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Professional Indemnity Insurance Broker: Tailored PI Quotes & Expert Advocacy for UK Businesses
- Specialist Civil Liability cover for UK professionals
- Compare quotes from A-rated insurers, MGA’s and Lloyds Syndicates
- Understand your Professional Risks and arrange adequate protection
Mid-Market & Scaling Company Professional Indemnity Insurance
Professional indemnity insurance protects service providers and professionals and against legal claims in the course of their business activities. If a client suffers a financial loss as a result of your mistake, error or omission, they may seek compensation.
A policy will cover the legal costs associated with defending a compensation claim and will cover any damages, awards, or settlements. The cover can protect against professional risks such as breach of professional duty, professional negligence, and breach of contract.
Should we use a Broker or purchase direct?
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Buying Professional Indemnity Insurance from an insurer directly may appear easier, but PI policies can vary significantly in wording, exclusions, retroactive dates, jurisdictional limits, defence costs, and claims notification conditions.
There are also only a handful of direct PI insurers that provide B2C solutions, with the vast majority requiring a broker to advocate on your behalf. Our specialist London market PI broking team can help compare more than price, ensuring your cover reflects your contracts, services, regulatory duties, and industry specific risks.
At Indemnity, we can approach multiple insurers on your behalf, challenge restrictive terms, and help structure PI cover that is fit for purpose when a claim arises.
Avoid Potential Pitfalls
It’s important to understand that PI cover operates on a claims-made basis, which can add complications. The policy must remain in force if a claim is to be notified, but a client has up to six years under the statute of limitations to bring you to court.
Additionally, the services need to be performed after the retroactive date which is typically stated on the schedule and excludes any act, errors or omissions that occurred before this date. When switching insurers it’s important that the retrodate date is carried over to the new policy.
If circumstances occurred which you were aware of and you didn’t notify your insurer when reasonably practicable and before the expiry date, then insurers may seek to deny future claims that those circumstances relate.
Buy PI Insurance from the Leading Insurers
Professional Risk Resilence, Contractual & Regulatory Needs
Whether you are a consultant, marketing agency, recruiter, financial adviser, technology provider, or business strategist, clients will rely on your expertise.
When advice, recommendations, reports, specifications, or deliverables fail to meet expectations, the resulting financial losses can lead to costly legal disputes.
Contractal Risk Management
Capping your liability and excluding consequential loss is good contractual risk management. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that a court still couldn’t find you liable for damages in excess of what you agreed.
When considering your professional risk and amount of PI cover you purchase, it’s worth thinking about the potential downstream financial consequences for your client, if you failed to deliver your services to a reasonable standard.
Certificate Conditions
Businesses may require you to maintain cover to tender for new contracts and demonstrate you have the financial means available to pay compensation claims should you breach the terms of your contract, or cause your client a financial loss.
At Indemnity, we can provide you with Certificates of Insurance to demonstrate to your conterparties you have the required cover and relevant clauses in force.
Regulatory Requirements
Businesses that operate within specific sectors such as accountancy, architecture, financial services, legal, or surveying, may need to adhere to minimum professional indemnity requirements as defined by their industry regulator or governing body.
Emerging Professional Liability Risks
AI Liability Exposure
If your use of AI within the business causes a financial loss to your clients, the responsibility will fall first upon your business. The insurance industry is currently adapting to providing AI liability insurance.
We’d recommend you seek affirmative cover from your insurer.
Supply Chain Risk
If you use a sub-consultant or sub-contractor in the delivery of your services to your client. Your business could be held vicariously liable for their actions.
There has been a recent increase in claims activity whereby insurers are being asked to pay claims whereby the policyholder is not directly at fault. We’d recommend you request these third parties purchase the same amount of cover as yourselves.
What's Covered?
Professional Indemnity policies are not all equal, even where the headline limit appears the same. The quality of cover depends on the insuring clause, definitions, exclusions, retroactive date, jurisdictional scope, defence costs application, and whether the wording responds on a broad civil liability basis.
To better understand what the policy protects against, read our full technical PI coverage guide.
Breach of Professional Duty
An allegation that the professional failed to meet the standard reasonably expected of a competent practitioner. A breach of professional duty will typically involve negligence, but it can also extend depending on the profession, contract, or regulatory framework involved. Examples may include:
- incorrect advice
- inaccurate calculations
- flawed reports
- project management failures
- missed deadlines
- specification errors
- implementation mistakes
Breach of Contract
Broadform Civil Liability policies can extend cover to breaches of contract, which are now the most common trigger of a claim. This is particularly important where a client believes that services have not been delivered in accordance with agreed specifications, timescales, or performance standards.
