Estimate Average Business Insurance Costs for Your Accounting Firm

Plug in your coverage type, state, employee count and vehicle type (if you need commercial auto coverage) to get a cost estimate built around your operation. No personal information is required, and workers' comp estimates are calculated per employee.

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Monthly Rate Estimate—

How Much Does Accountants Business Insurance Cost?

Accountant and CPA business insurance averages $59 per month, or $707 per year, across the six most common coverage types. Our analysis modeled businesses with one to four employees across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., using policy limits of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate.

Individual coverage costs range from $15 to $93 per month, with workers' compensation pricing lowest because desk-based accounting carries a low injury-risk class. Cyber insurance anchors the high end, driven by the tax returns, payroll records and financials accounting firms hold. You likely expect professional liability to be your largest cost since it's the coverage the profession is built around. Our data, however, says otherwise: cyber insurance prices above professional liability for a practice like yours. That reflects how much data density shapes financial services business insurance costs alongside professional risk.

Workers' Comp$15$11387%1
Commercial Property$29$35077%127
General Liability$61$727-51%131
Professional Liability$70$837-24%116
Commercial Auto$86$1,03047%5
Cyber Insurance$93$1,120-12%268

We analyzed quote data from major U.S. commercial insurance providers and modeled standardized premium estimates across business profiles representing around 95% of the market. Results are designed to provide a consistent national benchmark showing how premiums vary by key baseline factors including business size, restaurant profession type, location and vehicle type for operations that use commercial vehicles.

Dataset Scope and Assumptions

Our cost modeling uses standardized inputs for consistent comparisons across businesses.

  • Total estimates modeled: just over 6 million standardized pricing estimates
  • Providers analyzed: 10 major insurance providers
  • Geography: all U.S. states including Washington, D.C.
  • Employee count bands: solo practitioners, one to four, five to nine, 10 to 19, and 20 to 49 employees
  • Vehicle types studied: Sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks, vans, taxis, limousines, tractors, food trucks, semi-trucks (non-HAZMAT and HAZMAT), tanker trucks (non-HAZMAT and HAZMAT), buses, box trucks, dump trucks, flatbed trucks
  • Policies studied: general liability, workers' comp, professional liability, commercial auto, commercial property, and cyber insurance
    • General liability: $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate
    • Workers' comp: state required coverage
    • Professional liability: $1 million per claim and $1 million aggregate
    • Commercial auto: minimum coverage
    • Commercial property: personal property coverage limits personalized to industry, business size and state
    • Cyber insurance: $1 million per occurrence and $1 million aggregate

How We Calculated Average Accountants Business Insurance Costs

Our published averages represent modeled premiums for standardized business profiles and were aggregated in two ways.

  • National benchmark average: The national average cost reflects the modeled premium for a standardized one to four employee business across all and states included in our dataset for a standard policies
  • Segment averages: To show how costs vary, we calculated average modeled premiums for our national base profile and isolated for variables, including:
    • Employee count (business size ranges)
    • Vehicle types (for commercial auto)
    • States (including Washington, D.C.)

Segment averages were produced by aggregating modeled pricing trends across the full dataset so readers can compare how premiums shift across coverage types and regions.
See our full business insurance methodology.

How Much Does Professional Liability Insurance Cost for Accountants?

Professional liability covers claims tied to the work itself: a missed deduction, a filing error, a financial projection your client disputes or advice that leads to a loss. Most accountants know this coverage by its shorthand, errors and omissions insurance. For your firm, it's the most direct coverage for the risk that defines the profession, and many client contracts will require it before an engagement letter is signed.

Our analysis shows professional liability costs ranging from $61 a month in North Carolina to $82 in Washington, D.C., a $21 monthly gap. The spread is narrower than most other coverage types we analyzed because professional liability pricing for accountants is driven more by your firm's revenue, service mix and claims history than by geography. If your firm offers tax planning or investment-adjacent advisory services, expect your rate to sit toward the higher end of this range regardless of which state you're in.

