Insurance built for the gavel, the gallery, and the goods.

Because an auction business carries exposures a standard business policy doesn't contemplate — most importantly, responsibility for property it doesn't own. Consigned goods sitting in your saleroom, moving in your truck, or up on the block are in your care, custody, and control, and standard commercial property policies specifically exclude property of others. Add the professional-liability exposure of appraising, cataloging, and selling on someone's behalf, the cash and consignor proceeds you handle, and the constant movement of valuable items, and a generic policy leaves an auction business badly under-covered. Specialized auctioneer insurance is built around how an auction actually operates.

Bailee (property-of-others) coverage protects property that belongs to someone else while it's in your care, custody, and control — the consigned art, antiques, jewelry, equipment, or estate goods you're holding to sell. It's the single most important coverage for an auction business, because your standard commercial property policy covers only property you own and excludes the consigned goods that make up most of what's in your building. Without bailee coverage, a fire, theft, or accident that damages a consignor's property is your liability with no insurance behind it. We treat it as the foundation of an auctioneer's program.

Errors & omissions covers claims arising from the professional services you provide as an auctioneer — mistakes in appraisal or valuation, misattribution or misdescription of a lot, authentication and title disputes, breach of your fiduciary duty to a consignor or buyer, and negligence in the conduct of the sale. These are professional mistakes, and general liability (which covers bodily injury and property damage) specifically excludes them. For a business whose value is its expertise and judgment, E&O is essential alongside general liability.

It should, and that's what inland marine coverage is for. Lots are constantly on the move — picked up from an estate, transported to your saleroom, moved between locations, and delivered to buyers — and standard property coverage largely stops at your premises. Inland marine covers valuable property while it's in transit and off-site, including loading, unloading, and temporary storage. We coordinate it with your bailee and property coverage so a consignor's painting is covered whether it's on your wall, in your truck, or on the buyer's doorstep.

That's what commercial crime coverage addresses. Auction businesses handle buyer payments, consignor proceeds, and valuable goods, which creates exposure to employee dishonesty, robbery, forgery, counterfeit currency, and funds-transfer fraud. Crime coverage protects against these financial losses, including theft of money you're holding to remit to consignors. We scale the limits to your sale volume so the protection matches how much money actually moves through your business.

Both. Whether you run live in-person sales, timed online auctions, simulcast/hybrid events, or a mix, the underlying exposures — property of others, professional liability, crime, and transit — are the same or greater, and we write coverage for all of them. Online and hybrid models can actually increase your transit and shipping exposure because more lots ship to remote buyers, which makes inland marine and clear sale-conduct E&O even more important. We build the program around your sale model.

Estate and personal-property auctioneers, fine art and antiques houses, jewelry and collectibles specialists, equipment and heavy-machinery auctioneers, livestock and agricultural auctioneers, auto and powersports auctions, benefit and charity auctioneers, and online/hybrid platforms. If you sell on consignment or on behalf of others and stand at the front of the room — physical or virtual — it's the kind of business we're built to insure.

Yes — Contractors Choice Agency is licensed in all 50 states, and Insurance for Auctioneers is our auction-business specialty division. Wherever your auction house operates, we can quote and place coverage. Call 844-967-5247 or request a free quote online to get started.