Insurance for business consultants

One of the most important types of business consulting insurance to have is professional liability insurance. This is because business consultants are called upon to offer recommendations, advice, and strategies for clients who need their help to turn a profit and accomplish a wide range of goals. 

Professional liability insurance, sometimes called errors and omissions insurance (E&O insurance), is coverage for claims against businesses that provide professional and personal services — for consulting businesses such as yours. It is an ideal type of coverage to protect against mistakes and judgment errors.

When is it important to have professional liability insurance as a business consultant? The scenarios below describe only a handful of the numerous possible occasions.

• Project management out of control: A business consultant has been contracted by a client to organize a project that has run past its due date and is over budget. The consultant has committed to bringing the project to completion. As they dig into the project, the consultant realizes that the former project manager did not present the client with an accurate view of deliverables, and the consultant is now facing a scope of work that is twice as long as the original projection. When the consultant presents this finding to their client, he is angry and accuses the consultant of not doing the due diligence of project review before signing the contract. 

Professional liability insurance could protect business consultants against claims of negligence, even if they haven't made a mistake. Hiscox offers business consultant insurance plans for this type of situation and many others. We make it easy for business consultants to get specialized insurance coverage that's tailored to their field. 

• Protection even if you haven’t made a mistake: A consultant advises a client to change some internal processes to increase productivity. The recommendations aren’t implemented as specified and productivity drops by 15% rather than improving. The client decides to sue the business consultant to recover lost income.

Professional liability insurance could protect business consultants against claims of negligence, and we will appoint an attorney to defend them, even if they haven’t made a mistake. Giving advice to the best of your knowledge and expertise is all in a day’s work as a business consultant. Yet, advice can be subjective and interpreted differently by the parties involved. When you trust Hiscox with your business consultant insurance needs, you can feel more confident with every expert recommendation you make. 

Browse our website to learn more about professional liability insurance and why it is beneficial for business consultants like you. We will be happy to assist you with getting a business consultant insurance quote to help inform your decision.

We also recommend general liability insurance for many of our business consultant clients because of the diverse nature of this type of work. Business consultants are often called on-site to company headquarters, branch offices, and even clients’ homes to discuss plans and strategies. 

General liability insurance, sometimes called commercial general liability (CGL), protects your business from another person or business’s claims of bodily injury, associated medical costs, and damage to property. General liability insurance for business consultants may provide compensation for court costs, legal fees, and other related financial damages. Being held responsible for lawsuit costs can put your business and livelihood at risk, but Hiscox is here to protect small business owners and help them rise to the challenges they face.

Having general liability coverage for business consultants is beneficial in several instances, including these hypothetical scenarios that could arise.

• Bodily injury: A prospective client comes to a consultant’s office to discuss an upcoming project. As the client is leaving, he leans on a loose stair railing, which gives way. He loses his footing and falls down the stairs, sustaining injuries that require hospitalization. 

General liability insurance may protect business consultants against third-party claims of property damage, bodily injury, and associated medical costs. Situations such as this are always unexpected, but they can really impact a small business’s financial stability. This is why Hiscox provides bodily injury coverage as part of its general liability insurance for consultants. 

• Damage to a client's property: While having a meeting in a client’s office, you trip over a laptop cord and knock over an expensive piece of artwork. The client sues you for damaging her property and for the costs associated with repairing or replacing the artwork.

Consultants are often asked by their clients to purchase insurance as a contract requirement to begin work. This requirement protects business consultants in the event that they accidentally damage their client's property while working at the client's office. Fortunately, general liability insurance could protect business consultants against third-party claims of property damage. Having this type of coverage is more important in some industries than others, but especially as a business consultant because you may assist companies in a wide range of sectors. Hiscox is here to help you grow your business with confidence each step of the way.

• Slander: An employee at a business consulting firm goes to a bar after work. After a few drinks, he begins talking loudly about an executive at a client company. The comments are overheard by associates of the executive, so word gets back to the executive, who sues the consulting company for slander.

This unfortunate circumstance happens more often than you might think, but you can protect yourself with a Hiscox insurance policy. General liability insurance protects business consultants against third-party claims of defamation and slander, property damage, and associated medical costs.

Learn more about general liability insurance costs.

There are multiple ways to secure a small business and keep it protected and moving toward its goals. Another type of policy that is ideal for many business consultants is a business owners policy. 

A business owners policy (BOP) is a combination of general liability and business property insurance, offering the best of both worlds in terms of protection and stability. BOP is often used to provide balanced coverage for small businesses that also want to protect their own business equipment. You may use computers, tablets, webcams, printers, and other types of equipment in your daily work, and you can protect them all with a Hiscox plan. 

When might a BOP be useful while conducting your business consulting work? Some examples of what could be covered under a Hiscox BOP are below.

• Projects can't be managed without the proper technology and communications equipment. Furthermore, damaged equipment could prevent businesses from operating. Our business owner insurance combines general liability coverage with protection for business equipment used to provide professional services, such as laptops, webcams, phones, and printers.

In any line of work, you can’t get the job done right without the proper tools at your disposal. Hiscox steps in to provide the insurance you need so that all of your tools are protected. 

• If a business consultant's home office is damaged by a fire, her homeowner's insurance may not cover the damage caused to a high-end computer. A Hiscox business owners policy could, however, cover the cost to replace the computer, letting the consultant get back to business.

Business consultants rarely think something like this could happen to them, but it’s best to be prepared in case disasters strike. We want to empower you to take your consulting practice to the next level with proactive measures and smart choices. 

Browse our website to learn more about what a business owners policy covers and what it can do for your consulting company. If you have any questions, please contact us and we’ll help you fully understand the options available to you as a small business owner. 
 

Business consultants work with sensitive data, such as financial information, personal data, intellectual property and more. Keeping this data secure is important to a business consultant’s credibility, so it’s important to have safeguards in place.

Cyber security insurance can help cover the cost to restore lost data and notify affected parties, if required. Plus, training resources and breach response services can help prevent a cyber incident in the first place and get expert assistance immediately if a breach occurs.

Here’s an example. A business consultant was working with a company preparing for an IPO. The consultant’s laptop contained a great deal of proprietary information about the company, its products, and its future plans. The laptop was stolen out of the consultant’s hotel room, and, while there was no evidence that the data was compromised, the consultant was out of business until the data could be recovered. Cyber security insurance covered the loss of income for the consultant and the cost to restore the data that was on the missing laptop.