Protect Your Business With a Social Work Liability Policy

As a social worker, you help protect the most vulnerable people. You connect children and families with assistance and likely teach valuable coping skills. Every day, you listen to others and patiently help them improve their lives.

In your profession, it’s only natural to put other people first. But you can’t forget to prioritize your own business, too. Your financial wellbeing is just as important. That’s why, at Simply Business, we can help small business owners – like you! – get an affordable affordable policy.

We’re an online insurance platform that offers comprehensive general liability and professional liability coverage options for social workers. We strive to make getting a policy easy and can help you customize your coverage, so it meets the needs of your growing private practice.

Want coverage now? It can take just 10 minutes for you to fill out our free quote form. Then we’ll help you find policies that meet the needs of your business.

Policies Typically Available for Social Workers:

• Professional liability insurance
• General liability insurance
• Workers compensation insurance

Benefits:

• Protect you from the costs associated with certain claims.
• Cover damages caused by negligence.
• Demonstrate professionalism and credibility to clients.
• Help you meet state requirements.

What Type of Policy Do I Need for My Social Work Practice?

If you own a private practice, you’ll want to consider getting business insurance. But the type of policy you need may vary depending on where you live and if you have employees.

Here are three types of plans that can be bundled together to form robust social worker insurance coverage:

Professional Liability Insurance

As a social worker, you help people map out better futures. You offer counseling and assistance to get them back on their feet, and support them through difficult times. But what if someone accuses you of giving bad advice, or worse, damaging their lives?

Even if you did nothing wrong, you may need professional liability insurance (PL) to protect you. This type of policy can potentially cover you and your business if a client sues you for negligence in your work. If you have employees working for you, your PL insurance can also cover them.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re working with a troubled teenager. His parents are worried that he won’t get into college if he keeps getting into trouble at school. Despite your best efforts, this teen gets expelled from school. His parents unfairly blame you, saying your services were not up to par. Then they sue you for damages and ask for a refund for your work.

If you have professional liability coverage, your policy can help cover the cost of hiring a lawyer, as well as any related claims up to your policy’s limit. Fortunately, this means you’re less likely to dip into your own pocket to cover costs. PL insurance can help protect you and your business financially, so it’s important to get a policy to protect your business, even in those cases where you may not have done anything wrong.

To review, you can expect professional liability coverage for social workers to cover:

• Negligence or alleged negligence
• Legal defense costs
• Omissions or alleged omissions
• Claims and damages
• And more

However, a PL policy usually doesn’t cover:

• Intentional acts and omissions
• Property damage
• Medical expenses
• Bodily injury
• And more

Commercial General Liability Insurance

Where do you work with clients? If you rent or own office space, or if you work out of your home, you’ll likely need commercial general liability insurance. This policy, also known as GL coverage, is designed to cover costs due to third-party accidents, damage to property, and bodily injury to a third party (like one of your clients).

Your line of work may require that you meet with people in person—often in a dedicated space or at a client’s home. This makes it even more important for you to get a liability policy. In fact, for social workers, it can be considered a foundational policy. That’s because it may be able to protect you from some very expensive claims, like customer injury or damage (the average claim is $30,000!).

Without a GL policy, you may have to pay these costs on your own. For most social workers with private practices, these costs could put their businesses at risk.

Let’s walk through an example. Imagine you’re on a home visit and accidentally knock over an expensive vase. This vase is a family heirloom valued at $3,000. Despite it being an accident, your client gets angry and sues you for the damage. Without a GL policy, you could be responsible for covering the cost of the vase and any legal expenses.

Fortunately, if you have general liability insurance, your plan can help cover:

• Bodily injury to another person
• Third-party property damage
• Personal and advertising injury
• Medical expenses
• And more

However, most GL policies don’t cover:

• Damage to your own property
• Professional services
• Workers compensation or injury to your employees
• Damage to your work
• Automobiles while in business use
• Expected or intentional injury or damage
• And more

Workers Compensation Insurance

Many social workers employ people to help them run their private practices. If you have full-time or part-time employees, you may be required to have workers compensation insurance. This type of policy can help cover costs resulting from an employee’s injury or illness while on the job.

Not all states require business owners to carry workers compensation coverage. It’s important to check your state’s laws first.

That said, carrying workers compensation is a good idea if you have employees, whether it’s required in your state or not. That’s because work injury costs can really add up. In fact, it’s estimated that the average work injury cost is $41,000!

If you have someone else working with you, take a look at workers compensation policies. In general, they may help cover:

• Medical Payments
• Lost Wages
• Rehabilitation Expenses
• Death Benefits

Why Should I Get a Policy for My Practice?

Perhaps you’ve thought about getting a business policy before, but you’re hesitant to pay the costs. Or maybe you’re just starting your practice and want to keep expenses down until you grow.

Here’s the reality. You meet with clients regularly, often in their homes, and give them important advice. At any time, one of your clients could sue you for negligence or you could get involved in an accident. The truth is, in your profession, business insurance is too important to not carry.

Even if you do your best to limit risk, you’re never fully protected without a policy. Anything can happen at any time, and it can be very costly. Take a look at the most common incidents small business owners face, and how much they cost on average:

• Reputational Harm — $50,000
• Client Injury or Damage — $30,000
• Client Slip and Fall — $20,000

Can you imagine paying for these incidents on your own?

If you have liability coverage, you won’t have to worry as much, as your policy can help cover some or all of the costs of a claim or lawsuit up to your policy limits.

If you think a lawsuit could never happen to you, think again. A shocking 43% of small business owners say they’ve been threatened or involved in a civil lawsuit. Someone could sue you, claiming that your counseling caused damage or that you were negligent. Even if you did nothing wrong, you still will want coverage to defend yourself.

As a social worker and small business owner, you deserve financial protection. Don’t leave yourself at risk. At Simply Business, we can help by making it simple to find affordable LCSW liability insurance.

All you have to do is answer a few questions online about your practice. Then we’ll help you compare free quotes from top carriers. We can also give you a certificate of insurance (COI) to share with clients and vendors.

At Simply Business, we’re here to make getting a business policy hassle-free. Check out our free quote tool today get started!

Social Worker Coverage FAQs

Why Choose Simply Business?

There are a lot of companies that offer social worker coverage. In fact, we know it can get overwhelming to find the right policy from the right company.

At Simply Business, we’re 100% focused on small business owners, like you. We know you don’t have a lot of time to shop for a policy, so we do our best to make the process as fast as possible. As an online insurance platform, we can help you find and compare affordable policies to protect your growing business.

Today, thousands of small business owners across the nation trust us to help them find coverage.

Need a few more reasons to choose Simply Business?

• We cut through jargon. Insurance can be confusing. We do our best to make it easy for you to understand your policy and how it works. This way, you can know exactly what to do if there’s an incident or claim.

• We’re flexible. Every social worker has different needs. Maybe you need more coverage because you have a new employee. Or maybe you need a COI to show a client. Either way, we will do our best to support you.

• We understand social workers. Simply Business specializes in helping small business owners, including social workers with growing private practices. You can trust us to understand your unique needs and serve you.

Being a social worker in an incredibly important profession. You take meaningful steps to improve people’s lives. At Simply Business, we stand behind you and the work you do. You can trust us to help you find options to ultimately protect your practice.

This content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, accounting, investment, or any other form of professional advice.