Whether you provide management consulting, IT consulting, or any other kind of consulting, you’ll need insurance to protect your business. For consultants, the most critical protection you need is Professional Indemnity Insurance, so that you’re protected from business lawsuits related to the advice you provide. You’ll also want to cover yourself against staff injuries and Covid-19 infections, public liability, and office damage.
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Consultants should have the following covers to adequately protect themselves:
Coverage | Explanation | Importance for consultants |
Protects you from lawsuits related to consulting work | Critical | |
Protects your business premises against property damage, e.g. fire, explosions, certain types of water damage, etc. | Critical only if you rent an office | |
Protects you against liability to third-parties for property damage or injuries. E.g. clients slipping & falling in your office due to you negligently leaving the floor wet. | Very good to have | |
Protects your employees if they suffer work-related injuries/sickness. | Legally required for all workers who earn <$2,600/month, and for all manual workers  | |
Provides cash benefit if you cannot operate your consulting business due to covered reasons, e.g. fire at your office. | Very good to have | |
Protects you if you suffer a cyber attack. Covers IT restoration costs, data breach liability, PDPA liability, and more. | Good to have |
Professional Indemnity Insurance: The first and foremost policy that all consultants should have is Professional Indemnity Insurance. Consultants carry significant liability from their professional advice. Whether it’s strategic advice on M&A, advising clients on corporate strategy, technology issues, or other matters, you can be held liable if your advice causes the client to suffer losses. Professional Indemnity Insurance covers your legal fees and the cost of damages/settlements.
Commercial Property Insurance: If you have an office, it’s a good idea to protect it from fire, water damage, and other major risks. This policy can protect your computers and other electronic equipment. Also, if you have documents stored there that end up being damaged, this policy can cover that as well.
Public Liability Insurance: If you travel to meet clients, or if you meet clients in your office, then you should consider getting Public Liability cover. If you accidentally damage other people’s property or cause injuries while running your business, you can be held liable. Public Liability Insurance covers you for legal costs like settlements/damages, and lawyer’s fees. This type of insurance is also sometimes requested for in contracts.
Work Injury Compensation Insurance (WICA Insurance): WICA Insurance covers work-related injuries and illnesses, including Covid-19 infections. MOM requires WICA insurance for all workers who earn below $2,600/month, and all manual workers. Even if your employees don’t meet these legal requirements, it’s still a good idea to purchase WICA insurance for them. This is because employers are liable to pay for all work-related injuries/sickness suffered by employees. WICA Insurance will cover these expensive costs for you.Â
Business Interruption Insurance: This covers your operating expenses if you can’t run your dance studio, due to a covered reason – for instance, if a fire destroys your premises. This is a great cover to have, because it helps you to pay for costs like rent, salaries, and other overhead while you can’t generate revenue.
Cyber Insurance: This is a very useful cover for consultants. It protects you from the costs of cyber breaches. It pays for IT restoration costs. It also covers liability costs if confidential data, like customer information, gets exposed.
Client sues you for advice that causes them losses:
You are working on a digital transformation project for a large bank. You provide professional advice on IT systems, corporate strategy, and other initiatives to help the bank grow its digital market share. 3 months after your advice has been implemented, the bank begins to suffer losses. The bank initiates legal action against you, claiming your advice was negligent. You have a Professional Indemnity Insurance policy, so the insurance company steps in to defend you. The lawsuit ends up being settled out of court for $500,000. The insurance company pays for these costs for you.
Cyber breach exposes confidential data, destroys IT systems:
A cyber breach hits your business. Confidential data on all your consulting projects is leaked. Secret documents detailing your client’s strategies, their customers, and other private information is exposed. Your clients file a lawsuit against you for this leaked data. On your end, you’re also in trouble because all your work has been deleted by the breach.Â
Cyber Insurance would pay for your legal defense costs. Cyber Insurance would also cover the cost of hiring an IT consultant to restore your deleted documents.Â
Employee injured at work: One of your employees was travelling to meet a client. While crossing a road, your employee was struck by a car. He suffers a fracture and lacerations. Your employee ends up having to undergo a surgery to install screws and plates to treat his injury. Your employee was also provided with 5 weeks of medical leave. His medical bill is $8,000. Under Singapore’s WICA regulations, you must compensate your employee for his medical bills and lost wages while on medical leave. If you don’t do this, you can be jailed and/or fined. Since you purchased WICA Insurance, the insurance company will pay for your worker’s medical costs and his lost wages.Â
Coverage | Coverage amount (example) | Premium |
$100,000 | From $42/month | |
$100,000 | From $19/month, for a comprehensive Gym Insurance Package deal   | |
$500,000 | ||
$10 million common law annual limit  $45,000 medical expenses cover per worker | ||
$10,000 | ||
$250,000 | From $49/month |