Veterinary malpractice and liability insurance renewal checklist

Renewal is the one moment a year your broker is paying close attention to your account — use it. Walking this list before signing avoids discovering a coverage gap the week you actually need to file a claim.

Coverages to confirm

Professional liability / malpractice — covers claims arising from a clinical decision or treatment outcome, the core exposure for any practice. Confirm limits reflect your current procedure mix, not the mix from a few years ago — a practice that’s added surgical services since the last renewal carries different risk than one doing routine wellness visits only.

General liability — third-party injury and property damage, including client or animal incidents on premises (a bite, a slip-and-fall in the lobby). This is a separate exposure from malpractice and is sometimes underinsured relative to it.

Employment practices liability — increasingly relevant given staffing volatility and turnover in the industry; covers claims related to hiring, termination, and workplace conduct.

Equipment / inland marine — covers diagnostic and surgical equipment in the event of damage or loss, which a standard property policy typically excludes or underinsures relative to actual replacement cost.

Cyber / client-data liability — practice management systems hold sensitive client payment and personal data; a breach response policy is no longer a nice-to-have given how often smaller healthcare-adjacent businesses are targeted.

Gaps that bite

Aggregate limit exhaustion. A liability policy’s aggregate limit can be eroded by claims earlier in the policy year, leaving less coverage than expected for a late-year incident — ask your broker where the aggregate currently stands.

New equipment not scheduled. That imaging system or surgical equipment financed last quarter — is it actually added to the policy, or still running on the old equipment list?

Associate DVM coverage gaps. Confirm whether new associates, locum vets, or part-time DVMs are properly added to the malpractice policy — a gap here can leave a specific provider’s claims unprotected.

Questions for your broker

Ask what’s changed since last year, what isn’t covered, and whether your current limits still match your current procedure mix and equipment list — not last year’s. Get the answers in writing.

Bottom line: renewal is a focused review that can prevent a five-figure surprise — confirm procedure-mix alignment, aggregate limit status, and equipment scheduling before you sign.