Professional liability for the advice you give.

Professional liability, often called errors and omissions, responds when a client suffers financial loss because of a service you provided — advice that turned out to be wrong, a design that did not work, a filing that was missed. General liability policies exclude professional services entirely, which is why consultants, designers, agents and advisers need a separate policy.

Claims-made, and why the dates matter

Almost all professional liability is written on a claims-made basis. The policy responds to claims made during the policy period, not to work performed during it. That is the opposite of how general liability usually works and it has real consequences.

Two dates matter. The retroactive date sets how far back your past work is covered; if it resets when you change insurer, years of prior work fall out of cover. Extended reporting — tail cover — lets claims be made after the policy ends, which matters when you retire or sell the business.

What a claim actually looks like

Rarely dramatic. A deadline missed, a specification misread, a recommendation that cost the client money. The damage is financial rather than physical, which is precisely why general liability does not respond to it.

Defence costs are often the larger part. Even a claim that ultimately fails has to be answered, and on many forms those costs erode the limit rather than sitting outside it. Worth checking which structure a quote uses.