North Carolina$61$726
North Dakota$61$726
Maine$61$726
Alaska$63$751
Virginia$63$760
Kentucky$65$776
Ohio$65$776
Oregon$65$776
Wyoming$65$776
Michigan$65$785
Minnesota$65$785
Nebraska$65$785
Oklahoma$65$785
South Dakota$65$785
Arizona$66$793
Arkansas$66$793
Idaho$66$793
Iowa$66$793
Maryland$66$793
Utah$66$793
Vermont$67$801
Indiana$67$810
Kansas$67$810
Tennessee$67$810
Alabama$68$818
Wisconsin$68$818
Colorado$69$826
Missouri$69$826
Montana$69$826
New Hampshire$69$826
Mississippi$70$835
New Mexico$70$843
Texas$70$843
Georgia$71$851
South Carolina$72$860
Hawaii$72$868
Massachusetts$73$876
West Virginia$73$876
Delaware$74$893
Florida$75$901
Connecticut$76$910
Illinois$77$918
Rhode Island$77$918
California$78$935
Louisiana$79$943
New Jersey$79$943
Nevada$79$952
Washington$79$952
Pennsylvania$80$960
New York$81$968
Washington DC$82$985

How Much Does Cyber Insurance Cost for Accountants?

Cyber insurance covers the response costs, regulatory exposure and client notification obligations that follow a data breach or network incident. Your firm holds some of the most sensitive client data in any profession: Social Security numbers, tax records, bank account information and financial statements. That combination makes accounting firms a target for both opportunistic breaches and targeted attacks on high-value financial data.

We found cyber insurance costs ranging from $79 a month in Alaska to $116 in Washington, D.C., about 1.5 times higher at the top. Several states in our dataset cluster near the low end, which points to a pricing floor rather than a meaningful geographic advantage for your firm. The more consequential variable is your security posture: firms without multi-factor authentication, documented incident response plans or encrypted file storage routinely quote above the national average regardless of which state they operate in.

Alaska$79$951
Montana$79$952
North Dakota$79$952
Wyoming$79$952
Idaho$81$974
South Dakota$81$971
West Virginia$81$973
Hawaii$84$1,007
Iowa$84$1,006
Maine$84$1,007
Nebraska$84$1,007
New Hampshire$84$1,006
Rhode Island$84$1,006
Vermont$84$1,006
Arkansas$85$1,028
Mississippi$85$1,028
New Mexico$85$1,027
Kansas$88$1,058
Oklahoma$88$1,059
Utah$88$1,061
Alabama$90$1,081
Kentucky$90$1,081
Louisiana$90$1,079
South Carolina$90$1,082
Tennessee$92$1,111
Wisconsin$92$1,111
Indiana$93$1,115
Missouri$93$1,113
Ohio$94$1,133
Arizona$95$1,137
Michigan$95$1,135
Minnesota$95$1,137
North Carolina$97$1,169
Oregon$97$1,169
Pennsylvania$97$1,167
Georgia$99$1,191
Florida$100$1,209
Colorado$101$1,213
Texas$101$1,213
Delaware$103$1,241
Virginia$103$1,243
Washington$103$1,241
Nevada$104$1,245
Connecticut$106$1,274
Illinois$106$1,274
Maryland$106$1,278
Massachusetts$106$1,278
New Jersey$108$1,299
California$110$1,321
New York$113$1,351
District of Columbia$116$1,384

How Much Does General Liability Insurance Cost for Accountants?

General liability covers the third-party claims that can surface even in a profession built around paperwork. A client injured in your conference room, damage to a client's property while on your premises, a dispute over something said in a client communication are some of the scenarios general liability is built for. It's also the baseline policy most commercial leases and client contracts will require before your work begins.

Our analysis shows general liability costs for accounting firms ranging from $39 a month in West Virginia to $99 in Washington, D.C., a $60 monthly gap that reflects population density, litigation frequency and local court cost environments rather than anything specific to how your firm operates. If you're in an urban market, signing a commercial lease or serving institutional clients, expect your rate to land toward the higher end regardless of firm size.

West Virginia$39$467
Mississippi$40$480
South Dakota$42$505
Arkansas$43$510
Idaho$44$529
Iowa$45$535
Alabama$45$536
Montana$45$539
Wyoming$45$541
New Mexico$45$542
Oklahoma$45$542
South Carolina$45$542
North Dakota$46$557
Kentucky$47$567
Kansas$48$574
Louisiana$48$576
Nebraska$48$580
Missouri$51$607
Indiana$51$613
Utah$52$629
Ohio$53$634
Maine$53$634
Wisconsin$53$634
Tennessee$53$640
North Carolina$55$661
Michigan$56$668
Georgia$58$696
Texas$60$718
Vermont$60$725
Arizona$61$738
Pennsylvania$63$756
Delaware$65$785
Minnesota$66$793
Rhode Island$66$793
Nevada$66$795
New Hampshire$67$800
Virginia$69$831
Oregon$71$846
Florida$71$849
Illinois$73$877
Colorado$75$903
Maryland$81$969
Alaska$81$969
Hawaii$83$994
Washington$83$1,001
Connecticut$84$1,011
New Jersey$85$1,017
Massachusetts$92$1,099
New York$93$1,116
California$98$1,175
District of Columbia$99$1,190

How Much Does Workers’ Comp Insurance Cost for Accountants?

