Curious if anyone out there is acting as an independent contractor,
consultant, or small business,
if so do you use professional liability insurance? What should I look out
for and is there any good
brokers that offer inexpensive yet reliable insurance?
thanks as always,
Mike
Than you for the responses, I want to clarify that I am talking about
professional
laibility and not general liability insurance. Professional liability being
insurance
that covers "errors or omissions while executing professional work" that may
adversely
impact a business your are contracting with.
thanx,
Mike
I don't consult myself, but is *anybody* crazy enough to do consulting
in the litigation-crazy US without carrying errors-and-omissions
insurance?
So what is the difference with E&O and professional insurance?
Mike
Curious if anyone out there is acting as an independent contractor,
consultant, or small business,
if so do you use professional liability insurance?
Many clients won't do business with you unless you provide the certificate
indicating you have the appropriate level of coverage. In the networking
business, this can often be 1 or 2 million dollars.
I don't consult myself, but is *anybody* crazy enough to do consulting
in the litigation-crazy US without carrying errors-and-omissions
insurance?
I'm sure there are some people who do, but I'd say they were stupid over
crazy.
Sameo sameo plus you'll need standard liability if you have clients that come to your office or if you work on their site. Usually your contract will dictate the minimum required.
Curious if anyone out there is acting as an independent contractor,
consultant, or small business, if so do you use professional
liability insurance?
Many clients won't do business with you unless you provide the certificate
indicating you have the appropriate level of coverage. In the networking
business, this can often be 1 or 2 million dollars.
I don't consult myself, but is *anybody* crazy enough to do consulting
in the litigation-crazy US without carrying errors-and-omissions
insurance?
I'm sure there are some people who do, but I'd say they were stupid over
crazy.
[Ryan Finnesey] At one of the User Groups I run the pizza place needs 6
million dollars in insurance just to make a delivery to the building.
Cheers
Ryan
The reality is that with the mega-insurance companies able to set whatever crazy premiums they feel like, and raise them every other month, the cost of being fully insured is sometimes more than what you can charge as a consultant.
-Randy
Randy,
This is sad, but true. Insurance was fully 1/4 of any income we made back
when I owned an ISP around 2001-2004.
This is generally NOT true for E&O and Professional liability insurance.
For the most part, that goes largely unregulated. The state insurance boards
tend to focus on consumer-oriented forms of insurance (auto, home, life).
Owen
>> The reality is that with the mega-insurance companies able to set
>> whatever crazy premiums they feel like, and raise them every
>> other month, the cost of being fully insured is sometimes more
>> than what you can charge as a consultant.
>
> This is just not true. Insurance companies are regulated by State
> Insurance boards. If an insurance company wants to raise rates,
> they
> have to submit a proposal to the their state insurance board. They
> can
> only raise rates for a "class" of customers. For example, all
> customers
> aged 50 - 62.
>This is generally NOT true for E&O and Professional liability
insurance.For the most part, that goes largely unregulated. The state insurance
boards
tend to focus on consumer-oriented forms of insurance (auto, home,
life).Owen
Yep. I don't remember the specifics, but our quote was ridiculous (like $thousands per month). Our health insurance premiums also goes up 30+% nearly every year. So much for regulation there...
-Randy
Back n the day - I used Hartford for insurance. It was very reasonable.
Premiums went up once in the 15yrs we were active.
/bill