Midway through the summer, I thought I would take a few minutes to muse through common complaints against architect and engineer firms.  The list below identifies common negligence issues; while these are real concerns for architects and engineers, Maloney & Company, LLC clients are well-prepared to prevent claims by proactively adopting the practice management techniques we share with them, and by tightening contract language using clauses and phrases that we suggest.  We have been helping design firms for over twenty ...

Insurance is probably one of a design firm’s biggest expenses, and behind health insurance costs, premiums paid for errors & omissions (E&O) coverage for architects and engineers is at the top.  Here are some suggestions for saving money on professional liability coverage for design firms:

1. Compare quotes: Let Maloney & Company, LLC shop around and obtain quotes from different insurance providers. We work with dozens of specialized programs, way more than most insurance brokers, and this approach will allow you to ...

We at Maloney & Company, LLC have helped our clients through many tricky situations, and several tips and techniques emerge as really good risk management practices. These are not “pie in the sky” ideas, either. You can probably incorporate some if not all of these suggestions with only minor changes in the way you do business currently.

1. Cultivate your relationship with the project owner.

Project owners make the lion’s share of the claims against architects and engineers. If there is a ...

There are two sure-fire ways for architect and engineers to get tagged with liability for site safety:

1. Assume site safety responsibility in your contract with the owner, or
2. Assume site safety responsibility by your behavior on the jobsite.

Option 1 is pretty clear cut, and is easy enough to avoid.  But you and your employees should be on your guard against Option 2.  If your contract specifically excludes site safety responsibility (as it should), and the owner-contractor contract specifically includes site safety responsibility ...

With the new year nearly upon us, we wanted to offer suggestions for new professional services firms regarding insurance.  Here is an introduction to the types of policies normally maintained by start-up firms, along with some price estimate ranges, and other suggestions:

1) Professional Liability Policy-

This type of policy pays for legal fees and damage awards connected to an A/E’s design work.  This coverage is important because an architect or engineer is personally liable for his or her professional services.  There ...

Please join us for another installment of our series of risk management webinars for 2022.  The presenter will be Mike Maloney.

Mike is the Founder and Principal of Maloney & Company, LLC, one of the leading insurance brokerage firms in the nation specializing in architect and engineer professional liability insurance.

One of the key tenets to staying out of professional liability claims is to start with a good contract.  For the past 12 years, Mike has been updating the guide he wrote ...