Professional Services Practice
Overview
The Professional Services Practice at Aon is a global team of dedicated practitioners who address the unique insurance, risk and human capital needs of professional service firms.
Through our long-term commitment to these highly specialized professions, we have developed deep expertise, capabilities and resources for supporting law, accounting and consulting firms.
Our industry knowledge allows us to act as trusted advisors, helping our clients optimize their risk management and human capital decisions with impactful insights, data and tools.
What We Do
Insurance Coverage for Professional Service Firms
For law, accounting, and consulting firms, managing and insuring their professional liability exposure is crucial to protecting their reputation and revenue. We help our clients secure the coverage they need across a wide range of exposures, including:
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Professional Liability
Professional liability is a fundamental risk for professional service firms with the potential for severe financial impact and reputational damage.
We tailor coverage and create insurance structures around a firm’s specific needs and across all types of professional liability risk.
Professional liability coverage is also known as professional indemnity insurance or errors and omissions liability insurance. The terms are often used interchangeably, depending on the context.
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Cyber Risk
In evaluating cyber risk insurance, it is important to understand the risks and exposures an insurance policy may or may not address.
Coordinating cyber risk and professional liability coverage is a serious challenge for professional service firms. Since the terms and conditions of each cyber risk insurance product vary greatly, we examine and modify each offering to present a recommended solution that is tailored to our clients' unique needs.
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Management Liability
When an executive committee or individual assumes ultimate responsibility for a firm’s business operations, these decision-makers are exposed to many of the same liabilities faced by directors and officers of public corporations.
We design Management Liability programs specifically for professional partnerships to help firms protect their partners and managers.
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Employment Practices Liability
Employment practices liability (EPL) insurance addresses specialized liability risks arising from actual or alleged wrongdoing at work.
Several factors have contributed to an increase in EPL exposure for professional services firms, including:
- Increased media attention on workplace harassment claims
- New state, local, and international laws regarding gender pay disparity
- Aging of the workforce
- Larger number of law firms specializing in employment-related claims
- Growing challenges to arbitration agreements
- Significant changes in the law including the 1991 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Older Workers Benefit Protection Act
- M&A activity resulting in more employment-related claims
We help professional service firms address their EPL exposures by providing customized coverage solutions.
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Property and Casualty
Our approach to property and casualty coverages include the planning, execution, and stewardship of the following coverages:
- Property insurance, including Business Interruption
- Workers’ Compensation / Employers’ Liability
- General Liability, Automobile Liability and Umbrella Liability
- Global Programs (including local placements)
- Crime, Fiduciary and Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion
- Group Personal Umbrella
- Travel Accident
We have developed proprietary property insurance wording designed specifically for professional service firms which provides exceptionally broad protection and addresses their special coverage needs.
Risk Management and Advisory Services
Law, accounting and consulting firms also face other legal and operational exposures that require careful risk management and financing treatment. We can help with:
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Risk Financing, Actuarial Risk Analysis and Captives
We help organizations optimize their Total Cost of Risk and answer the following questions:
- How much risk can I retain?
- How much risk should I retain?
- How should I finance that risk?
- Is a captive insurance company suitable for my risk exposures?
- How can my existing captive retain more risk or play a more central part in my risk financing strategy?
We undertake a structured evaluation of an organization’s risk tolerance/appetite and build an understanding of its ability to retain risk, which allows us to develop optimum risk financing programs.
Our actuaries focus on professional service firms and understand their risk modeling and loss forecasting needs. They provide risk pricing and loss reserving in support of captive financing.
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Loss Prevention
Identifying and avoiding or minimizing liability and professional responsibility risks is crucial for law firms.
Our dedicated team of law firm loss prevention specialists includes former law firm partners with years of experience in loss prevention, legal ethics, and professional liability law. They carefully tailor their services to firm needs and interests. These value-added services are only for clients for whom we broker lawyers’ professional liability insurance.
