A premium way to protect yourself from lawsuits and other legal troubles, Professional Insurance is a type of business insurance that provides coverage for professionals and businesses to protect against claims of negligence from clients or customers. If you want your business to stay in the clear, it’s smart to invest in this essential form of protection.
Who Needs Professional Liability Insurance?
Professional liability insurance may seem like an unnecessary expense to many business owners. However, Professional Insurance is exposed to several risks that can quickly turn into claims for which they could be held financially responsible. While these types of risks may not sound all that common, a good number of businesses, from event planners to fitness centers and more, could be at risk. Insurance agents suggest that every business professional consider purchasing professional liability coverage in some form; you may find it's as simple as adding on coverage with another policy such as homeowners or renters. No matter what kind of service you provide your clients or customers, there are countless reasons why getting professionally insured is a smart decision.
Professional liability insurance comes in many different forms depending on your area and business. For example, professional medical groups might need to get medical malpractice insurance. If you're a freelance graphic designer, you may be interested in copyright coverage that helps protect against plagiarism. In addition to general professional liability policies, you can also choose specific plans such as media liability or errors and omissions E&O policies to cover specific kinds of claims. Professional liability is used in some countries but other countries have their types of Professional Liability insurance so it's important to do proper research before making any final decisions on which one will suit your needs best.
Types of Coverage
There are two basic types of Professional Insurance coverage. The first is occurrence coverage, which is a type of policy that covers claims made as a result of incidents or accidents that occurred during your work. The second type is claims-made coverage, which protects all claims made against you within a specified period usually one year regardless of when they were filed or discovered. Professionals who have been sued in previous years but not found liable may want to get an occurrence policy to cover such lawsuits because there's no guarantee a claims-made policy will cover them. Use these links to find more information about the occurrence and claims-made policies: Occurrence Policy Claims-Made Policy
In addition to these two basic types of coverage, there are also several other kinds of professional liability policies. For example, errors and omissions E&Ocoverage protect professionals from mistakes or poor judgment on your part. An E&O policy will not cover intentional acts, only negligent ones. Other policies include contractual liability, which covers claims related to violations of contracts you have with clients or other parties; product liability coverage, which is needed by Professional Insurance who sell a product as part of their work and cyber liability protection for professionals who work online or use social media regularly.
Ways To Save On Professional Liability Insurance
If you have a website or have any type of professional presence online, it’s important to make sure you’re covered. Most Professional Insurance needs at least $1 million in liability coverage. Professional liability policies are typically divided into two categories: errors and omissions E&O and general liability. An E&O policy is specifically for those who give advice. For example, attorneys, consultants, accountants, stockbrokers, and others would need an E&O policy in place to protect themselves from allegations that they provided bad financial advice. General liability policies cover physical damage or property damage that occurs during work on your behalf by someone else for example if someone trips over one of your employees or damages property while cleaning your office.
Because of their specialized focus, EO policies tend to be more expensive than general liability policies. For example, if you are a sole proprietor and looking for Professional Insurance coverage, you might find that $100,000 in coverage is much less expensive than $1 million in general liability coverage. General liability tends to be more affordable and valuable as well because it covers not only your business activities but also personal injury or property damage by someone working on your behalf like if one of your employees causes an accident. A public health expert shares her research findings on lead poisoning in children after studying hundreds of blood samples over several years.