Workers' compensation covers the injury and illness claims that arise when your employees are hurt on the job, including repetitive strain injuries, slip-and-fall incidents and stress-related conditions that can occur in an office setting. Most states require it the moment you bring on your first employee, regardless of whether the work is physical.

Our data shows workers' comp costs running from $12 per employee per month in Indiana to $18 in California, about 43% higher at the top of the range. State classification systems and benefit structures account for most of that gap. Accounting work carries a lower injury rate than most industries, so the difference reflects regulatory differences more than occupational risk. If you're planning to hire across multiple states, check each state's rate individually because the spread across the middle of the distribution is narrower than the endpoints suggest.

Indiana$12$148
Texas$13$151
Iowa$13$154
Utah$13$155
Arkansas$13$156
South Dakota$13$157
Tennessee$13$158
Virginia$13$158
Kentucky$13$160
Idaho$13$160
Nebraska$13$161
Kansas$13$162
North Carolina$14$165
Alabama$14$165
Colorado$14$166
Arizona$14$167
New Mexico$14$167
Mississippi$14$168
Missouri$14$168
Nevada$14$169
Minnesota$14$169
New Hampshire$14$172
Florida$14$172
Georgia$14$172
Maine$15$175
Oregon$15$175
Oklahoma$15$175
Maryland$15$176
West Virginia$15$177
Montana$15$178
Michigan$15$179
Vermont$15$179
Wisconsin$15$179
South Carolina$15$181
Delaware$15$182
Illinois$15$183
Rhode Island$15$183
Louisiana$15$185
Pennsylvania$15$186
Massachusetts$16$192
Hawaii$16$195
District of Columbia$17$200
Connecticut$17$200
New Jersey$17$200
New York$17$206
Alaska$17$207
California$18$211

How Much Does Commercial Property Insurance Cost for Accountants?

Commercial property covers the physical assets your firm depends on: office furniture, computers, servers, filing systems and any tenant improvements. The policy pays out against losses from fire, theft, vandalism and certain other events. If you're leasing office space, your landlord will likely require it as a condition of the lease, separate from what the building policy covers.

Our data shows commercial property running from $25 a month in North Dakota to $35 in New York, about 37% higher. Property replacement costs, local construction labor rates and weather-related loss frequency drive most of that difference, so firms in dense urban markets or flood-prone areas tend to quote toward the higher end, while a newer build-out in a lower-cost market is one of the few factors that reliably pulls the rate down.

North Dakota$25$305
South Dakota$26$308
Nebraska$26$309
Iowa$26$311
Kansas$26$311
Wyoming$26$315
Missouri$26$318
Arkansas$27$318
West Virginia$27$319
Oklahoma$27$320
Mississippi$27$321
Indiana$27$321
Montana$27$322
Kentucky$27$325
New Mexico$27$325
Wisconsin$27$328
Alabama$27$329
Ohio$28$332
Idaho$28$332
Michigan$28$332
Maine$28$333
Tennessee$28$335
Vermont$28$335
Minnesota$29$342
Utah$29$342
South Carolina$29$345
New Hampshire$29$346
Arizona$29$349
Georgia$29$350
North Carolina$29$352
Nevada$30$356
Virginia$30$358
Illinois$30$359
Colorado$30$363
Louisiana$30$365
Oregon$31$366
Delaware$31$367
Pennsylvania$31$370
Texas$31$370
Maryland$31$376
Washington$31$377
Rhode Island$32$380
Alaska$32$387
Connecticut$33$390
Florida$33$397
Massachusetts$33$397
California$34$404
New Jersey$34$406
District of Columbia$34$407
Hawaii$34$411
New York$35$417

How Much Does Commercial Auto Insurance Cost for Accountants?

Commercial auto covers vehicles you use for business purposes: client site visits, IRS office trips, bank runs or any drive where the vehicle is operating in a business capacity rather than personal use. Your personal auto policy typically excludes business-use claims, which makes this coverage relevant if you regularly drive to client locations.

We found commercial auto costs ranging from $47 a month for firms in Iowa to $77 in Washington, D.C., roughly 1.6 times higher at the top. Urban traffic density, accident frequency and state liability minimums account for most of that difference, not how often your firm uses vehicles. If you only drive to client sites occasionally, the exposure is real either way because your personal policy's business-use exclusion applies the moment you're in an accident on a client trip.

