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Various professionals such as consultants and advisers may need public liability insurance.
Whether or not you need public liability cover for your professional services depends on the type of work you do and the way your business in structured.
Essentially if you or your business faces the potential risk of causing personal injury or property damage through your business activities, you will need to consider public liability.
Cover for Professionals
There are many different occupations and business types which fall into the professional category for insurance purposes.
Some of the common occupations and business types that utilise public liability insurance include the following:
- Consultants
- Financial Advisers
- Insurance Brokers
- IT Contractors
- Mortgage Brokers
- Accountants
This list is not exhaustive, and there are many more professions that can benefit from public liability insurance.
What is Public Liability Insurance?
This form of insurance is designed to protect businesses and their owners from the financial impacts of causing property damage or personal injury to other people.
If you or your staff cause personal injury or property damage to another person through your business activities, you may be found to be responsible for that person’s financial costs.
In some cases this may be a few hundred dollars to repair or replace damaged property, but if you cause a serious injury or even death, the figures can run into the hundreds of thousands and potentially millions.
Provided that the incident is covered under your policy wording, the insurance company will meet the costs of a claim rather than you having to pay out of your own profits or savings.
Public liability is available in amounts of $5, $10 and $20 million.
Who Should Have Public Liability?
Any professional or their business that faces the risk of causing property damage or personal injury to customers or members of the general public needs to consider public liability insurance.
Not all professionals will need public liability. For example a consultant working from a home office who only visits clients at their premises may be able to get away without public liability insurance.
Given the small cost of public liability for this type of business, many business owners and professionals choose to take it out anyway, just in case. For the sake of a few dollars a day it is a cheap form of peace of mind.
What About Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Many people confuse public liability insurance with professional indemnity insurance. Although these covers are similar in some respects, they both cover quite separate risks.
Whilst public liability covers more of the physical risks, such as property damage and personal injury, professional indemnity is more about the advice that you give.
Professional indemnity insurance provides cover for the financial consequences of providing negligent advice which results in a financial loss.
We can also assist with professional indemnity, so if you’d like a quote or more information on this cover please let us know.
Public Liability Cost
The cost of public liability for a professional services firm will generally be quite low, but it does depend on the type and size of your business.
If you run a small home office with the occasional visitor your premiums will be very low, but if you run a large office with many visitors coming through each day your premiums will be higher.
Ultimately your public liability insurance cost will come down to the level of risk that the insurance company believes you may pose.
Quotes for Public Liability
Here at www.publicliabilityinsurance.com.au we have access to a network of insurance brokers and advisers who can provide quotes for a range of professions and business types.
To obtain a quote on your cover please complete our public liability insurance online quote request form or get in contact with us by phone 1300 542 245.