That caution came during a recent continuing education session held at the Professional Insurance Agents of New York annual MertoRAP conference. Conducting a session titled, "Workers' Compensation, Crossing State Lines," Ivan Cohen of Insurance Education Corp. of Carmel, N.Y., advised agents that they are wrong to assume workers' compensation coverage in one state will cover workers filing claims in a different state.

State laws and carrier contracts can limit or sometimes prohibit workers' compensation payments in a state outside of where the policy is written, he noted. For clients with employees working in multiple states, an agent who believes that a single policy will cover all workers' compensation claims can be in for a rude awakening and face personal liability when there is an out-of-state claim.

In some cases, states may not allow non-domiciled insurers to cover claims; in other cases, the insurer may not extend coverage outside of the state the policy is written in, he said.