Is Your Business Properly Protected? General vs. Professional Liability Insurance

In partnership with The Hartford

By Elizabeth Macauley

For many business owners, understanding the difference between what is covered by general liability insurance and what is covered by professional liability insurance can be confusing. This short animated video provides a helpful explanation:

General liability insurance vs. professional liability insurance

So, what’s the difference between general and professional liability insurance? Well, if someone trips and falls at your office, it’s general liability insurance that helps protect your business. But what if custom programming services provided to a client caused that client to suffer financial damages? General liability insurance doesn’t cover that. Or, what if you lose or corrupt a customer’s data? General liability insurance won’t cover that, either.

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Professional liability insurance

The Hartford’s professional liability coverage helps protect businesses from potential loss situations that general liability doesn’t. Imagine this scenario: An IT company’s top client stops making payments and walks away from the contract in place. When the company attempts to collect the money owed, the client countersues with allegations of negligence and failure to perform. With The Hartford’s professional liability coverage, the IT company is protected; we will investigate the client and defend the suit. That’s protection that general liability just doesn’t provide.

Understand the difference between these two types of insurance

Understanding the difference between professional liability and general liability is important, but even more critical is making sure your business is properly protected on both fronts. For most businesses, it may also be a good idea to work with a single carrier for general and professional coverage. Why? With one carrier, businesses are less likely to risk unintended gaps in coverage due to differences in policy forms and language; in addition, businesses avoid possible coverage disputes between different carriers should there be a question as to where the coverage lies for a claim.

Why The Hartford for business liability insurance?

With over 25 years of experience protecting technology businesses, The Hartford is a smart choice for any business. Our nationwide staff of experienced underwriters, claim specialists, and loss prevention experts specialize in the unique risks that technology businesses face.

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About the author

Elizabeth Macauley is a former journalist who now specializes in creating small business content at The Hartford Insurance Group. Elizabeth focuses on financial, strategic, and insurance related content for small business owners.