Well again, visit with your agent and be as specific as possible when describing your services. They might be able to steer you into a E&O policy that is more reasonably priced than a company that has more risk associated with their profession.
E&O is another layer of protection. For the most part a GL policy excludes your actual work. Licenced professionals like a professional engineer, an electrician, a plumber for example have certain exposures related to the expected quality of their work, or a mistake in their work. Any of these would benefit from E&O coverage. An inspector is caught in the middle as we don't actually perform "work" in terms of producing a product, or perform "work" on a product like a welder that changes some piping in a refinery.
Our profession is not common and usually does not have a standard risk factored in, so an underwriter has to decide where to place us. Inspectors usually don't usually direct work, make recommendations or even offer an opinion, which lowers liability. Inspectors gather information and report findings which are in accordance with recognized standards, codes, specifications etc. ... and these things lessen your liability as well. Inspectors have various levels of certifications, usually perform work to customer approved written procedures, and may have strong disclaimers on their reports, contracts etc.,... all of these things lessen or re-direct liabilities back to the manufacturer or client. Many years ago our corporate lawyer advised against calling any services "consulting" or any inspectors "consultants" as that can increase liability as that implies you are an expert who is advising someone to take a particular action. I don't know if that still holds true or not.
So, we started off answering a question about liability insurance for a Contract Inspector. Then, we went to mainly doing shop fab work. It would appear one or the other is what you really want to do because if you want to do Contract Inspections, the other welding shops won't want you in their shops or on their field jobs which will become obvious when you reject aspects of their work and they tell the local building authority having jurisdiction that you have a conflict of interest and are hard on them because they are your competition.
If you are going to be involved AT ALL in inspections you need to have the correct insurance. Been there, done that. Still have the welding shop but I don't do hardly any structural work anymore. We do almost all inspections work. Special Inspections, Verification Inspections, Procedure Development, Welder Certifications, etc.
And the advice about being a 'consultant'. Beware what you do and say and how you describe yourself and your services. Even if 'consulting' sounds like the right most descriptive word, use great care in using it.
Back to the chain of posts, if you are ONLY doing shop fab, then GL is satisfactory. But, if you are doing ANY inspections work, sure, you can say you have insurance. But saying it and being covered if anything goes wrong are two different things.
He Is In Control, Have a Great Day, Brent