Iowa
$47
$567
Idaho
$48
$574
Vermont
$50
$602
Montana
$51
$608
Nebraska
$51
$616
New Mexico
$51
$619
Arkansas
$52
$624
Alabama
$53
$633
Kansas
$53
$637
Mississippi
$53
$632
Oklahoma
$53
$633
West Virginia
$53
$632
Wisconsin
$53
$637
Kentucky
$54
$650
New Hampshire
$54
$647
South Dakota
$54
$645
Utah
$54
$651
Indiana
$55
$663
North Dakota
$55
$667
Pennsylvania
$55
$659
Tennessee
$55
$662
Hawaii
$56
$671
Maine
$56
$672
South Carolina
$56
$672
Arizona
$57
$687
North Carolina
$57
$682
Wyoming
$58
$694
Georgia
$59
$709
Minnesota
$59
$708
Missouri
$59
$703
Delaware
$60
$720
Louisiana
$60
$714
Oregon
$60
$721
Virginia
$62
$740
Colorado
$63
$751
Nevada
$63
$758
Rhode Island
$63
$760
Ohio
$64
$774
Texas
$65
$782
Illinois
$66
$793
Maryland
$67
$808
Alaska
$69
$829
Connecticut
$69
$832
Florida
$69
$832
Michigan
$70
$844
Massachusetts
$71
$849
New Jersey
$72
$860
California
$74
$890
New York
$75
$902
Washington
$76
$909
Washington D.C.
$77
$928

Factors Affecting Accountants Business Insurance Costs

For accountant business insurance, underwriters price the nature of your work before they price the size of your firm. Your credential type, service scope and client profile drive more premium variation than headcount or revenue because they determine what a claim could cost, not just whether one might occur. That's why two practices of identical size can receive quotes that differ for exactly that reason.

The five factors below trace that variation to the decisions and structures that define how your practice operates.

    userProfile icon
    Credential type

    Whether you hold a CPA license, EA credential, or no formal certification shapes your entire risk profile. As a CPA, you face the highest professional standard and hold the only credential that authorizes attest services. That distinction drives the broadest liability exposure of any accounting credential.

    tax icon
    Services performed

    If a lender or investor relies on your audit opinion and later claims it misrepresented a client's financial position, your firm can face third-party claims outside the direct engagement. In a tax-only practice, your exposure is narrower but real: filing errors and missed deadlines are the primary sources.

    business icon
    Client type

    Your client mix shapes your exposure: individual tax filers, small business owners, corporate clients and nonprofits each carry a different risk profile. Higher-stakes engagements built around business sales, loan applications or investment decisions increase the potential financial consequences if your work contains an error.

    female icon
    Number of employees

    Adding your first hire, even a part-time bookkeeper or seasonal preparer, triggers insurance compliance requirements in most states and expands your aggregate exposure. If your firm brings in contractors during tax season, coverage obligations for those temporary workers depend on how those relationships are classified.

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    Office or work location

    Your operating location, whether a leased office, home or fully remote, shapes your premises and property exposure. Working from home creates a gap: homeowners policies typically exclude business liability and equipment. A fully remote practice reduces your physical risk but doesn't reduce your professional or cyber exposure.

How to Lower Accountants Business Insurance Costs

For accounting firms, the most accessible cost reductions come from how you shop and bundle coverage. The more durable ones come from how you run your practice. Professional liability insurers price your firm's renewals partly on documented risk controls, not just claims history. That means improving your engagement practices and security posture produces compounding savings that switching carriers or bundling can't match.

    vsDocuments icon
    Compare quotes using the same coverage limits

    Your professional liability quotes vary by limit structure, retroactive date depth and whether attest services are covered. A quote at $500,000 per occurrence isn't comparable to one at $1 million, and a policy that excludes audit work may price lower for reasons that matter to your firm. Request quotes with the same limits and retroactive date structure before comparing premiums.

    shoppingBag icon
    Bundle policies with the same provider

    Your firm may source professional liability separately from its general liability and property coverage, often through different carriers. Consolidating with one insurer that writes both your E&O coverage and your business owner's policy can reduce your combined premium. Ask each carrier whether a multi-policy discount applies to your coverage combination before renewing separately.

    calendarV2 icon
    Pay annually instead of monthly

    Most insurers charge a financing fee when you pay premiums monthly, which adds to your annual cost without adding coverage. For solo practitioners and small accounting firms managing cash flow around tax season revenue cycles, switching to annual payment at renewal is one of the simplest adjustments you can make.

