It was explained to me that a company that holds itself out to the public as offering engineering services can (and should) provide PL insurance for any engineers in the company. The company I worked for was an Oil & Gas company that did not offer engineering services, so they were precluded by law from providing professional liability insurance. It all depends on that "holding yourself out" language like always.
I looked into the LLC and it only costs a nominal amount to set up, but what do you get for that nominal fee? The way it looked to me is:
[ul]
[li]A requirement to pay myself a salary instead of an ad hoc distribution (changing your salary requires a paper trail).[/li]
[li]A requirement to distribute excess profits periodically as "dividends"[/li]
[li]A tax form to file for the corporation (and for them to pay taxes on the dividends, you also pay taxes on them).[/li]
[li]Absolutely zero protection from professional liability suits (it would protect you if someone trips on your property, but that is about it).[/li]
[/ul]
I've been organized as a sole proprietor for 11 years now and do not regret picking that organization for an instant.
SteelPE, I'm really doing quite well, but the last few years have been phenomenal (until 2014) and the budget income is about 3 times what I really need to live on and most months I only take out about 1/3 of the budget.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. —Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist