Carrier-published premiums, checked October 2026

2026 Professional Liability Insurance Cost Benchmarks

No regulator or industry body publishes profession-level premium medians for small professional liability buyers. The only public per-profession prices are the figures carriers publish about their own customers. This page collects them, with who published each figure and what it covers: NEXT's median and average monthly cost for 11 professions, Hiscox's worked examples, and the starting points Hiscox, NEXT and biBerk advertise.

$25/mo

NEXT median policy

NEXT professional liability customers

73%

NEXT customers paying $45/mo or less

Same customer base

$23/mo

Hiscox starting price

"As little as", Hiscox

~$300/yr

biBerk starting point

"Start around", biBerk

Average Monthly Premium by Profession (NEXT Insurance)

NEXT's published average monthly cost for its professional liability customers in each profession. These are one carrier's averages across whatever limits, deductibles and states its customers bought, not market medians and not a quote.

Profession	Average per month
Accountants	$40
Travel agents	$50
Retail stores	$55
Business consultants	$60
Social media consultants	$60
Real estate agents	$70
Videographers	$75
Architects	$80
IT consultants	$90
Software developers	$90
Engineers	$100

Source: NEXT Insurance, professional liability cost page. NEXT states the figures are based on active NEXT customers purchasing professional liability over the previous 12 months, updated August 2025. The same page gives a median policy cost of $25 a month and says 73% of its professional liability policyholders pay $45 a month or less. Checked 13 October 2026.

Hiscox Worked Examples

Hiscox publishes two example premiums with every rating input stated, which makes them the most reproducible public figures for a specific policy:

IT consultant, California

$42.92/mo

$515 a year

Revenue: $150,000
Limit: $500,000
Deductible: $5,000

Business consultant, Texas

$85.42/mo

$1,025 a year

Revenue: $350,000
Limit: $1,000,000
Deductible: $5,000

Source: Hiscox, how much does professional liability insurance cost, checked 24 September 2026. Hiscox also says small business owners could pay as little as $23 a month. biBerk says its professional liability policies start around $300 a year, and NEXT advertises a $19 a month starting price for some low-risk professions.

What Moves Your Quote Away From These Figures

Every figure above is an average or an example for someone else's policy. Your quote is set by the carrier's rating of your own risk, and the inputs that move it are the ones Hiscox states against its examples, plus your history:

Profession and scope of services. NEXT's own averages run from $40 a month for accountants to $100 for engineers.
Revenue. More revenue means more client work that can go wrong.
Coverage limit and deductible. Higher limits cost more; a higher deductible lowers the premium.
State. Litigation climate differs by state, and carriers file rates state by state.
Claims history and retroactive date. Prior claims raise the price; a claims-made policy with an older retroactive date covers more past work.

Lawyers, physicians, and larger architecture and engineering firms usually buy through specialist programs that do not publish rate tables. For physicians see our medical malpractice cost guide.

Methodology and Sources

Every figure on this page is quoted from the carrier that published it, with the carrier named beside it. We do not average carriers together or estimate figures for professions a carrier does not publish, because each carrier's numbers describe its own customers and are not comparable with another's.

NEXT Insurance professional liability cost page: median, distribution and average by profession (customer data updated August 2025), checked 13 October 2026.
Hiscox professional liability cost page: starting price and two worked examples, checked 24 September 2026.
biBerk professional liability page: starting point, checked 24 September 2026.

Carriers revise these pages without notice. Always compare live quotes for a buying decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sources back the 2026 benchmark figures?

Three carriers' own published pricing pages, each checked in September or October 2026. NEXT Insurance publishes a median policy cost of $25 a month and average monthly costs for 11 professions, based on its active professional liability customers over the previous 12 months (updated August 2025). Hiscox publishes a starting price of $23 a month and two worked examples with the profession, state, revenue, limit and deductible stated. biBerk says its policies start around $300 a year. No regulator or industry body (NAIC, the Insurance Information Institute) publishes profession-level premium medians for small professional liability buyers, so carrier-published figures are the only public per-profession prices.

Why do premiums vary so much by profession?

Carriers price on how often a profession is sued over its advice or work and how large those claims tend to be. NEXT's own averages show the spread: accountants average $40 a month with NEXT, while IT consultants and software developers average $90 and engineers $100. Professions with long limitation periods and large potential losses (lawyers, physicians, design professionals on big projects) are usually priced through specialist programs rather than the online carriers above, and those programs do not publish rate tables.

Are 2026 premiums up or down vs 2025?

No public source publishes a year-on-year change in small-business professional liability premiums by profession. The carrier figures on this page are point-in-time snapshots of each carrier's own book, not a market index, so they cannot be compared year to year. Your renewal notice, and quotes from two or three other carriers, are the reliable test of whether your own price has moved.

How should I use these figures?

As a sanity check, not a price target. A carrier's average reflects its own customer mix: the limits, deductibles, revenue sizes and states its customers happen to buy. If your quote sits far above the published average for your profession, ask the carrier or broker which rating factor is driving it (claims history, limit, revenue, state, scope of services). If it sits far below, check that the policy wording, limit and deductible are comparable before treating it as a bargain.

Do the figures differ for occurrence vs claims-made policies?

The carriers do not say which form each average covers, and most small professional liability policies are written on a claims-made basis. Claims-made pricing usually starts lower in the first years after the retroactive date and rises as the policy matures, and leaving a claims-made policy can require tail coverage. See our tail coverage guide for how that cost is set.

How do revenue and limit change the price?

Carriers rate on revenue, coverage limit and deductible, among other factors, and none of them publishes the multiplier. Hiscox's two examples show the direction but cannot isolate a single factor: the business consultant example ($1,025 a year) has higher revenue ($350,000 vs $150,000), a higher limit ($1M vs $500K) and a different state (Texas vs California) than the IT consultant example ($515 a year), with the same $5,000 deductible. For firms with employees see our guide at /by-size/2-to-5-employees.

Related Cost Guides

$500K Coverage Detail

Floor tier for solo low-risk professionals

$1M / $2M Detail

Modal small-business tier

$3M / $5M Detail

Enterprise vendor tier

Sole Proprietor Cost

Cost floor for one-person practices

How to Save

Ways to lower your premium

Tail Coverage Cost

How tail coverage is priced

This guide is informational, not insurance advice. Figures are quoted from the carriers that published them and change without notice. Always verify against current carrier quotes for any specific buying decision. Updated 13 October 2026.