8 Best Professional Liability Insurance Providers

Professional liability insurance protects business owners if clients accuse them of making mistakes that cause a financial loss. Policies can be tailored to cover industry-related risks. We reviewed more than 25 of the top liability insurance providers and narrowed it down to the eight best.

Best Professional Liability Insurance Providers

What Professional Liability Insurance Is

Professional liability insurance, also called E&O insurance or malpractice insurance, covers small business owners when clients claim the business owner did not meet professional standards by making mistakes, giving bad advice, or behaving negligently. Policies pay for the business’ legal defense, including settlements and court-awarded judgments.

Professional Liability Insurance Costs

Some professions are more likely to be sued for negligence, so professional liability insurance premiums vary by industry. Business size, in terms of both employees and revenue, and coverage amounts, play a part in your premium too. As a result, professional liability insurance costs for small businesses range from around $420 to more than $8,000 annually.

Annual Professional Liability Insurance Cost Examples

These costs are estimates based on $1 million in policy coverage limits for professional liability for an independent contractor with less than $300,000 in annual revenues.

CNA: Best Overall Professional Liability Insurance Company

CNA earns the best overall professional liability insurance company spot because of its financial strength, broad definition of professional services, and ability to offer limits up to $5 million. These features allow CNA to write standalone policies for a wide range of professionals while offering a professional liability endorsement on its business owner’s policy (BOP) for other business owners.

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Coverage Highlights

In addition to offering coverage limits of up to $5 million to many business owners, CNA features several unique options, including:

• Worldwide coverage
• Coverage for current and former directors, officers, partners, employees, and independent contractors
• Coverage for trademark or copyright infringement, defamation, and misappropriation
• Preclaim assistance, paying for investigations into reported potential claims
• Defense costs outside of limits, leaving more money available for judgments or settlements
• Coverage for accusations of intentional wrongdoing until final adjudication

CNA also offers a professional liability endorsement on its BOP. The coverage is less extensive than its standalone policy but may be sufficient for businesses that aren’t traditionally considered professions like pastors, photographers, and florists.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

CNA specializes in commercial lines of insurance and is a leader in professional liability. Depending on your industry, you can also go to CNA for standard small business policies, such as:

• General liability
• BOP
• Workers’ compensation
• Commercial auto

CNA can also offer rarer coverage, such as cyber, inland marine, equipment breakdown, and employment practices liability insurance (EPLI).

The Hartford: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Business Consultants

The Hartford is a small business insurance innovator that dives into industry trends to develop broad coverage and policy options that make sense. Key professional liability insurance add-ons for consultants include coverage for disciplinary proceedings and subpoena assistance, plus it has full coverage for prior acts for most consultants. Information technology (IT) professionals, in particular, should look into The Hartford’s FailSafe product, which offers breach of warranty coverage without a contractual liability exclusion.

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Coverage Highlights

The Hartford offers a standalone professional liability policy for 34 business classes, including 16 specific types of consultants. Coverage highlights include:

• Coverage limits of up to $5 million and deductibles up to $25,000
• Extended reporting periods to minimize coverage gaps
• Prior acts coverage for events occurring before the policy start date
• Cyber liability coverage
• Coverage for disciplinary proceedings
• Subpoena assistance
• Reimbursements to clients for lost income and nonlegal expense they incur in defense of a claim

Additionally, The Hartford offers FailSafe, a unique professional liability product for technology businesses. The key highlight of FailSafe is coverage for contractual liabilities that typically are excluded from professional liability policies, but the product also includes coverage for failing to prevent:

• Denial of service attacks
• Unauthorized access to or use of systems, network, data, software, or firmware
• Introduction of malicious code
• Malicious acts of rogue employees
• Identity theft or disclosure of personal information

Both FailSafe and professional liability coverage for most other consultants can be purchased on their own or added to a BOP.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

For small businesses, The Hartford offers fundamental insurance policies, including general liability and commercial property bundled in a BOP. The Hartford is also a leader in workers’ compensation insurance and has benefits packages specifically designed for businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

Professional liability is a necessary coverage, but most small businesses need BOPs.

