Hi Allison,
I'm going to repeat some of what I said to Nancy, but tailor it a bit to your circumstance.
Most of my statistical consulting work is done as part of forensic accounting engagements, so my professional liability (malpractice) insurance for my CPA practice covers me in those situations. I get my policy through the AICPA (our trade body) and CNA (a major business insurer) and it covers me for $500,000 per claim / $1,000,000 per year for a $600 annual premium.
Professional liability insurance is absolutely necessity for any independent consultant. It covers you in the case of professional negligence, which generally is when you don't give the right answer to a client (legally there are more elements to it, but that's the basic situation). It should be relatively affordable. Find an insurance agent that deals with professional liability and see what quotes you can get.
As you mention yourself, general liability insurance, on the other hand, often excludes professional negligence, so it just covers you from other business risks, such as badmouthing a competitor and getting sued for defamation, or using someone's intellectual property on your website and getting sued for violating copyright, or having a client come to your office and they slip and break their ankle. These risks are rather small (and controllable) for a solo consultant, so I actually don't carry it myself. It's a judgment call, but especially if you have employees and subcontractors (people who can get you in trouble) or you have clients that visit you on-site, you may want to get general liability insurance.
By the way, Errors & Omissions (E&O) is a British/Commonwealth way of describing professional liability insurance. You may want to use the more American terms "professional liability" and "malpractice" with an insurance agent.
Best regards,
Greg
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Gregory Csikos, CPA, CFE, GStat
www.csikoscpa.com |
greg@csikoscpa.com1229 Chestnut Street PMB 221
Philadelphia, PA 19107
P: 215.341.4206
F: 267.392.6310
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-07-2019 14:07
From: Allison Grove
Subject: insurance coverage for statistical consulting
When I started doing freelance work, primarily scientific writing, I was told that I needed errors and omissions rather than general liability. I didn't have clients that came to my home office and might fall off their chair (ie general liability). However, it was cost prohibitive for a start up and I've never purchased it. Now that I'm shifting more towards statistical work, I'm curious to see what more experienced statisticians have to say.
Allison
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Allison Grove
Owner/Statistician and Scientific Writer
AG Research LLC
Original Message:
Sent: 08-07-2019 13:41
From: Nancy Buderer
Subject: insurance coverage for statistical consulting
I'm interested in learning what kind of insurance coverage is customary and appropriate for the work of independent statistical consultants. For example, do you typically carry general liability insurance, errors and omissions, or nothing?
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Nancy Buderer Consulting, LLC
Biostatistician, Program Evaluator, Research Consultant
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