Top-rated E&O coverage for businesses and professionals.
As a small business, employee, or independent contractor, you could be sued for a mistake or oversight that causes a financial loss for your client. Errors & omissions (E&O) insurance can provide you with an attorney, pay for your defense costs, and cover any related judgments or settlement payments.
Errors and omissions insurance, also known as professional liability insurance, is a type of insurance specifically designed for those who work in professional services industries, such as financial professionals, consultants, real estate brokerages, freelancers, and many others.
Errors and omissions insurance helps protect your business if a client sues you for making a mistake, whether the alleged mistake is an “error” (i.e., doing something incorrectly) or an “omission” (i.e., failing to do something that should have been done).
The simple answer is that E&O insurance is valuable for any business, employee, or independent contractor who has clients and provides services requiring a professional level of skill or expertise. Some of the professionals and small business owners who should consider errors and omissions insurance include:
In some cases, business contracts and service agreements require E&O insurance for small businesses and independent contractors. Even if insurance isn’t a contractual requirement, many professionals and small businesses opt for the protection E&O insurance provides. And E&O insurance isn’t just for business owners – employees and independent contractors may also want it so they don’t have to worry about the financial burden of a potential lawsuit.
Mistakes do happen, even to the most diligent professionals. That’s why E&O insurance is so important. For example, a real estate brokerage might accidentally publish the incorrect square footage for a home they’ve listed. An unhappy buyer might sue over that error. If the real estate broker had E&O insurance, their policy would typically cover the cost of legal proceedings and outcomes. In cases like these, E&O insurance can be a financial lifesaver.
For example, if a financial planner offers advice to their client that leads to a large financial loss, that client could sue the planner or their firm for negligence. Errors and omissions insurance can help provide the financial planner with a dedicated claims team, hire an attorney, and cover the settlement cost.
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If a client sues you for an unintentional negligent act or omission, E&O insurance covers the cost of defending yourself against the claim, as well as the settlement amount or damages that you may have to pay. These unintentional acts include:
Such as when a client alleges that they lost money or suffered other damages as a result of advice they received.
Such as missing a deadline or failing to deliver a promised service.
Such as when a professional fails to meet a certain standard of care.
Including any inadvertent mistakes made while serving a client.
When a professional unintentionally violates someone else’s copyright.
If you provide professional services to clients, professional liability coverage insures you against claims of negligence or delivering inadequate work products or services (also known as errors and omissions coverage or E&O coverage). This includes paying for judgments or settlements against you, up to the amount specified by your policy’s limits of liability.
Amount Covered: Limits offered vary by profession, with coverage up to:
If a claim is filed against you, we’ll help get you your very own lawyer from our network of defense attorneys who specialize in professional liability, and we’ll pay their legal fees. Plus, your attorney works for you, not us: You and your assigned lawyer will enjoy fully confidential attorney-client privilege. We’ll also pay for related defense costs (e.g., court fees, settlements). Check out a sample E&O policy for a real estate franchise to learn more.
Amount Covered: Paid for outside the limits of liability.
If you’re investigated by a professional regulatory organization, we’ll help appoint defense counsel for you and pay you for the attorney fees resulting from the investigation.
Amount Covered: $25,000 per policy period
If we ask you to attend any depositions, trials, hearings, or arbitration proceedings in support of your defense, we’ll reimburse you for actual lost wages and any reasonable and necessary expenses.
Amount Covered: Up to $1,000 per day
Here are some noteworthy features of our E&O policies:
The cost of E&O insurance will depend on:
Your profession and business type
Where you operate your business
How much revenue your business generates
Whether there are any previous claims filed against you
For lower risk professions, such as graphic designers, a Berxi policy starts at about $480 per year. For other professionals, such as home inspectors, a policy might start around $1,000 per year. The best way to get an idea of what your policy would cost is by getting a free quote.
We’re working to create a simpler, faster, and better insurance experience for our customers, and we think we’re the right choice for small business professionals. But we also know that this is a really important decision, so we want to make sure you have all the information you need. Here are a few things that set us apart from other insurance companies.
With a financial strength rating of A++, we have the stability and expertise to protect you long-term.
Because we sell directly to customers, we cut out the middlemen and broker fees – and pass the savings on to you.
You can visit our website to get a quote, buy a policy, get proof of insurance, and file a claim – all in a few clicks.
When you call our support line, you’ll reach a real-life human being who’ll work hard to answer all of your questions.
