Wow!  That is substantial.  Our E&O increased like that for the first three years, then it leveled off. We renewed back in August and it actually went down a bit.  Our revenue had dropped sharply, so I was glad to see the insurance go down, even it was only a little.  If our premium was to go up 75% there is no way we could afford it.  Since I wouldn't work without it, it might just put us out of business.

I truly believe that vast number of inexperienced, fly-by-night abstractors are causing our E&O costs to go up.  Even if they go out of business, the claim gets filed on their client's policy and that affects us just as much.  I don't think the E&O insurers really differentiate between claims by independent abstractors and those filed by our clients who use uninsured abstractors.  To them, all searching errors are factored in together.  I really would like to speak to someone at the few carriers that are left and help them understand what is happening to our industry.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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