Professional Indemnity Insurance

This essential business insurance known as professional indemnity insurance or PI insurance is designed to cover you against claims from mistakes you may make in your business where you may find yourself in a dispute with your customers.

Every business faces certain liabilities in its day to day trading and pi insurance cover provides peace of mind against claims.

What is Professional Indemnity Insurance ?

As the name implies pi insurance indemnifies or protects you against professional or business mistakes that can occur either honestly or dishonestly by you or your employees where a third party suffers a financial loss as a result of you or your company's actions.

The insurance is designed to meet the costs of the action (any damages awarded by a court) and any legal costs you make incur in either challenging the action against you or simply completing the necessary paperwork.

It's really designed for professionals who provide advice to other businesses or individuals and in this era of "no win no fee" lawyers there are many more cases being taken on for even the slightest potential judgment against companies.

You can get a free professional indemnity quote online in a matter of minutes to see how much it's going to cost you.

Examples of Potential Claims

An architect developed plans that had missing information so the plans had to be redrawn and the development was delayed. The costs of updating the plans and delays onsite were awarded.

An IT contractor develops some software which contains lines of code which cause the software to crash or infect another system with a virus.

What Does PI Cover in Your Business ?

As mentioned the insurance covers your business against mistakes made that impact your clients and they say you have been negligent in some manner. The cover insures your business against costs arising from:

What Costs Does PI Insurance Cover ?

Generally PI insurance covers you against claims made and your legal costs. The limit of indemnity required varies considerably with the minimum usually being £100,000 although it is recommended that at least £250,000 of cover is taken out. Policies normally cover up to £5million but it will depend on the type of business you have, the client base and the value of contracts you deal with. The cover is generally for:

Speak to your broker to see what type of cover you may require.

Generally a settlement is agreed with the court to cover legal costs and damages together.

Trades That May Require PI Insurance

Almost all businesses should consider taking out professional indemnity insurance and these include accountants, solicitors, tradesmen, hair dressing salons, computer and IT consultants, builders and cleaners. Certainly contractors should consider pi insurance as it may support their independent status when thinking about IR35 issues and status.

Some professions are required to have PI cover as a statutory requirement or required by their professional body and membership and these include law firms, accountancy firms, architects, insurance brokers and financial services companies such as financial advisors and mortgage intermediaries.You can get a free professional indemnity quote online in a matter of minutes to see how much it's going to cost you.

What is the Likely Cost ?

As the market place is now competitive rates have certainly fallen. It's best to get quotes either via brokers or online to compare rates and policies - remembering to read the small print.

The price of a policy varies by the amount of total cover you require, the turnover of your business, the nature of your business (ie: the sector you are working in) and the risk profile of your business which will be assessed during the quotation period.

The risk profile of your company is perhaps the most important as insurers will look at the exposure of your business, the types of products and services you are selling and the management of your business. The insurer may take into account if you have self employed staff, what control systems you have in place, the client to advisor ratio, the qualifications of your staff and any claims history you may already have. You should disclose as much information that you have of material facts as failure to disclose may invalid your policy.

The annual cost of the insurance could be around £160 for £2 million of cover if your business turnover is less than £50,000 and around £1,500 per year if your business turnover is £500,000 and you require £2 million of cover and is a small price to pay to cover you against mistakes that could happen in your business.

As with all insurance PII is fully deductable against tax. PI insurance is regulated by the Financial Services Authority in England and Wales. This page does not constitute professional financial advice and you should speak to a financial advisor if you are unsure of any details about professional indemnity insurance for your business.

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