Looking for Professional Liability Insurance in South Carolina?
Safe Harbor Insurance Advisors has you covered — literally.
Professional Liability Insurance (also knows as Errors & Omissions Coverage) covers a wide range of professionals who make their living from their unique professional expertise.
Who needs Professional Liability Insurance?
Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, IT Professionals, Real Estate Brokers, Consultants, and Engineers are just a some of professions who need to be properly covered by Professional Liability Insurance.
If you’re in one of those professions and/or your business relies on your professional expertise, you’re expected to have a certain level of training in your industry or field. Your services and/or advice must meet standards set by your state, industry, and/or written client contracts and agreements.
Failure to meet these standards could result in a substantial financial loss for your client(s), resulting in a significant lawsuit. This is where Professional Liability Insurance comes into play, and why Safe Harbor Insurance Advisors is your go-to insurance company in South Carolina no matter what industry you’re in.
How does Professional Liability Insurance work? What does it cover?
Professional Liability Insurance triggers in a few different situations:
- You make a mistake that costs your client(s) money
- Undelivered results/services
- Negligent services
Work Mistakes
No matter how careful you are, making mistakes is a fact of life. After all, we’re human. If one of these work mistakes causes a financial loss for one of your clients, it could be problematic for your business.
Professional Liability would kick in, in the event one of your clients attempted to sue you as a result of your mistake.
Undelivered Results/Services
Sometimes the product/service you describe in your client contracts just doesn’t work the way it was represented to the client. Should that happen, and you get sued, Professional Liability Insurance would apply.
Example: A business consultant recommends you buy a high priced piece of equipment based on high income projections and those projections end up being way off, resulting in a financial loss for the client. That client can actually sue to make up those losses and cite their contract for support.
Negligent Services
Your expertise can sometimes be a double-edged sword. It can help you earn clients, but it can also set really high expectations.
Example: Architects have the skill and education to design buildings that both meet client demands and comply with building codes. But let’s say an architect makes an oversight that compromises a building’s safety. The building owner can sue for negligence (the legal standard of being unreasonably careless).
Unfortunately, negligence suits can be pricey. A court may award the client damages, but it can also monetarily punish you to deter future recklessness.
What to do next
Keep in mind that Professional Liability only covers the “economic” or financial losses suffered by clients and/or third parties, as opposed to bodily injury (BI) and property damage (PD) claims. This is because the latter two types of loss are typically covered under commercial general liability (CGL) policies, which Safe Harbor Insurance Advisors can also help with.
What is cyber insurance?
Cyber insurance covers your business’ liability for a data breach that includes sensitive customer information. This could include things like Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, account numbers, driver’s license numbers and even medical records.
Why doesn’t my general liability insurance cover cyber liability?
GLI covers bodily injuries and damage to property which is a result of your products, services or operations. Be sure to check your policy because cyyber insurance is usually not included in your general liability policy.
What does cyber insurance cover?
- Legal fees and expenses as well as:
- Restoring personal identities of affected customers
- Notifying customers about a data breach
- Repairing damaged computer systems
- Recovering compromised data
- What to look for as a cyber insurance buyer
Many well-known insurance companies offer cyber insurance policies. We work with the top carriers in the country to be sure your needs are met.
Like any business insurance, cyber insurance coverage varies by insurer and policy.
When shopping around and comparing policies among insurers, here are some things to look for and ask about:
- What are the deductibles? Be sure to compare deductibles closely among insurers, just like you do with health, vehicle and facility policies.
- Does the insurance company offer one or more types of cyber insurance policies or is the coverage simply an extension to an existing policy? In most cases, a stand-alone policy is best and more comprehensive. Also find out if the policy is customizable to an organization.
- How does coverage and limits apply to both first and third parties? For example, does the policy cover third-party service providers? On that note, find out if your service providers have cyber insurance and how it affects your agreement.
- Does the policy cover any attack to which an organization falls victim or only targeted attacks against that organization in particular?
- Does the policy cover non-malicious actions taken by an employee? This is part of the E&O coverage that applies to cyber insurance as well.
- Does the policy cover social engineering as well as network attacks? Social engineering plays a role in all kinds of attacks, including phishing, spear phishing and advanced persistent threats (APTs).
- Because APTs take place over time, which can be months to years, does the policy include time frames within which coverage applies?
Call us today or head over to our quotes page to get started.