Hi - I am an iOS developer and I had a question for you about getting insurance as a developer. I thought this would be a straight forward question for insurance agents, however it doesn’t seem to be…from what I’ve gathered professional liability insurance (potentially Errors & Omissions) would be recommended however none of them seem to write policies for software developers - as they have indicated it would be more of a custom policy and potentially expensive. They recommended I reach out to a developer community to find out how other developers handle it. Do you have insurance? If so from where and what kind? If not, why?
Basically the idea being in the rare event I write code for a customer that doesn’t turn out how they expected it or if say a data breach occurred, patent troll, etc. I’d want to be covered in case of a lawsuit. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Please let me know and if anything I can clarify.
@chillrod In all honesty, I have not heard of any such thing like this. The whole point of the client contract with you is to agree upon the details of the project, the deliverables, and the rate. Once these details are specified in the agreement, there honestly would be little wiggle room for either the consultant, or the client. In many cases, contractors incorporate themselves so that they benefit from the tax benefits that are available, but also separate their personal assets from the company assets. Not sure where you live, but I believe you should look further into this. Software development is not like other professions like medicine where someone’s health is at risk. Either the product is built to specs and you get paid, or it isn’t. In which case you don’t get paid. It’s fairly straight forward. Typically, as a software developer, you don’t go into private contracting unless you have some experience under your belt, or you plan to outsource to someone whom you know can do the job.