Budgeting for insurance as a design professional can be tricky but doable. It is important to look at your firm and determine what the needs are with regards to insurance and budget accordingly.
The first step is to determine what the premiums for each insurance policy will be for your firm. It doesn’t cost your firm anything to get quotes for insurance, just some time. You can get quotes for all types of insurance policies so you have an idea of what the costs associated with each policy will potentially be.
Perhaps the most vital insurance coverage for a design professional is errors and omissions insurance. This policy premium is determined on an application completed by your firm based on past fiscal year information such as billings, project types and your firms discipline. If you have risk management practices and participates in continuing education these can help with your insurance premiums.
Then you will want to determine what other types of insurance are needed by your firm. If you have an office location you will need a business owner policy. If you have employees you will need a workers compensation policy and may want to consider an employment liability insurance policy. If your firm does a lot of work on the computer you may also want to consider cyber liability. If your firm owns automobiles you will need a commercial auto policy.
Lastly what is your budget for insurance premium vs. what insurance coverage’s are most important for your firm? Could you potentially increase deductibles to help with the premium? Also, most insurance companies and agents have payment options available if that helps with cash flow issues.
Again it doesn’t cost your firm anything to get quotes so you have overall picture of what the costs may be for your firm. As always please feel free to call or email your Professional Underwriter insurance agent to help with these policies.