Commercial industry
Accountant and CPA Firm Insurance
An accounting firm’s product is advice that other people file, borrow, and pay tax on. General liability will not defend a missed election, a late payroll deposit, a compiled statement a lender treated as an audit, or a spoofed-wire that left a client’s closing funds in the wrong account. Professional liability and cyber sit at the center of this file. The office package, hired and non-owned auto for client visits, and employment-practices coverage are the supporting cast.
We place CPA firms, enrolled agents, bookkeeping shops, and fractional-CFO practices in the ten states we serve. If you also sell investments, insurance products, or registered-advisor services, say so before we waste a miscellaneous-E&O application — that is a different professional tower. If you only do data entry for one related company, you may not need a full accountants form; if you sign compilations or tax returns for the public, you do.
Professional liability for accountants is claims-made. The retroactive date is the most expensive line on the declarations if you get it wrong. We keep continuity when we move a firm, and we will not reset a retro to “today” to save a few hundred dollars on a book that has ten years of 1040s and reviews behind it. Engagement letters, a documented review process, and a clean claim history are what underwriters actually read. We ask for them because they change the quote, not because we enjoy homework.
Cyber is not optional on a tax practice. You hold SSNs, bank accounts, and prior-year returns. A ransomware event in March is a professional-liability fact pattern and a notification-statute fact pattern at the same time. We place cyber that contemplates tax-preparer data, not a generic “office has a computer” endorsement. Social-engineering and funds-transfer fraud belong in the same conversation — the claim we see is a changed-wiring instruction on a client’s estimated payment, not a smashed laptop.
The office package covers tenant improvements, files, and the computers that are not backed up as well as you think. Business income matters if a fire or a long outage hits during filing season. Hired and non-owned auto covers partners who drive to closings in personal cars. If you have W-2 staff in Washington, industrial insurance stays with L&I; we place stop-gap employer's liability and private workers compensation only for competitive-state employees. We will not present a private WC policy as a replacement for L&I.
Related professional classes on this site — title search and consulting — share the same discipline: name the service, keep the retro, and do not hide a second license inside “bookkeeping.” If you are a one-person shop in Tukwila or a twenty-person firm with a Portland satellite, the chassis is the same. The limits and the cyber questionnaire change.
Risks we actually schedule
- A tax, compilation, or advisory error that surfaces years after the engagement — why the retro date matters.
- A client-data breach or ransomware event during filing season.
- Social-engineering or funds-transfer fraud on a client payment you facilitated.
- A lender or buyer who treated a compilation as something you never agreed to issue.
Frequently asked questions
Does a business-owners policy cover a client who says we filed the wrong form?
No. That is professional liability. A BOP is premises, contents, and a limited liability grant — not a tax or attest claim.
We only do bookkeeping. Do we still need accountants E&O?
If you touch payroll, sales tax, or books a third party relies on, yes. Pure data-entry for an affiliated entity is a narrower conversation. Describe the work, not the job title.
What happens if we change carriers mid-year?
Keep the retroactive date. A new policy that starts today orphans prior work. We treat continuity as a non-negotiable.
Do you write registered investment advisors under this page?
Not on an accountants form. RIA and insurance-producer E&O are separate markets. Tell us the receipt split and the licenses on the wall.
Related coverage, industries, and locations
Professional Liability
Errors-and-omissions coverage when advice, design, or a professional service is alleged to have caused a financial loss.
Coverage detailsCyber
Ransomware, data-breach response, forensic IT, notification, and business income after a network event.
Coverage detailsBusiness Owner's Policy
A packaged policy that pairs general liability with commercial property and business income for eligible classes.
Coverage detailsManagement Liability
Directors and officers, employment-practices, fiduciary, and employee-benefits liability on one conversation.
Coverage detailsProfessional Consulting
Miscellaneous professional liability, cyber, and a office package for firms whose product is advice.
Industry pageTitle Search
Abstract and title-search offices: professional liability, cyber on closing files, and a small office package.
Industry pageAccountant
CPA and bookkeeping firms: professional liability first, then cyber, a office package, and the tax-season spike.
Industry pageWashington
Licensed commercial insurance broker serving Washington.
State page