Liberty Mutual stopped writing its E&O program for P&C agents on October 1, and a Georgia appeals court opened the door for third parties to sue agents over coverage gaps. If your agency's own E&O renews in the next few months, treat it like the account it is.
Agencies spend the fourth quarter working client renewals, chasing carrier appetite, and explaining rate changes. The one renewal that tends to get the least attention is the agency's own errors and omissions policy. Two developments this year make that a bad habit to keep.
The first is a market exit. The Professional Insurance Agents of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Hampshire reported on August 19, 2026 that Liberty Mutual would discontinue its errors and omissions program for property and casualty agents beginning October 1, 2026. Agencies in that program are now looking for a new home for their coverage, and the association's advice was to start early rather than take whatever is available as the deadline approaches.
The second is a court ruling. Insurance Journal reported on June 4, 2026 that the Georgia Court of Appeals, in Plummer v. Commercial Insurance Agency, held that a policyholder's negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against its broker could be assigned to a third party. The practical result is that a stranger to your agency can end up holding a claim against you after a carrier correctly denies coverage. The defendant agency has asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review the decision, and as of this writing there is no public report of that court acting on it.
Why the Two Stories Belong Together
A carrier leaving a line and a court expanding who can sue you are different events, but they land on the same desk. One shrinks the number of markets willing to write your agency. The other raises the stakes if you ever have a claim. When those two things happen in the same year, the agencies that get hurt are the ones that treat E&O as a line item to renew on autopilot.
The Georgia ruling also changes the shape of a claim. In the Plummer case, the insurer went to federal court, won a declaratory judgment that the policy did not cover the loss, and the insured then entered a consent judgment and assigned its claims against the broker to the plaintiff. Attorneys quoted by Insurance Journal pointed out that a carrier can be entirely right about coverage and the agent can still be the one left holding liability. That is the scenario your E&O policy exists for, and it is worth knowing exactly how yours would respond.
What to Look at Before You Sign the Renewal
If you are moving carriers because your current one exited, the most important question is continuity. Prior acts coverage and retroactive dates determine whether work you did years ago is still protected under the new policy. A cheaper quote with a new retroactive date is not a cheaper policy. It is a different policy with a gap in it.
Look at how the policy treats the activities your agency actually performs. Agencies that place coverage through wholesalers, write surplus lines, offer consulting or risk management advice, or sell life and health alongside property and casualty should confirm each of those is inside the definition of professional services. The PIA guidance on the Liberty Mutual transition made the same point: evaluate limits, deductibles, policy terms, and how the program handles your specific exposures rather than shopping on price alone.
Ask about the carrier's experience with agent E&O claims specifically. A generalist professional liability market may write the policy, but the claims handling is where you find out whether they understand how a failure to procure claim develops and how agency files are read in discovery.
The File Is Your Defense
The Plummer decision rested on an allegation that the agency failed to secure an appropriate policy. Whether that is true in any given case comes down to what the file shows. What coverage did the client ask for, what did you offer, what did they decline, and when did each of those things happen.
Most agencies believe their documentation is good. Fewer can pull up, within a few minutes, every coverage recommendation a client declined over the past three years with a date and a record of the conversation. If a third party you have never spoken to can now step into your client's shoes and sue, that record matters more than it did a year ago. Documentation of declined coverage, signed or acknowledged, is the single most useful thing your E&O defense counsel can receive.
What to Do This Week
Pull your agency's E&O declarations page and write down the carrier, the limits, the deductible, the retroactive date, and the expiration date. If you were in the Liberty Mutual program and have not placed replacement coverage, make that your first call Monday.
If your renewal is more than ninety days out, get the application started anyway. Markets that write agency E&O are asking more questions about procedures, and you want time to answer them well rather than quickly.
Spot check five commercial files from the past year. For each, confirm you can show what was quoted, what was recommended, and what the client declined. If any of the five come up short, that tells you what to fix before a renewal underwriter or a plaintiff's attorney asks the same question.
Finally, ask your E&O carrier or agent association whether your state has anything similar to the Georgia ruling pending or decided. The assignment question is state law, and the answer where you operate may be different.