vehicles — which covers effectively the entire portfolio. Workers' compensation follows state statutory limits. Employers' liability is $1 million per accident, $1 million per employee, $1 million policy limit across all trades.

The additional insured entity requirement is brand-specific throughout the Threshold family. "Threshold Brands" as a parent company name does not appear as the additional insured on any certificate. Each brand requires its own franchisor legal entity. A Threshold operator holding two brands who copies a COI from one to the other creates a non-compliant certificate for the second brand — regardless of which two brands are involved.

Certain Threshold trades require coverage lines that go beyond the standard GL, auto, and WC stack. Mold Medics' remediation work requires explicit mold extension endorsements — standard GL policies routinely exclude mold. PestMaster's pesticide application creates pollution and chemical drift exposure that standard GL pollution exclusions can carve out. USA Insulation's installation work creates a completed operations tail on every job. These are not edge cases for the brands involved. They are the primary exposure the work creates.

Requirements diverge across all ten Threshold brands — from the mold and chemical exposure of remediation and pest brands to the surface modification exposure of Miracle Method and Granite Garage Floors to the recurring access exposure of MaidPro and Men In Kilts. Each brand's full requirements are covered below.

How Threshold Brands insurance requirements vary by brand

The sharpest exposure divide inside Threshold runs between the remediation and chemical-application brands on one side and the surface restoration and installation brands on the other. Mold Medics and PestMaster both work with substances that create pollution and chemical exposure that standard GL programs address inconsistently. A standard commercial GL policy frequently contains a pollution exclusion that applies to fungi, bacteria, and chemical drift — which are the exact categories Mold Medics and PestMaster work with. An unendorsed policy is a policy with a coverage gap at the core of those brands' operations.

Miracle Method, Sir Grout, and Granite Garage Floors modify surfaces in homes and garages. Surface refinishing (Miracle Method restores bathtubs, tiles, and countertops) and grout restoration (Sir Grout) create completed operations exposure at every project address. A refinished surface that fails — adhesion failure, delamination, moisture intrusion behind a refinished tub surround — is a completed operations claim that arrives months after the job. Granite Garage Floors applies coating systems to garage floors and surfaces. A floor coating that delaminated or failed to adhere properly under vehicle weight generates a property damage claim with a tail that starts the day the coating was applied.

What Threshold Brands franchisees get wrong about insurance

The pollution exclusion gap is the most costly error in this family — and it affects two brands directly. PestMaster applies pesticides. Mold Medics works with mold, fungi, and biological contamination. Standard commercial GL policies include pollution exclusions that can — and routinely do — apply to both categories. A Threshold franchisee in either of those trades who has not confirmed that their policy carries an explicit mold extension or a contractors pollution liability endorsement is carrying a program with a gap at its center. The FDD compliance check does not surface this. The carrier denial at claim time does.

The WC classification drift problem is the error that defines multi-trade Threshold operators. Heating + Air Paramedics classifies under HVAC service codes. Plumbing Paramedics classifies under plumbing codes. USA Insulation classifies under insulation installation codes — a meaningfully higher rate than service trades. A franchisee who adds a second Threshold brand and allows its employees to roll under the existing WC policy's primary class code is building an audit exposure that compounds with every payroll dollar. The year-end audit finds the unclassified labor and bills the difference. The fix is accurate classification at program inception, separated cleanly by trade.

Employee dishonesty coverage is absent from most MaidPro programs at initial setup. Recurring cleaning crews entering occupied homes weekly are the textbook use case for commercial crime — employee dishonesty coverage. It is not included in standard GL or workers' compensation. It requires explicit placement. The per-incident cost of a theft allegation in a client's home — whether proven or not — can exceed a year's premium for this coverage line. For MaidPro franchisees running multiple crews on weekly schedules, this is not optional protection.

What does Threshold Brands franchise insurance cost?

Cost across the Threshold family spans a wide range because the trades span a wide range. HVAC service (Heating + Air Paramedics) and residential cleaning (MaidPro) operate at startup costs of $4,000 to $9,000 annually. Plumbing (Plumbing Paramedics) runs $4,500 to $9,500, consistent with plumbing trade benchmarks. Men In Kilts' exterior cleaning and window service falls between $3,000 and $6,000 at startup.

Remediation and chemical application brands run higher. Mold Medics with a mold extension endorsement: $5,500 to $11,000 annually. PestMaster with contractors pollution liability: $4,500 to $9,000 — the CPL endorsement adds $1,200 to $2,400 to the base GL cost but is not optional for a chemical application business.

Surface restoration (Miracle Method, Sir Grout) and installation brands (USA Insulation, Granite Garage Floors) operate in the $3,200 to $7,000 range at startup, with completed operations sub-limit endorsements adding $900 to $1,500 for franchisees who carry them.

FDD Item 7 estimates, where available, reflect first-year minimum operations. Expect 20 to 35 percent above those estimates once audited lines settle at year end.