There is no single line of insurance that covers every risk confronting a business. E&O insurance is no different: It covers some key professional liability risks, but it doesn’t cover everything, such as personal liabilities that should already be covered by other types of insurance policies.
Here are some types of claims and liabilities that aren’t covered by E&O insurance.
Claims concerning a customer who slipped in the office or an accident that damaged a neighbor’s property are among the kinds of risks typically covered by general liability insurance.
This category includes claims such as libel and slander, which are usually covered by general liability insurance.
Disputes with current, prospective, or former employees concerning alleged discriminatory employment practices or wrongful termination are generally covered by Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI).
Coverage for the costs of a data breach, such as informing customers and providing them with credit counseling, will be covered by a cyber-insurance policy.
E&O insurance policies always contain exclusions barring coverage for intentionally fraudulent or illegal acts.
If you have questions about errors and omissions insurance – including what it is, who needs it, and what a typical policy might cost – we have answers.
learn more
Read the story of how one real estate broker and Berxi customer found himself facing a claim – and how his E&O insurance helped him avoid a lawsuit.
learn more
These stories from real businesses recount the common mistakes their owners made along the way – and how to help avoid them for your own business.
learn moreClaims from dissatisfied clients are an all-too-common event, and E&O insurance can help to minimize the stress and out-of-pocket expenditures that come with such claims.
Even if a claim is baseless, E&O insurance covers the cost of defending yourself against the allegation, as well as the settlement or damages that you may have to pay the claimant. Here is what is typically covered by E&O policies:
The appropriate limits of E&O insurance depend on, among other things, a business’s specific liability exposure and the litigation environment in which it operates. This may mean that a real estate broker who has a single franchise does not need the same E&O limits as a global brokerage.
Determining the appropriate amount of E&O insurance requires an assessment of the professional firm’s potential liability exposure, expected claim frequency, and cost of insurance.
Finding the “right” amount of E&O insurance requires careful consideration. Berxi in-house insurance experts can work with you to determine the appropriate limits for your unique risk profile.
The simple answer is that E&O insurance is valuable for any business that has clients and provides services requiring a particular level of skill or expertise. More specifically, some professions that require licensure or other certification — such as attorneys, insurance brokers, or accountants — may be required to purchase professional liability insurance as a condition of practicing.
Here is a list of the professions Berxi currently provides E&O coverage for:
Insurance that was once available only through insurance brokers can now, in some instances, be bought online directly from an insurer. But there is no single “right” way for you to purchase E&O insurance. What works for one business might not be ideal for your business.
To select an appropriate insurance policy, identify the risks facing your business, research which policies best respond to those risks, and compare pricing and coverage of these E&O policies.
For some people, getting the right amount of advice and assistance means going to an experienced and trusted broker. For others, finding a reputable insurance company with responsive professional advisors online or by phone works best for them.
Berxi sells E&O insurance directly to customers, saving you about 15%. We also have a customer service rating of 4.87 (out of 5). If you’re interested in buying direct, get a quote online or give us a call.
Errors and omissions insurance is a type of professional liability insurance. Professional liability insurance helps protect you from claims that you made a mistake while providing professional services. Both E&O and medical malpractice insurance are professional liability policies. Depending on the industry, the terms E&O insurance and professional liability insurance are sometimes used interchangeably.
It’s difficult to calculate an average cost for errors and omissions insurance because it provides coverage for so many different kinds of professionals with various backgrounds, facing a wide variety of risk. Below, we will highlight annual pricing of a Berxi E&O policy for specific professions. But it’s also helpful to identify some of the factors that are taken into consideration in determining the cost of E&O insurance. These factors include:
The best way to find out how much your errors and omissions insurance will cost is to get a quote.
Yes. E&O insurance is a type of professional liability insurance, and the terms are often used interchangeably. Other types of professional liability insurance include medical malpractice and dental malpractice insurance.
Because so many different businesses and professionals use errors and omissions insurance, the nature of the claims varies greatly. Claims can involve alleged errors, oversight, negligence, breaches of contract, bad advice, or misrepresentation on the part of professionals or businesses that leads to financial losses for their clients. Here are a few examples:
There’s little firm data on the most common causes of errors and omissions claims and lawsuits. They can happen any time a client believes a professional or business made a mistake that caused them to lose money. Some of the potential causes for E&O claims include:
General liability insurance is designed to cover accidents that could happen in almost any setting, such as a client slipping and falling on your property. E&O insurance protects you against claims regarding something you did as a professional, such as bad advice, an unintentional mistake, or failure to properly deliver a service. Learn more about the differences between E&O insurance and general liability insurance.
