Who Needs Error & Omissions Insurance?

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Jerry Becerra with Barbary Insurance Brokerage, and today I want to talk about who needs errors and omissions coverage. Before I get into that I want to back up and just talk a little bit about what’s covered under the standard general liability policy. Those policies are primarily there for bodily injury and property damage claims. However, if your business is primarily giving advice to other people, you have an exposure for errors and omissions and you probably need that type of coverage. A classic example would be an attorney. If you brought your case to an attorney and he had to file papers with the court by a certain date or you’d lose your case and then he failed to do so, that would be an error and you would have a cause of action against the attorney for your losing your case through no fault of your own. So errors and omissions is there for professionals, CPAs, attorneys, doctors, architects and engineers. Now for some of these, architects and engineers and medical professionals, there is a bodily injury component, however, it’s only for claims arising out of direct professional advice and there are other types of professions where there is an errors and omissions exposure also where the industry itself is so arcane that you really have to trust the professional in order to get the job done. For instance, a computer programmer, a real estate agent, an event planner, an interior designer, those sort of people have exposures for errors and omissions coverage and finally there are some professions where there is a borderline exposure. For instance, a hairdresser or a beautician or a printer. If you take something to a printer and they don’t get the job done on time or they make a mistake in the printing and it costs you a lot of money, there’s potential errors and omissions exposure there and there is coverage available for those professions. So if you feel you have an exposure, speak to your agent, ask about errors and omissions coverage.