2023 Risk Management webinar series

Please join Mike Maloney for this exciting webinar. the latest of our 2023 risk management series: The Risk Spectrum of Construction Phase Services. The construction phase of services is the one that generates the most claims against design firms, and this course helps to identify the risk and suggests how to address them.
When:  September 14, 2023 at 1pm
Why:  You will get a thorough overview of how ...
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Top Five Areas of Risk Management for Architects and Engineers

Risk management, simply put, is the identification of threats to your well-being and the decision how to respond.  Risk management takes on an additional level of importance for professionals like architects and engineers since they are personally liable for the professional services they provide.  Below are five areas vital to design professionals who want to reduce or transfer risk:

1)  Client Selection–Monitor your interaction with clients and potential clients and be aware of danger signs.  Walking away from a project could ...

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Top 10 Common Design Firm Insurance Claims

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 ...

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Every architect/engineer’s worst nightmare–personal liability

What is the risk that keeps you up at night?  Is it the idea that you could sacrifice your savings/retirement fund/college savings due to your design negligence?

Architects and engineers may be held personally liable for their professional work if they breach their duty of care to their clients or other parties who may be affected by their work. This can include design errors, ...

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How to save money on professional liability costs

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 ...
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Risk Management tips for design professionals

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 ...

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Site Safety Risks for Design Professionals (and what do do if you see something worrisome)

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 ...

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Insurance for starting a design office

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 ...

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March 24th Webinar–2022 Contract Review Guide–Tips and Suggestions for Design Firms

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 ...

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