Effortless to buy, and on several lines the wrong policy for the business buying it.
An honest assessment of Hiscox from an agency that places them — where they work, where they get expensive, and the specific sublimits and exclusions we would not put a technology or home health account into.
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.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What Hiscox businesses actually need.
Small professional and general liability
Straightforward GL and professional liability for small service businesses.
Without it — Easy to apply for, easy to write, and fine on a lot of simple accounts.
Home health GL and professional
Combined general and professional liability for home care, with a cyber add-on available.
Without it — Workable — but read the patient transport exclusion and the abuse sublimit first.
What Hiscox operators ask us.
Is Hiscox a good choice?
It depends entirely on the line, more than with most carriers, and that is the useful thing to know about them. What they do well: the application is extremely easy and the business is easy to write. For a small, simple professional or service account with no unusual exposures, that convenience is real and the product is fine. Where we hesitate: some of our clients have noticed the pricing running well above the market on certain lines, and on some the form carries sublimits and exclusions that undo the reason the business was buying the policy in the first place. Those are two different objections and the second matters much more than the first.
Would you place a home health agency with Hiscox?
Sometimes, and only after two specific things are checked, because both are common in this sector and both are constrained on their form. Patient transport is excluded. If your caregivers ever drive a client — to an appointment, to the shops, anywhere — that is a core activity of a great many home care agencies and the exclusion removes it. It is the single most important thing to establish before placing this class here. Abuse and molestation sits on a very small sublimit. For an agency sending people into homes with vulnerable clients, abuse cover is not a peripheral coverage, it is the claim that closes the business — and a small sublimit against a full policy limit is easy to miss on a quote comparison and impossible to fix afterwards. They do offer a cyber add-on, which is worth having on any agency holding client health records. But on those two points we would want a direct answer about your operations before recommending it, and quite often the answer sends us elsewhere.
Would you use Hiscox for a technology company?
No, and this is the clearest recommendation on this page. They do not offer technology errors and omissions. Their miscellaneous E&O is not a substitute for it: in our experience it sublimits HIPAA violations, and it frequently excludes leaks of personally identifiable information outright. For a technology company those two things ARE the exposure — a software business holds other people’s data as the core of what it does, so a professional liability policy that carves out data claims has carved out the business. So we do not recommend their professional liability or their cyber products for technology companies. That is not a criticism of the product; it is a product built for a different buyer, and the problem is that it is easy to buy by mistake. If you are a technology company currently holding a miscellaneous E&O policy, read it for wording about personal or confidential information, privacy regulation, or health information — and if you find it, you are carrying a policy that would decline the claim you are most likely to make.
Why go through a broker instead of buying direct?
Six reasons, and the first one surprises people. It does not cost you anything. Broker compensation is built into the carrier’s rate whether or not you use one — buying direct does not remove it, it just means nobody is being paid to be on your side. You are declining the representation, not the cost. Somebody negotiates for you. An agent represents YOU rather than the carrier, which matters most at the two moments that decide whether insurance was worth buying: when the account is being underwritten and priced, and when a claim is being adjusted. Direct writers have neither role available to you. You stop queueing. A certificate, an endorsement, a vehicle added, a limit raised — through an agent those are usually same-day, often same-hour. Through a service queue they are a wait, and you explain your business again to whoever answers. You get the same person. We assign a dedicated account manager from day one, so the person handling your renewal already knows what you do, what your contracts require, and what went wrong last time. Nobody starts from your policy number. We re-shop it every year. Not the same carrier re-rated — a genuine comparison across multiple carriers and products, because the market that was right for you at $400,000 of revenue is frequently not the one that is right at $1.2M. That is the single largest source of savings we find, and it is structurally unavailable if you buy direct. And we will tell you when to stay. If the policy you have is the right one, that is an answer we are willing to give, and it is why the comparison is worth doing at all.
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.