Travelers: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Finance Businesses

Travelers is one of the best E&O insurance companies for the finance industry, offering coverage to certified public accountants (CPAs) and bookkeepers as well as credit unions and banks. Specifically for accountants, Travelers offers professional liability that covers crisis event costs, preclaim assistance, and security breach notification and remediation. These coverages can be tailored to your firm’s unique insurance needs.

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Coverage Highlights

According to the application, businesses with less than $100,000 in revenue can get up to $1 million in coverage with no deductible. Larger firms have the option of higher limits and can choose deductibles ranging from $0 to $5,000. Moreover, Travelers’ professional liability insurance for small financial firms includes coverage for:

• Defense costs outside of coverage limits
• Security breach expenses
• Claims over investment advising
• Crisis event cost like public relations expenses
• Preclaim investigation costs

Part of Travelers’ professional liability coverage is access to a risk management hotline and a one-hour consultation with a professional liability defense firm.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

As one of the larger insurance carriers, Travelers can provide businesses with standard policies, like BOPs, commercial auto, and workers’ compensation. Business owners can also tailor Travelers’ business owner’s policy, called Master Pac, to include many of these as well as industry-specific coverages.

One of the highlights of working with Travelers is you get to speak to a local agent who can walk you through your coverage needs.

Hiscox: Best Professional Liability for Beauticians & Cosmetology Services

While Hiscox specializes in competitively priced policies for small businesses, its high revenue limits for professional liability make it a top errors and omissions insurance company for the personal care industry. Barbers, stylists, and estheticians with up to $5 million in revenue qualify for its professional liability product with coverage limits up to $5 million. This gives small business owners room to grow without having to switch carriers on this essential policy.

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Coverage Highlights

Business owners who get an online quote from Hiscox can see coverage limits of up to $2 million. However, those limits can go up to $5 million once a Hiscox underwriter reviews the application. Other professional liability coverage highlights include:

• Policies starting at $22.50 per month
• Available on a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily basis
• Pays for claims from work completed prior to the start of the policy
• Deductible options from $0 to $10,000

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

Hiscox’s top insurance products for small business owners include general liability, professional liability, business owner’s policy, and cybersecurity. For other insurance policies, such as umbrella liability, commercial auto, and directors and officers, Hiscox partners with online insurance broker CoverHound.

Embroker: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Lawyers

Originally an online broker, Embroker has developed a proprietary professional liability product for lawyers. Attorneys who need quality coverage fast should consider submitting an application through Embroker. Quotes appear in 15 minutes or less, and policies can be purchased online immediately.

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Coverage Highlights

Embroker’s legal professional liability insurance is a claims-made policy and includes:

• Reasonable public relations expenses incurred during a crisis event
• Expenses resulting from disciplinary proceedings
• Coverage for past, present, and future directors, officers, shareholders, partners, and attorneys
• Coverage for investigations into reported events before they become claims

If they face a claim, lawyers who purchase Embroker’s legal professional liability coverage also have a say in whether or not the insurer settles. However, the insurer can reduce the payout if the policyholder refuses a settlement that is both acceptable to the claimant and within the policyholder’s liability limits.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

Embroker is an online broker, which means it works with multiple carriers to provide coverage to small business owners. As a result, it can offer most of the policies its partners create. These policies include general liability, workers’ compensation, commercial property, commercial auto, and product liability.

In addition to its legal malpractice insurance, Embroker offers a free risk review to help you decide if your current coverage is sufficient.

AIG: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Publishers & Broadcasters

As a top errors and omissions insurance company, AIG offers professional liability coverage tailored to several industries. Publishers and broadcasters should consider its media liability product that covers a wide range of professional liabilities associated with developing and disseminating content, including accusations of negligence in the quality of the material, infliction of emotional distress, and outrageous conduct.