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Risk Management Information
We provide qualitative advice, tools and deliverables to help accounting and consulting firm clients understand and quantify current and emerging risks, enabling them to make better risk mitigation, retention and transfer decisions.
Human Capital Solutions
Our team provides a wide array of human capital solutions focused on the unique needs of professional service firms, including:
- Health and benefits
- Partner and executive benefits
- Retirement and investment services
- People analytics
- Reward solutions
Whether our clients are arranged as partnerships or corporations, we harness benchmarking data and analytics, marketplace leverage and specialist expertise to deliver tailored solutions.
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Top Risks Facing Professional Services Firms
Explore Our Insights
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Insight Archive
Access and search our complete library of insights for Professional Service firms.
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Enterprise Risk Management Series
This article series explores the role Enterprise Risk Management can play to help Professional Service firms build resilience in the face of uncertainty.
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Risk Retention Series
This article series discusses how Professional Service firms can determine the ‘right’ level of self-insured retention for their organization.
Who We Work With
We provide highly targeted advice and solutions that are sensitive to and directed at the special and unique needs of law, accounting and consulting firms.
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Law Firms
We help law firms understand, quantify and manage their risk exposures and human capital needs. Our team has specific knowledge and experience in law firm professional liability.
In the insurance transaction, we are client advocates rather than agents of insurers. Our philosophy is 'client first,' and we use our expertise and leverage to obtain the broadest coverage with quality insurers at competitive rates. To help clients find an option that works best for them, we provide multiple alternatives for coverage, rather than a single renewal option, and make a best-fit recommendation.
Our approach
Our law firm team specializes on law firms and has a significant institutional knowledge base.
We negotiate with a multitude of global insurance companies that we consider to be the most committed, financially stable, and appropriate for the client. We regularly share market intelligence, experience, and best practices with our clients.
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Accounting Firms
Our accounting firm team is dedicated to serving the needs of the accounting profession and has delivered advisory and insurance broking services to world leading accounting firms for over 60 years.
Our approach
Through our long-term commitment to this highly specialized profession, we have developed deep expertise and resources in:
- Commercial insurance and reinsurance (including professional liability, cyber risk, management liability, EPL, P&C, crime, fiduciary liability and H&B)
- Risk assessment, including actuarial modelling and analysis
- Risk and risk management intelligence
- Risk funding strategies and risk financing program design
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Consulting Firms
Our team serves clients that span the entire range of consulting activity, including strategy, operational/business advisory services (BAS), HR/benefits, IT/technology and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Our approach
Through our long-term commitment to this highly specialized segment, we have developed deep expertise and resources in:
- Commercial insurance and reinsurance (including professional liability, cyber risk, management liability, EPL, P&C, crime, fiduciary liability and H&B)
- Risk assessment, including actuarial modelling and analysis
- Risk and risk management intelligence
- Risk funding strategies and risk financing program design
The core team is represented in New York, Chicago, Montreal, Bermuda and London, and works with insurers in all of the key insurance marketplaces around the world.
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Building a Future-Ready Workforce
Why Work with Aon
Global Presence
Our team has a global presence with dedicated client service and brokerage professionals in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as in our London and Bermuda broking centers.
Operating as one team and mindful of applicable licensing requirements, our global team maximizes options for clients and allows streamlined market access and client service in many cases without the use of third-party intermediaries.
Specialized Knowledge and Insights
We have specialized knowledge and experience in professional liability, also known as errors and omissions liability, spanning both loss prevention and insurance solutions and helping firms understand, quantify, manage and finance their risk exposures.
Benchmarking and Data Analytics
In an increasingly competitive business environment, it is important to understand the performance of your insurance program. Our market position gives us up-to-the moment and deep historical information on program structure and pricing.
We can leverage this proprietary risk information on program structure and pricing to provide a wide range of benchmarking analytics that support insurance and risk management decision-making.
Targeted benchmarking, based on firm revenue or headcount, is available on limits, retentions and pricing to address specific informational needs.
