They took your advice, it did not work, and the contract said you were the expert.
Cover for management, HR, marketing, engineering and independent consultants — where the product is a recommendation and the loss is purely financial.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What consultant businesses actually need.
Professional liability
Claims that advice, analysis or an implementation caused financial loss.
Without it — General liability answers injury and property damage, and advice is neither.
General liability
The ordinary exposures of working at client premises.
Without it — Most client contracts require it before you can be engaged at all.
Cyber liability
Breach of client data you were given to do the work.
Without it — Consultants routinely hold client data on their own laptops.
Contractual requirements
The limits, additional insured status and waivers in client agreements.
Without it — A signed contract you cannot evidence is an engagement you cannot start.
What consultant operators ask us.
I am a sole consultant. Do I really need this?
Usually because a client requires it before signing, and increasingly that is any client of size. Beyond the contract requirement, the exposure is genuine: a recommendation that costs a client money is a claim, and defending it personally is expensive whether or not you were right. Sole consultants are also the group most likely to have signed an agreement with an uncapped indemnity, which is worth reading before the first engagement rather than after.
What about HR consultants specifically?
They carry an extra layer worth naming. An HR consultant advising on a termination, a classification, a handbook or an investigation can be drawn into the resulting employment claim alongside the client — so the professional liability form needs to contemplate employment-related advice rather than exclude it, which some do. Ask the question directly; it is a common exclusion in generic consultant forms.
Does it matter that my advice was followed badly?
It is a defense and not a shield, and the documentation decides it. Claims of this kind turn on what was recommended, what was excluded from scope, what assumptions were stated, and what the client was told about risk. A consultant with clear engagement letters, written scope limits and a record of what was advised is defensible; one working from a verbal brief usually is not. Insurers price that difference, so it is worth describing your engagement process at quote.
Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.