Professional Services Insurance
E&O, cyber, and liability coverage for consultants, accountants, engineers, and agencies — built around your contracts, your retroactive dates, and the claims that surface years after the work is done.
Talk to a professional liability specialist
The Challenges
Risks unique to professional services.
Professional Liability
Advice and deliverables can trigger claims years after the work is done.
Client Data
Handling sensitive client information creates cyber and privacy liability.
Contract Requirements
Clients increasingly demand specific coverage limits and policy forms.
Regulatory Exposure
Professional licensing boards add another layer of accountability.
3,758
Legal malpractice claims in Ontario in 2024 alone
15%
Year-over-year increase in professional liability claims
Years
Claims can arise long after work is completed
Who We Insure
Professional services isn't one risk profile. We insure each discipline differently.
A structural engineer sealing drawings and a marketing agency shipping campaigns share an industry label but almost nothing else about their exposure. Each program starts with what your firm actually does.
Consultants & Agencies
Management consultants, marketing and creative agencies, IT consultants, media production
- E&O for deliverables and advice — claims can surface years after an engagement ends
- Contractual liability where client MSAs demand uncapped indemnities and specific limits
- Media liability for defamation, IP infringement, and advertising injury in creative work
Accounting & Finance
Accounting firms, bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, financial advisors, mortgage professionals
- E&O with retroactive dates that protect the full history of your practice, not just this year
- Cyber liability sized to the tax, payroll, and banking data a single breach exposes
- Regulatory and licensing-body proceedings coverage layered over the base E&O
Engineers & Architects
Consulting engineers, architecture firms, surveyors, environmental consultants
- Professional liability structured around design delegation, sealed drawings, and field reviews
- Project-specific policies for large engagements where clients demand dedicated limits
- Pollution and environmental E&O for site assessment and remediation consulting
Staffing & HR Firms
Recruitment agencies, staffing firms, HR consultants, PEO-style service providers
- E&O for placement errors, vetting failures, and co-employment disputes
- Employment practices liability covering both your staff and placed workers
- Client contract requirements that shift workplace liability to the staffing provider
The Professional Stack
Four core lines, one coordinated program.
These coverages form the core insurance stack for professional services firms. We structure them together — plus employment practices liability and licensing-body proceedings coverage where needed — so wording lines up, gaps close, and certificates satisfy client contracts the first time.
Professional Liability / E&O
Covers financial losses from your advice, deliverables, or services — the line every client contract checks first.
Learn moreCyber Liability
Breach response, client data liability, and business interruption — essential for any firm holding client files.
Learn moreCommercial General Liability
Bodily injury and property damage — the certificate landlords and client sites require before you walk in.
Learn moreDirectors & Officers (D&O)
Protection for firm leadership — management decisions, employment claims, and partnership disputes.
Learn moreMarket Access
Three routes to market. One submission.
Post-claim E&O, novel service lines, and US-exposed firms don't get abandoned — they get re-routed. Summit places professional services programs through direct carriers, wholesale markets, and Lloyd's-backed specialty capacity.
Direct Carriers
Established relationships with carriers holding real professional-lines appetite — matched to your discipline and claims history rather than forced to fit.
Wholesale & MGA Markets
For hard-to-place risks — post-claim E&O, emerging disciplines, US exposure — we access managing general agents and wholesale markets that direct-only brokers can't reach.
Lloyd's-Backed Specialty Capacity
Summit Commercial Solutions is a Lloyd's coverholder, giving us direct access to Lloyd's-backed specialty capacity for non-standard professional risks and higher limits.
Speed to Bind
As fast as your risk allows. Never slower than it should be.
Timelines depend on the complexity of the risk — a solo consultant's E&O moves much faster than a fifty-engineer firm with US projects. What's consistent is how we work:
24-Hour Broker Review
Every submission — simple or complex — receives a licensed broker's technical risk assessment within 24 hours, as a hard commitment.
Parallel Marketing
Direct, wholesale, and Lloyd's markets are approached simultaneously — not one at a time — so declines never restart the clock.
Same-Day Binding
Once you accept terms, we bind same-day and issue certificates that match your client's contract wording the first time.
The Submission Package
What a strong professional services submission looks like.
Most declines are a presentation problem, not a risk problem. This is what we prepare with you before your risk ever reaches an underwriter's desk.
Completed application and 5-year loss runs
Including context on any prior incidents — underwriters read narratives, not just numbers.
Description of services and client mix
What you actually do, for whom, and the split between advisory, execution, and anything touching construction or finance.
Sample client contract or MSA
Limitation-of-liability wording, indemnities, and the insurance minimums your clients require.
Revenue split by service line and jurisdiction
Underwriters price consulting revenue differently from implementation — and US exposure changes the market.
Professional credentials and QA process
Designations, licensing-body memberships, peer review, and engagement letter discipline.
Prior acts and retroactive date history
Continuous coverage history so your new policy protects past work, not just future engagements.
Common Questions
Professional services insurance FAQs.
What is the difference between E&O and general liability?+
How far back does E&O coverage extend?+
Do I need cyber insurance if I handle client data?+
What coverage limits do clients typically require?+
I’ve had a prior claim. Can Summit still place my E&O?+
How fast can Summit bind professional services coverage?+
Explore other industries
Declined, non-renewed, or priced out? Start with our hard-to-place practice.