In most professions the generalist, the so-called "jack of all trades," has become an endangered species. TV's kindly general practitioner, Dr. Marcus Welby, who could treat everything from a hangnail to a hematoma, has been replaced by caustic Dr. Gregory House, with a huge supporting cast of highly-specialized interns, each of whom sees the patient's symptoms through the myopia of his or her area of expertise.

Neither Dr. Welby's nor Dr. House's TV patients ever receive a bill for services, but in real-life professional offices, including insurance brokerage firms, we are running a business while practicing a licensed occupation. The natural desire to be helpful, as well as the financial incentive to increase revenues, can tempt brokers (and other professionals) to stray outside their areas of expertise, but doing so can lead to increased risk for the broker. The temptation is especially strong in an economic downturn and a soft insurance market, when premiums, and thus commissions, are unlikely to remain stable, let alone increase.

A fish story

Let's say that you've been the producing broker for a local seafood restaurant, "Joe the Fishmonger," for several years, and procuring the general liability, employer's liability/worker's compensation, and business auto policies to Joe and his shop. One day Joe calls up excitedly, "Sam," says Joe, "I've got this great opportunity to start importing sea urchins in bulk from Argentina and reselling them to restaurants throughout the area. Am I covered for it?"

Not wanting to appear uninformed or to lose a potential business opportunity, you tell Joe, "That kind of international business can pose different risks, Joe. You'd better let me look over the proposal so we can decide if you need expanded coverage." You later assist Joe in getting broader coverage for his new urchin importing venture, and you earn increased commissions on the newly-placed coverage. Joe is a happy customer aEUR" happy, that is, until two years later when an earthquake destroys the Argentine urchin-processing dock, bringing the urchin trade to a sudden halt. Joe's business takes a nose dive, and he is surprised to learn from his insurer that he has no coverage for a business interruption caused by an earthquake loss in a foreign country.

The sad tale of Joe the Fishmonger is loosely based upon a real case that I defended some years ago, with the names, locations, and line of business changed. Sam the Broker didn't really have the experience to procure coverage for the esoteric kind of risk posed by Joe's urchin importation business. Sam wanted to keep his client happy, and not to let another brokerage firm, one that had experience in business interruption insurance for businesses with international suppliers, get between Sam and Joe.

The moral of the story is a simple one: stay with your strengths.

We have our standards

The general rule in professional liability cases is that one who holds himself out as an expert in a particular, specialized area of practice will be held to the standard of care that applies to real experts in that area. That principle may not be surprising. Few of us would be pleased to learn that a medical doctor who told us that she was a board-certified brain surgeon did not really have that certification, after we went under the knife in reliance on her representation. In the insurance world the licensing and certification standards are not as specific as they are in medicine. In contrast, with some exceptions, a licensed property and casualty broker doesn't need a set of specialist's initials on his or her business card to place any form of P&C business with an admitted carrier.

In general, the insurance-buying public does not look at the diplomas and industry association memberships on brokers' walls as closely as they might scrutinize a surgeon's qualifications. A patient might well ask, "How many surgeries like this one have you done before?" In the case of Joe v. Sam, Joe didn't presume to ask Sam whether he had procured coverage for a sea urchin importing business before. Joe took the fact that Sam proceeded to make the placement as sufficient evidence that Sam consider himself competent to do the job. In many broker E&O cases, the alleged "misrepresentation" of the broker's qualifications is not made affirmatively aEUR" "I am an expert in procuring shellfish import insurance" aEUR" but by implication. The general rule used by courts and juries is that if you take on work that requires an expert's knowledge, you are held to an expert's standard of care. In other words, it is not a complete defense to say, "I only dabble in that area, so I should be held to a lesser standard." Dabblers are usually held to the same standards as full-time specialists.