    barChart icon
    Right-size your coverage

    Underwriters assess your firm partly on how well you document and control professional risk. Using engagement letters consistently, defining scope clearly and documenting client communications reduces your likelihood of a claim dispute and signals lower risk at renewal. Your firm's renewal pricing reflects whether those controls are consistently in place.

    stackOfBooks icon
    Invest in risk management practices

    The claims most likely to affect your firm cluster around a small set of scenarios: undocumented service scope, data breaches, tax filing errors and inadequate staff oversight. Addressing these systematically over time reduces both claim frequency and your renewal costs in ways that one-time adjustments don't. The practices below target the exposures most likely to generate claims for your practice.

    • Your engagement letter should cover every client matter, including any informal advisory work that falls outside your primary service scope.
    • Your staff and seasonal tax preparers need phishing recognition training before each filing season, when credential-harvesting attacks against accounting firms peak.
    • Before assigning client work to subcontractors or offshore bookkeeping services, confirm your professional liability coverage explicitly extends to errors they make on your firm's behalf.
    • Review your client data access controls across cloud platforms and practice management systems at least once a year to catch outdated permissions.

Accountants Business Insurance Cost: Bottom Line

Accountants business insurance costs around $59 per month, but treat it as a reference point since your actual premium depends on your credentials, services and location. In accounting, the nature of your work and your client profile shape your premium more than your firm's size.

These questions help you put your quote in context.

  1. Where do you fall in the distribution? Your credential type and service scope determine where your firm sits in the distribution. A tax-only EA and a CPA practice running audits can both fall above or below the benchmark for reasons specific to each.
  2. Is your quote consistent with your risk profile? Attest services, corporate clients or high limits can push your quote above the benchmark, while narrower terms or a retroactive date that doesn't cover your full history can pull it below. For your firm, that factor matters more than the direction.
  3. Which cost drivers apply to your business? Your practice doesn't share the same pricing variables as a solo bookkeeper or a staffed CPA firm. Identifying which apply to your situation, from services and clients to headcount and location, matters more than measuring your distance from the average.

The benchmarks on this page are calibration tools, not targets. What they reveal isn't whether your quote is right or wrong. It's whether the gap has a clear explanation. When it does, you can evaluate it. When it doesn't, that's the question worth investigating.

Accountants Business Insurance Cost: Next Steps

If you're still working out which coverage types apply to your practice, what your exposure looks like or whether any coverage is legally required, resolve that before focusing on cost. Once you know what applies, cost comparisons become more meaningful.

If you're ready to focus on lowering what you pay, the next step is comparing providers on pricing for your specific profile, from credential type and services to employee count, and identifying which cost levers fit how your firm operates.

If these estimates left you with questions about your specific quote or practice profile, these are the frequently asked questions:

Why is my quote so much higher than the $59 average?

Which benchmark applies if my practice does both tax prep and audit work?

How much more will I pay if my corporate client requires $2 million in E&O limits?

Is $120 a month for cyber insurance normal for an accounting firm my size?

About Connor Bolton


Connor Bolton headshot

Connor Bolton is Senior SEO and Content Manager at MoneyGeek, where he leads the business and pet insurance editorial teams. As editorial lead for both verticals, Connor sets the research framework, data standards, and content structure that his writers execute, directly authoring in-depth guides himself and reviewing all team content for accuracy and practical value before it goes live. With over four years evaluating insurance products across personal, commercial, and specialty lines, he brings cross-vertical knowledge to every guide the team produces.

Connor architected MoneyGeek's insurance research infrastructure across all major verticals including auto, home, renters, life, health, business, and pet, building systems for pricing analysis, provider-level research, customer experience evaluation, and coverage analysis with AI support. The infrastructure includes over 6 million data points for business insurance across 408 industry areas, all 50 states, and 16 vehicle types, and over 5 million pet insurance profiles across 18 major providers and hundreds of breed and age combinations. Connor's insurance cost research and his team's work has been cited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, CBS News, Forbes and LegalZoom.

Beyond the data, Connor stays connected to how the market actually operates, drawing on direct conversations with underwriters and carrier liaisons at Ethos, The Hartford, NEXT Insurance, Nationwide, and State Farm, and monitoring business and pet owner communities including Reddit, to inform how he interprets findings and frames guidance for real buyers.

He is the direct editorial contact for methodology questions at connor@moneygeek.com and can be found on LinkedIn.