One answers 'you hurt me.' The other answers 'your mistake cost me money.' They are different policies.
Commercial · Updated September 2026
General liability answers the claim: you hurt me, or you damaged my property.
Professional liability, also called errors and omissions, answers a different one: your advice, your design, your service or your mistake cost me money. No one was injured and nothing was physically damaged — there is only financial loss, and that is precisely what a GL policy is not built for.
Anyone whose customers rely on their judgment or expertise. Accountants and bookkeepers. Consultants. Real estate agents and brokers. Property managers. Architects, engineers and designers. IT providers. Insurance agents, for that matter. Marketing and creative firms. Home inspectors. Anyone who gives advice, prepares documents, designs something, or manages someone else's money or property.
Contractors sit in an interesting position. Pure construction work is generally a GL matter, but design-build arrangements introduce professional exposure, because the contractor is now responsible for the design as well as the execution.
Most professional liability is written on a claims-made basis, which works differently from the occurrence basis used for general liability.
Occurrence coverage responds to events that happened during the policy period, whenever the claim arrives. Claims-made coverage responds to claims made during the policy period, provided the work happened after a retroactive date stated in the policy.
Two consequences follow. Keep your retroactive date when you change carriers, or you lose coverage for everything you did before that date. And when you retire or close the business, buy tail coverage — an extended reporting period — because claims can surface years after the work, and without a policy in force there is nothing to make them against.
Defense and damages for claims alleging negligent acts, errors or omissions in your professional services — including claims that are entirely without merit, which are common and still expensive.
Watch how defense costs are handled. In many professional liability policies, defense costs erode the limit rather than sitting outside it, meaning a long fight reduces what remains to settle the claim. That is worth understanding when you choose a limit.
Employment practices liability for claims by employees: wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment. Directors and officers coverage for the decisions of a board or management, which matters for nonprofits and companies with outside investors. Miscellaneous professional liability for service businesses that do not fit a standard professional class.
Our commercial focus is straightforward Main Street businesses and local trades. We can help with certain professional liability exposures where we have an appropriate market, but highly specialized or complex professional risks are often better handled by a specialist.
If an account falls outside what we are equipped to insure properly, we would rather say so than pretend every commercial risk belongs in the same program.
General liability covers bodily injury and property damage you cause. Professional liability covers financial loss your customer suffers because of your advice, service or mistake, where nobody was hurt and nothing was physically damaged.
If customers rely on your expertise, judgment or documents, yes. GL will not respond to a claim that your work cost them money without injury or property damage.
Coverage applies to claims made while the policy is in force, for work performed after a retroactive date in the policy. It is different from the occurrence basis used for general liability, and it makes continuity of coverage important.
An extended reporting period that lets you report claims after the policy ends. It matters when you retire, sell or close the business, because claims can arrive years after the work was done.
Pure construction work is generally a GL matter. Design-build work introduces professional exposure, because you are responsible for the design as well as the construction.
Questions about your own situation? Call 417.623.8300 or send us your current policy. We are licensed in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Send your current policy and we will check limits, endorsements and what your contracts actually require.