Professional Liability Insurance for Accountants

We provide professional liability insurance to accountants in select states. We work with numerous 'A' rated insurance companies and can provide professional liability insurance to accountants working in all fields and all specialties.

In order to receive accounting professional liability insurance quotes, you must first complete an application which is available on this website. If you already completed an application from a different broker or insurance company, you can simply send it to us and we will work with it. Once we receive your professional liability insurance application, we will review it for completeness and will contact you if there's any missing information or if we need additional details. Once your application is ready, we will send it to our insurance companies for quotes. It typically takes 3-5 business days before we receive your quotes. We will then present you with the quotes we received along with a copy of the accounting professional liability insurance policy so that you can review the coverage and exclusions.

What should accountants look for in a professional liability insurance policy?

The coverage provided by an accounting professional liability insurance policies varies from insurance company to insurance company. All policies provide at least the basic coverage for your professional accounting services, subject to various exclusions. Some accounting professional liability insurance policies provide coverage for additional services which may be important to some accountants. The additional coverage which may be provided by some insurance companies include the following:

 Disciplinary or regulatory proceeding: Consists of a proceeding by a disciplinary or regulatory official to investigate alleged professional misconduct of an accountant, subject to a sublimit.
 Subpoena expenses: Provides coverage for fees and expenses incurred in responding to a subpoena for documents, subject to a sublimit.
 Financial planner / investment adviser
 Notary public
 Arbitrator / Mediator
 Trustee / Receiver / Executor

As the above services are not covered by every insurance company as part of their accounting professional liability insurance policy, it is important for accountants to review the coverage provided by each insurance policy prior to making their selection.

Why is my professional liability insurance policy on a claims made basis?

Basically all accounting professional liability insurance policies are written on a claims made basis. This means that if a claim is reported, it is the current policy which will be triggered, rather than policy which was in force when the act, error or omission took place. The retroactive date determines the beginning of coverage, meaning that any act, error or omissions which took place before the retroactive date is not covered.

Insurance companies issue professional liability insurance policies on a claims made basis because they represent a lower pricing risk than occurrence policies. The lower risk is based on the fact that the uncertainty associated with the time period between the act, error or omissions and the claim reporting is eliminated under a claims made policy.

What happens to the professional liability insurance coverage of accountants who stop working?

Accountants who leave a firm which continues to purchase professional liability insurance will typically be covered under that policy as most policies provide coverage to current and former employees.

Accountants who work by themselves and either stop working or close down their firm to join another firm should consider purchasing an extended reporting endorsement. Such endorsement provides coverage for claims which are reported after an accountant stops working and which are based on an act, error or omissions which took place during a policy period and after the retroactive date. Extended eporting endorsements are offered as part of all professional liability insurance policies and the term of the endorsement varies from one year, up to an unlimited period for some insurance companies. The premium of the endorsement is based on a multiple of the premium of the expiring professional liability insurance policy.