You are judged on the service, not on the premises.

Professional liability

Counseling, case management, placement, referral and advocacy, where the harm is caused by the service itself.

Without it — The defining exposure of the sector, and the one general liability does not reach at all.

Abuse and molestation

Allegations involving clients in your care: minors, elderly and vulnerable adults.

Without it — Excluded from general liability, and unavoidable wherever staff have unsupervised client contact.

General liability and property

Premises, drop-in centers and residential facilities, plus injury to clients and visitors.

Without it — Shelters and day centers carry heavy foot traffic from people in crisis.

Workers compensation, including volunteers

Case workers, shelter staff and volunteers, including assault by a client.

Without it — Staff assault is a real and rated exposure in shelters and crisis work.

Employment practices

Claims by staff and, on many forms, by volunteers.

Without it — High-stress, grant-funded workplaces with informal HR are where these claims begin.

Directors and officers

Board claims over governance, restricted funds, contracts and employment.

Without it — Government and foundation funding comes with obligations that create documented duties.

Business cyber

Client records, which for this sector are among the most sensitive data anyone holds.

Without it — A breach of a shelter or counseling client list is a safety incident as well as a notification cost.

Group health and benefits

Medical, dental and vision for case and program staff.

Without it — Nonprofit pay cannot match the private sector, so benefits carry more of the retention weight than they would elsewhere.

We are newly formed and applying to be a funded vendor. What is underwritten?

The people, first. A new organization brings no loss history, so underwriters read the founders instead and will ask for their resumes, looking for experience in the population served, credentials, and any program previously run. Second, if staff drive consumers or use their own cars for the work, carriers attach conditions to hired and non-owned auto: annual driving-record checks on everyone who drives, and each of them keeping a personal auto policy in force, because that coverage responds above the driver’s own rather than in place of it. Have both in writing before the certificate is needed.

What a California regional center checks

What is the difference between professional liability and general liability here?

General liability answers for what you did TO someone: they slipped in your lobby, your sign fell on their car. Professional liability answers for what you did FOR them, where the assessment missed something, the referral was wrong, the case was not followed up, the placement was unsuitable. In social services almost every serious claim is the second kind, and it is the coverage most likely to be missing because the organization does not think of itself as a professional practice. If people rely on your judgment, you have professional exposure whether or not you charge for it.

We house clients. Does that change the policy?

Substantially. Residential operation adds habitational property exposure, a much higher liability profile, and questions an underwriter will ask specifically: how many beds, whether staff are on site overnight, what the intake screening is, and whether you serve minors or people in acute crisis.