Professional indemnity insurance
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What does professional indemnity insurance cover?
Professional indemnity insurance applies when a business advises clients, or helps them navigate complex financial or legal affairs. In these type of situations errors can cost thousands. Professional indemnity (PI for short) can protect you if a client makes a financial loss, because of your work.
It’s important to review an indemnity insurance quote carefully, checking your insurer offers cover for the risks you face. Most PI insurance policies are built to cover legal and compensation costs if a client makes a financial loss because of your work. From mistakes or bad advice and copyright infringement to mishandling of confidential information, small business professional indemnity insurance can cover a range of risks.
What does this cover?
- advice which leads to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you advise your client on the best way to improve their business performance, but after implementing they suffer a financial loss
What does this cover?
- errors in your certification services which lead to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you provide certification in your line of work which contains an error, causing your client to suffer a financial loss
What does this cover?
- negligent advice which leads to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you’re submitting a tax return for your client but miss a document, resulting in a fine
Prices start from £4.74 per month
The price is for up to £2 million of public liability insurance – 10% of customers paid £56.82 or less annually between 1st Jan – 31st May 2024. Equivalent to £4.74 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly). 76% of customers have a £1 million limit and 24% £2 million. If you complete a quote, more types of cover will be available. These all have additional costs.
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Does professional indemnity insurance cover my work?
Make sure you’re picking the right cover to protect your business properly. Some examples of trades we cover include:
Is your profession not listed? When you run a quote you can select your trade from over 1,000 options.
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Professional indemnity insurance FAQs
Whether you’re it’s the first time you want to buy professional indemnity insurance or you’ve been operating your business for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about indemnity insurance.
Professional indemnity insurance can be an important cover for a range of businesses, from accountants and architects to surveyors and consultants, who must have professional indemnity cover in order to operate legally. It’s particularly popular with businesses that provide advice or a professional service because it can cover you if your work leads to a financial loss for your client. Some client contracts will require that you have a certain level of professional indemnity cover.
Even if you’ve done nothing wrong, the cost of defending yourself against claims for negligence or mistakes that leave your client out of pocket can be very high. You might need professional indemnity insurance if you:
- provide a service
- give advice
- handle sensitive data
Read more to help you decide whether you need professional indemnity cover.
Professional indemnity insurance isn’t a legal requirement. But regulators and professional bodies may require your business to have professional indemnity insurance, so you should check whether it’s compulsory. As an example, professions like solicitors, accountants and architects may need it.
Read more about whether you need to have professional indemnity insurance.
It’s important to give accurate information when building your quote to make sure you’re getting the right cover for your business. Here are some of the questions you’ll be asked when you buy professional indemnity insurance online:
- are you a sole trader or limited company?
- does your business deal with members of the public?
- do you work with clients or customers?
- do you handle data or intellectual property?
If you’re not sure about the details you need to give, you can always call us on 0333 014 6683 and someone from our UK-based team of experts will help you with your quote.
You’ll need to think about the type of projects you work on, and whether your clients, regulator or professional body ask you to have a minimum level of cover. You can usually choose between £50,000 and £5 million of professional indemnity insurance.
Your clients may tell you the cover amount they need you to have in place. If they don’t, it’s always worth checking before you take on the work.
If you need to change your cover level, it’s important to let us know. Underestimating the cover you need can lead to your claim not being paid.
When you take out your professional indemnity cover, make sure you check any exclusions on your policy, and whether it includes legal expenses cover. With Simply Business, you can check the details of your policy wording before you buy.
Do you have any questions we haven’t covered above? You can also check out our professional indemnity insurance FAQs page for more information.
We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions
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