What Is Accounting Insurance?
Accounting insurance is a type of business insurance that helps protect your small business from the unique risks the financial services industry presents. You may have heard other names for this insurance, like:
- Certified public accountant (CPA) insurance
- Accountant insurance
Accounts and CPAs regularly handle sensitive information and manage their clients’ finances, which can be risky.
Our business insurance coverage can help protect you from these kinds of risks so you can run a successful financial firm.
How Much Does Accounting Insurance Cost?
Accounting insurance costs vary because every small business is unique. Insurance companies look at different factors when determining your insurance cost. This can include your accounting firm’s:
- Claims history
- Location
- Number of employees
- Type of work
Who Needs Accounting and CPA Insurance?
- Tax preparers
- CPA firms
- Accounting firms
- Accounting private practices
- Payroll accounting services
- Payroll preparation services
- Auditors
- Circulation auditors
- Payroll auditors
- Billing services
What Insurance Do CPAs and Accountants Need?
Many accountants start with a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) for their insurance needs. This insurance covers some claims that can come up during normal business operations.
General liability insurance to help cover claims that your accounting business caused bodily injury or property damage to someone else.
Commercial property insurance helps protect your owned or rented building and equipment you use to operate your accounting firm. This includes your:
- Computers
- Documents
- Filing cabinets
- Office furniture
Business income insurance helps replace your lost income if you can’t operate your small business because of covered property damage.
- Commercial auto insurance
- Employment practices liability insurance
- Home-based business insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance, also known as workers’ comp insurance
- Professional liability insurance, also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance
Covering Your Accounting Firm’s Team
When you think of workplace injuries, the accounting industry probably doesn’t come to mind. Office jobs are usually considered pretty safe. However, repeated movement and bad ergonomics can lead to repetitive stress injuries that could put your employees out of work. With accounting insurance, you can get coverage to help protect your team.
Employee Injury
“We were in the middle of busy tax season when one of our senior accountants got diagnosed with carpal tunnel. Years of typing resulted in needing a few weeks of rest and time off work.”
Workers’ compensation insurance gives your employees benefits to help them recover from work-related injuries or illnesses. It can also help replace most of their lost wages if they have to miss work. This coverage can also helps ensure the insurer is protected from lawsuits if an employee gets hurt or sick from their job.
Service Mistake
“One of my employees gave financial advice to a client about their business. They ended up losing thousands of dollars and sued us for damages.”
Accountants professional liability insurance helps cover your legal costs if your accounting business gets sued for negligence or making a mistake in the professional services given. You can add this coverage to a BOP or buy it as a standalone policy.
Covering Your Accounting Firm’s Operations
Computer Hacking
“Our data storage provider notified us they were hacked. Some of our clients’ personal information was stolen, so we had to notify them and offer credit monitoring services.”
Data breach insurance can help cover your accounting firm’s costs incurred as a result of a breach of PII. Some insurers call this coverage cyber liability insurance.
Power Loss
“A transformer blew on a power line near our accounting firm. We lost power and had to close our doors for a few days until the utility company could get us back up and running.”
We offer Business Income for Off Premises Utility Services to help replace your firm’s lost income if you can’t open because damage to the utility company’s property caused you to lose power.
Covering Your Accounting Firm’s Property
Property damage can happen anywhere, at any time. With accounting insurance coverage, you can help protect the equipment and software that your firm relies on.
Damaged Records
“A pipe burst at our accounting firm, ruining some important boxes we had stored. The water completely destroyed the documents inside of them.”
Our valuable papers and records coverage can help pay to recreate important paperwork if they’re damaged from water, fire or another unexpected event. This coverage applies to your business’ ledgers, financial statements or employee and client files.
Computer Virus
“Our accounting firm’s computer system got infected with a virus. We ended up having to replace all our employee desktops so we could start working again.”
Our commercial property insurance can help protect your firm’s computers, software and data. If they need repairs or replacing because of a virus or power failure, this coverage can help pay those costs.
Accounting and CPA Insurance Made for Your Firm
Source: https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/accounting-insurance
