What insurance does my architecture/engineering firm need?

There are some insurance policies that will be required by either contract or law and some that your firm needs to consider based on your business affairs.

Professional Liability – this is probably the most important type of insurance for architects and engineers.  Also know as errors and omissions policy.  This policy is available if your firm makes an error on a project and there is a demand for money or services.  It is not required by most states to have this insurance, however most contracts will have this insurance requirement.  Professional Liability is a Claims Made policy and covers only those claims which were made against you, and reported to the company during the policy period.  When coverage is terminated, there is no longer insurance available for any new claim, even though a claim might arise from services performed while there was insurance in force.

Workers Compensation – if your firm has employees you will be required by law to have this policy.  Some states do not require owners to be on the policy but employees must be on the policy.

Business owner policy – this policy encompasses a few pieces of insurance, business personal property, general liability and automobile liability.  If you own a building the coverage will also be included on this policy.  Your firm’s landlord or mortgage company may have a requirement to have building coverage and general and automobile liability insurance.  However, the business personal property, unless you have leased equipment, is not required but recommended to protect your property.

Cyber liability – this policy is newer to the marketplace but is becoming more and more prevalent as the dark web continues to grow.  While most of the time this is not a required insurance policy, there are contracts, especially government contracts, that are requiring the coverage.

There are many more policies available in the market that your firm may be interested in such as employment liability, directors and officers and crime policies.   Please be sure to ask your Professional Underwriters agent about these policies.