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Coverage Highlights

While AIG has professional liability insurance designed for several industries, it’s media liability insurance includes several highlights and options that should be interesting to publishers and broadcasters. These include:

• Open-perils coverage: AIG’s open-perils policy provides broader coverage than policies written on a named-perils basis, which only cover events specifically listed on the policy.
• Available on a claims-made or occurrence coverage: Claims-made policies respond regardless of when the act triggering coverage happens; occurrence policies cover acts that occur when the policy is in force.
• Covers all of the insured’s distributed media: AIG does not require policyholders to supply a list of all of their media to ensure coverage.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

AIG is a massive insurance carrier with the ability to write liability and property policies of all kinds to both private and public companies. This includes the most common policies, from general liability and workers’ compensation to highly specialized policies, such as:

• Product liability
• Environmental insurance
• Management liability
• Political risk insurance

In addition to commercial lines, AIG offers personal lines and retirement services.

CoverWallet: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Home Remodelers

CoverWallet is an award-winning broker that uses proprietary technology to walk clients through the application process and shop prices among the best carriers. Because CoverWallet works with multiple carriers, it can cover many industries, but it is particularly strong for contractors, especially residential remodelers, painters, and carpenters.

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Coverage Highlights

As a broker, CoverWallet acts as the go-between for business owners and insurance carriers, so it doesn’t sell a particular product. Working with a broker, however, does have its advantages. One major plus is the opportunity to compare policies and premiums from multiple carriers. This way, you can get the right policies for your unique situation.

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

Business owners who submit applications with CoverWallet can usually get quotes from top carriers, which means they have access to most of the insurance policies those carriers offer. CoverWallet’s insurance partners include Liberty Mutual, Markel, and Berkshire Hathaway Guard.

One of the best reasons to work with CoverWallet is because it partners with top insurance carriers, including Chubb, Hiscox, and AmTrust.

The Doctors Company: Best Professional Liability Insurance for Physicians

The Doctors Company specializes in medical malpractice insurance and other professional liability policies for the healthcare industry. As the largest physician-owned insurance provider in the nation, The Doctors Company has unique insight regarding the liability risks and coverage needs in the healthcare industry. This makes it an ideal option for physicians, dentists, and surgeons.

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Coverage Highlights

The Doctors Company offers medical malpractice insurance for doctors and dentists. Coverage highlights include:

• Free tail coverage to protect policyholders after they retire
• Legal representation in administrative actions
• Cyber liability protection

Additionally, The Doctors Company has errors and omissions coverage for practices with services that fall outside the scope of traditional medical malpractice, such as:

• Managed care
• Expert witness
• Medical billing
• Claims review
• Employee leasing

Additional Commercial Insurance Policies

The Doctors Company’s main focus is on liability coverage for doctors, surgeons, dentists, and medical facilities, including medical malpractice, employment practices liability, workers’ compensation, cyber liability, and general liability. The Doctors Company also offers a specific coverage, MediGuard, for regulatory reviews like actions brought by Medicare or Medicaid.

How We Evaluated Professional Liability Insurance Providers

The criteria we used to evaluate the best professional liability insurance companies include:

• Financial strength: You want to pick a financially sound insurance provider that can pay claims if they occur, so we looked at ratings from A.M. Best, the credit rating agency focused on the insurance industry.
• Coverage options: Professional liability policies can have a variety of coverage features that can increase their value, so we looked for insurers that offer options like claims-made policies, worldwide coverage, and defense costs paid outside of limits.
• Online features: We gave high marks to insurance companies that make small business owners’ lives easier by offering online applications, chat features, and claims reporting.
• Other insurance policies: Offering other small business insurance can make managing policies easier while also minimizing the potential for coverage gaps.

Bottom Line

No one is perfect, and even the most professional business owners make mistakes. Professional liability insurance covers you if you make a mistake and when unhappy clients file frivolous lawsuits. Professional liability policies pay claim settlements and other legal costs incurred when defending your name and your company’s brand.