Professional Liability Coverage for When Your Firm has a Name Change

Design firms go through changes through the years, whether it is a change to the corporate structure, name changes or partnership changes.  You will need to know how your Professional Liability policy covers the different changes of the entity.

If the corporate structure has changed, such as changing from an Inc. firm to an LLC, you will need to notify your insurance agent.  This will change or add, depending on the insurance company and policy, the new corporate structure name to the policy.

If your firm has a name change it is the same as the corporate structure change.  You will need to notify your insurance agent to make the name change.  Again, verify that the firm name on the policy matches your contracts that you are working under are the same name.  This will eliminate any confusion when/if your firm has a claim.

Partnership changes work similar as the other two changes.  If it doesn’t change the firm name then there isn’t anything to be completed for the change.  If it does change the firm name then that just needs to be changed on the policy by endorsement.  If a partner is retiring they are typically still covered under the ongoing entity but always read your policy to verify if that is included.

In some cases, depending on the Professional Liability policy, the predecessor firm name is automatically covered.  This specific wording will need to be included in the policy, read your policy to confirm.

From time to time firms will purchase other firms.  If this happens it will depend on the purchase agreement as to how the change, if any, will be made to the policy.  This will need to be discussed with the insurance company in further detail since there are many scenarios that can happen with a purchase of a firm.

If your firm does have changes to the entity contact your agent to find out how you go about making that change.  If you do have questions please call or email your Professional Underwriters agent.