Best Liability Insurance For Consultants

The Hartford is the ideal business insurer for consultants due to their great balance of affordability, service and coverage. The company sports the cheapest rates for professional liability insurance which is the most needed coverage for the industry, special policies for the service industry and a great customer service and claims reputation. However, we do recommend that you also compare commercial liability policies from NEXT, Simply Business, Nationwide and biBERK to ensure you're getting the best deal

*We based all scores on a consulting business with two employees across professional liability, general liability, workers' comp and BOP policies.

The Hartford charges consulting businesses $41 monthly on average and offers the cheapest professional liability coverage. However, Simply Business provides more affordable general liability and BOP insurance, while NEXT offers cheaper workers' comp coverage for consulting firms.

Simply Business leads with the best general liability insurance rates for consultants at $14 monthly. This saves you $8 per month compared to the $22 average rate.

For consulting businesses shopping for workers' comp insurance, NEXT stands out with average rates of $28 per month. The next most affordable options are The Hartford, Thimble, Simply Business and Progressive Commercial.

The Hartford and NEXT offer the most affordable professional liability insurance options for cleaning organizations with average monthly rates of $96 and $100, respectively. Compared to the industry average of $102, you can save around $5 per month with The Hartford.

Simply Business offers the most affordable business owner's policy for consulting companies at $254 annually. This rate is $20 cheaper per year than The Hartford's $273 rate.

In general, consulting business insurance costs are the following for the four most popular coverage types:

• General Liability: $22 on average per month ranging from $19 to $26 depending on state
• Workers Comp: $30 on average per month ranging from $26 to $35 depending on state
• Professional Liability (E&O): $107 on average per month ranging from $91 to $125 depending on state
• BOP Insurance: $32 on average per month ranging from $28 to $37 depending on state

For consulting firms, the most essential non-required coverage options are professional liability and general liability insurance. Workers' compensation, commercial auto insurance (if your firm uses vehicles), and cyber liability coverage are frequently mandated to satisfy state regulations and client contract requirements.

Understanding why these coverages matter and the recommended policy limits for each can help protect your consulting practice from financial risk:

• Professional liability insurance: Your advice is your business and your biggest liability. When clients claim your recommendations cost them money or you missed critical deadlines, this coverage protects you from devastating legal costs. Even baseless claims can cost tens of thousands to defend. We recommend $1 million per claim and $1 million aggregate, though IT and financial consultants may require $2 million to $5 million to meet client contracts.
• General liability insurance: Client meetings and on-site consultations create the possibility liability exposure. This coverage protects against third-party injuries and property damage like client slip-and-falls to accidentally damaging equipment during presentations. Industry standard $1 million per occurrence or $2 million aggregate satisfies most client contracts and lease agreements.
• Workers' compensation: Legally required in nearly every state if you have employees. Beyond compliance, this protects your business from crippling costs when staff develop work-related injuries or illnesses. Without it, you face legal penalties and personal liability for employee medical bills.
• Commercial auto insurance (if you use vehicles for business): Client visits and business travel put you at risk every time you're on the road. Most states legally require this for business-owned vehicles—a single accident could expose you to massive liability. A $1 million combined single limit with comprehensive and collision coverage protects your consulting firm from potentially bankrupting claims.
• Cyber liability insurance: As a consultant handling confidential client data and proprietary information, a single breach can destroy relationships and trigger massive lawsuits. This covers breach notifications, forensic investigations, legal fees, and regulatory penalties. We recommend at least $1-$5 million in protection depending on the magnitude of the risk associated with the data of your clients.

Here's a step-by-step method for finding the best and cheapest business insurance for your consulting company.

The Hartford is the best and cheapest insurer for consulting business insurance. We also recommend getting quotes from NEXT, Simply Business and Nationwide. For the best deal, consult agents and similar businesses, research costs and companies, and compare multiple quotes.

We answer frequently asked questions about consulting business insurance:

We selected the best business insurer for consulting companies based on the following criteria:

• Affordability (50% of score): The lower a company's costs compared to the competition based on our base profile for four core coverage types, the better the company performs.
• Customer service (30% of score): We scored providers on overall customer satisfaction using industry studies, customer review forum ratings and public forum sentiment analysis from sites like Reddit.
• Coverage (15% of score): We scored business insurance providers for this category based on the flexibility, payment and actual coverage options.
• Financial stability (5% of score): Using financial stability industry ratings from companies like AM Best and Moody's, we created an overall rating to judge how likely companies are to pay out claims compared to the competition.

All pricing in this article is based on the following base profile to represent the vast majority of small businesses in all states:

• Three-person business with two employees
• Coverage: $1 million per occurrence and $2 million total per year for all but BOP, which includes the same coverage plus $5,000 of business property coverage
• $150,000 in payroll
• $300,000 annual revenue