Test prep companies insurance checklist: what a test prep company should carry

The test prep company insurance checklist

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Test prep companies usually carry general liability, professional liability (e&o) and abuse & molestation. Test prep companies promise score gains to families paying for them, teach teenagers in classrooms and online, hold student data and payment details, and hire instructors on short contracts. Your landlord and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a test prep company for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Cities, counties & permits	General liability, auto and workers' compensation at the limits in the permit or contract

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
Abuse and molestation. A separate limit, not a sublimit of general liability; whether it is occurrence or claims-made; and whether the organisation and the individual are both covered.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.

What usually goes wrong for test prep companies

Score guarantees in the contract that become professional claims.
Online instruction and student data with no cyber coverage.
Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
Property values set when the doors opened and never raised.
One-on-one lessons with minors under a policy that excludes abuse claims entirely.
A retroactive date that moved when you switched carriers, cutting off earlier work.

What underwriters will ask a test prep company

Students by age and format, instructor engagement, guarantees offered, and data held
Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers
Replacement cost of the equipment, fixtures and stock on site
Ages taught, one-on-one versus group lessons and background-check practice
Services, largest engagement size and the contracts you sign
Claims-made retroactive date and any prior claims or circumstances

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.

Questions people actually ask

We guarantee a score improvement. Is that insured?

The guarantee is a refund obligation the business funds; a claim that the programme harmed a student's prospects is a professional claim the policy covers. Write the guarantee as a refund, not a promise of outcome.

Does online test prep need the same abuse coverage as in-person?

The exposure changes but does not vanish; one-on-one video sessions with minors need conduct policies and recording rules, and carriers still ask. Cyber coverage for the platform and student data joins it.

Doesn't my landlord's insurance cover my test prep company?

It covers the building. The lease almost always makes you responsible for your own improvements, equipment and stock, for injuries inside your space, and for naming the landlord as additional insured on your liability policy. Read the insurance clause; the contract checker in the wallet will pull it out for you.

We only teach lessons. Do we really need abuse coverage?

Yes, if any student is a minor. The exposure is the private lesson, not the sport or the instrument, and the policies written for schools and studios include a real limit for it rather than an exclusion.

What is a retroactive date on an E&O policy?

The date before which no work is covered. On a claims-made policy you want it to stay at the day you first bought coverage, not reset at each renewal or carrier change. CoverMatch checks it on every quote comparison because it is the difference between covering ten years of work and one.