There was a software company that was filing a claim for a $5,000 problem. The issue here ended up being that the problem was an error in a title search. I said, “Wow, did you write a software for a title search company and it didn’t work right?” And he said, “No, we did the title search.” Confused, I said, “What do you mean you did the title search, we insure you as a software developer.” To my surprise, he responded with, “Oh, yeah, yeah, we do that too, but in addition to that work we have this other side job thing we do, and we search titles.”

When they did this title search on a home a woman was selling, their title search failed to turn up a lien of $5,000 against the house that had to be paid when the property changed hands. So they gave the woman who sold this property $5,000 more than they should have.

When we pulled up his policy, it said “Software Developer”. Initially, he was very unhappy and said, “But I’ve got a professional liability policy, and I’ve got a professional liability problem.” Unfortunately, I had to tell him, “Yes, you do, but these policies are very laser specific, unlike some other forms of insurance.”

Insurance policies are very carefully worded to only cover specific things. If you ever need insurance on a separate part of your business, don’t assume one policy will cover it all. You might get stuck paying for your problem out-of-pocket.