Professional Indemnity Insurance

Benefits of Professional Indemnity Insurance

• Protect your business against costly negligence claims – the policy will pay for any compensation that you need to pay (up to the level of cover you choose)
• Pay for legal costs to defend you even if the claim isn’t valid
• Provide you with expert advice and representation to minimise disruption to your business
• Show your clients that you take your professional reputation seriously
• Comply with contractual obligations
• Meet regulatory or trade body requirements

PI insurance essentially offsets the risk of claims to your insurer, meaning that your business doesn’t have to pay for costly legal defence costs nor find the money to meet any settlements or claims payments. Many businesses would simply not be able to meet the costs of an expert legal defence, never mind the claims payment. Costs can run into the tens of thousands of pounds and more, so a policy to cover this makes perfect business sense.

As well as meeting contractual or regulatory requirements (Accountants, Architects and Solicitors for example are all required by their governing body to hold PI insurance) arranging professional indemnity insurance demonstrates to your clients that you take your reputation seriously and that in the event of a claim, your clients interests are protected by the policy.

Typical Policy Cover

Professional indemnity policies will provide a wide range of cover to protect against claims made for the following typical scenarios:

• Negligence/mistakes/errors and omissions

  If the advice you provide to a client is negligent or you simply forget to do something or make an error, your client could suffer a loss that they try to claim back from you.

• Dishonesty of Employees

  Dishonesty of employees could lead to a loss for your business. PI policies will often provide cover for these potentially costly losses.

• Infringement of intellectual property rights

  As an example, if you breach copyright the copyright owner could sue for damages.

• Loss of documents and data

  Lose documents or data that causes your client a financial loss could lead to a claim.

• Libel and slander

  Libellous or slanderous acts can lead to very expensive legal proceedings and substantial claims for damages. PI policies usually provide cover for this which can protect you from these costs.

• Unintentional breach of confidentiality

  Mistakes happen, and a breach of confidentiality can easily occur regardless of strict business processes.

Find out more about Professional Indemnity Insurance

We’ve put together information to help explain Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) in simple terms. Our FAQ will assist with answers to most of the common questions that we are asked.

We’ve also compiled more detailed information for certain professional occupations;

• Accountants
• Architects
• Consulting Engineers
• Design & Construction
• Expert Witnesses
• IT Consultants
• Computer Consultants
• Website Designers
• Management Consultants
• Estate Agents
• Letting Agents
• Property Management & Surveyors
• Environmental Consultants
• Recruitment Consultants
• Private Investigators
• Photographers

If you need more information, please contact us or, for more detailed information regarding the meaning of indemnity (etc) you can view the entry on wikipedia (note: it refers to ‘professional liability insurance’ which is technically incorrect but is how professional indemnity insurance is sometimes referred to).