They took your advice, it did not work, and the contract said you were the expert.
A consultant needs professional liability, also called errors and omissions, for the client who says your advice or work cost them money, plus general liability and often cyber because client contracts ask for all three before you start. It is written claims-made, so keep it in force and protect the retroactive date. We place it for management, HR, research, benefits and independent consultants.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
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.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A client says a recommendation or a project cost them money and wants it back
Covered by Professional liability
The policy defends the negligence allegation. It does not refund your fees or pay on a promised result you wrote into the proposal.
Common
A project runs late or over budget and the client withholds payment, then sues
Covered by Professional liability, for the counterclaim
A fee dispute is where many consultant claims start. A written scope, change orders and a record of what the client approved are the defense.
Common
Client data on your laptop or in your inbox is exposed
Covered by Cyber liability
Professional liability covers your advice, not your systems, and many client contracts now name a cyber limit.
Less common, severe
A client’s employee sues over advice you gave on a termination or a policy
Covered by Professional liability, if it does not exclude employment-related advice
Generic consultant forms often exclude it. HR consultants should ask for the wording in writing.
What our consultant clients ask us.
A client contract requires professional liability insurance. What exactly do they want?
Usually a certificate showing professional liability, which the contract may call errors and omissions or professional indemnity, at a stated limit such as $1M per claim, plus general liability and sometimes cyber. Read the clause for the limit and whether it is per claim or aggregate. Some contracts also make you keep the policy in force for a period after the engagement ends. Additional insured status is common on general liability and unusual on professional lines, so ask before you promise it.
How much does professional liability insurance cost for a consultant?
Our estimate from our own book is that a solo consultant with under $200,000 in revenue and no claims starts around $400 to $750 a year for professional liability. Four solo management, research, benefits and health care consultants we insure paid between $400 and $729 across 13 policy years from 2024 to 2026, with a middle figure of $560. The one two-person firm in the set, a corporate training company at about $155,000 in revenue, paid $1,190. Treat these as an estimate and not a published rate, because four businesses is a small sample and our records hold the price but not every limit. For a price with its limit attached, a new solo health care consultant we quoted in 2026 was offered general and professional liability together at $1M per claim and $3M aggregate with a $1,000 deductible for $1,065 a year.
What moves the price of professional liability for a consultant?
Revenue is the rating base, but below about $200,000 the policies we placed sat near a floor and revenue barely moved them. One consultant at $25,000 and another at $180,000 both paid $400. What you advise on matters more. Management, research and training work rate low, and advice tied to construction projects is rated as a heavier class; the one first-year construction consulting firm we placed, at about $1.2 million in revenue, paid roughly $15,800. Then the limit and the retention you choose, your years in business, your claims history, and any contract that has you promise a result or accept an uncapped indemnity. A higher limit costs less than most people expect. On one 2026 quote ladder for a solo health practitioner, a different class but the same mechanics, $100,000 per claim was $912 a year and $1M per claim with a $3M aggregate was $1,368.
What is tail coverage, and do I need it when I retire or close?
Professional liability is written claims-made, so it answers only claims made while a policy is in force, for work done after the retroactive date printed on it. Stop buying it and a claim about work you already did has nowhere to go. Tail coverage, an extended reporting period, keeps the right to report those claims open for a set number of years after the last policy ends. It is bought once, usually priced as a multiple of the last annual premium, and the decision is easiest to make before you cancel.
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.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. 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.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.