In the UK, it’s easier to bring a breach of contract claim versus trying to prove negligence because the burden of proof is lower.
Other Professional Risks
PI insurance can extend to cover a wide range of allegations for act, errors or omissions from:
- IP Infringement
- Defamation
- Breach of Privacy
- Breach of Confidentiality
- Breach of Statutory Duty
- Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Choosing your Level of
Indemnity
The size of your contracts can provide an indication to the potential financial exposure, however this will not take into account consequential or indirect loss which you may be found liable if negligent.
It is also worth considering that defence costs on average amount to 50% of the total cost of PI claims. More often than not, the limit of indemnity you decide to purchase will be negotiated between you and your client.
Any One Claim Vs Aggregate Limits
Cover will operate on either an:
- ‘Any One Claim’ basis, which means the amount insured under the policy applies to each and every claim made (or a series of claims arising from any single event).
- ‘Aggregate’ basis, which means the amount insured under the policy is a maximum for the entire policy period, no matter how many claims are made.
Please note if your policy or schedule states both ‘Any One Claim and in the Aggregate’, this means the limit operates on an aggregate basis.
Competitively Priced
Professional Indemnity
Insurance
Factors that influence your premium
- Turnover will bear a direct relationship to how the insurer will calculate your risk.
- Type of services performed and the perceived exposure attaching to each.
- Nature and size of contracts can indicate the level of exposure posed, with larger scale projects typically carrying increased risk.
- Experience acts as an indicator to recognise and mitigate client dissatisfaction.
- Jurisdictional scope means whether the insurer will be required to defend you in an overseas court of law.
- Frequency and severity of claims with a lack of remedial action, can indicate a lack of quality risk management and systemic issues.
Specialist PI Broker: London Market Independent Advice
Professional services businesses operate in an increasingly complex environment where contractual obligations, regulatory expectations, cyber risks, intellectual property exposures, and AI risks come together.
As a specialist broker, we have the depth of knowledge, expertise and London market access to identify the most competitive terms from the market. We help clients secure PI cover that reflects how modern businesses actually operate.
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100% Independently Owned
Our broker advocacy service provides objective, impartial advice and create a competitive environment where insurers must compete for your business. We act in your interests, focusing on understanding your requirements, explaining your options, and identifying the most appropriate insurance solutions for your needs.
Complex Risk Placement & Open Market Advocacy
You’re not restricted to a single insurer and we can consider re-marketing your account annually. Whilst mid-term we have the ability to adjust your limits and add additional covers as required. For businesses with specialist professional exposures and new contractual requirements, this flexibility is critical.
Our Framework
When arranging PI insurance, we consider factors such as the scope of cover, policy terms, insurer reputation, claims handling capabilities, and overall cost.
By working closely with our insurer partners and regularly reviewing the products we offer, we aim to ensure our clients receive appropriate protection and fair value from their insurance arrangements.
We are experts in a variety of different professional exposures, can handle complex risks, and have access to specialist insurers who are prepared to tailor cover. We can guide you through the complexities to make sure your requirements are met.
Broad & Bespoke Coverage
Each insurer typically drafts their own wording, but we can request that changes be made to ensure you have the broadest cover available.
For example, it’s important to make sure the definition of ‘professional services’ is broad enough to cover all your activities. Aggregation clauses, defence costs either within or in addition to the limit, cyber exclusions, bodily injury exclusion, property damage exclusion, and contractual liability restrictions can all potentially be negotiated
Fair Value Assessment
We are committed to ensuring that the Professional Indemnity (PI) products we arrange provide fair value and deliver good client outcomes. PI insurance is designed to protect businesses against compensation claims arising from alleged negligence, errors, omissions, or breaches of professional duty.
Fair value assessments consider the relationship between the price paid by the client and the quality of the insurance products and services provided. Responsibility for assessing fair value primarily rests with the manufacturer of the product, which may be the insurer, managing general agent (MGA), or a Lloyd’s of London syndicate.
Claim Advocacy: We Protect Your Financial Interests
Allegations of negligence or breaches of professional duty can quickly become complex, stressful, and time-consuming. Not knowing that your PI cover will respond is an added concern you shouldn’t need to deal with.
We can act as a claims advocate for your business throughout the process, helping to protect your interests and ensure the claim is handled fairly and efficiently. We can support negotiations and review settlement proposals, advise on commercial considerations, ensuring insurers consider the broader impact on your business.
Willis / WTW Network
As a member of the Willis Network means we have greater ability to leverage our combined resources, depth of knowledge, resources, and underwriting relationships. Whilst being able to offer our services at a cost effective premium.
What is a Circumstance and should you notify your Insurer?
A circumstance refers to any act, error or omission that could reasonably give rise to a claim under your policy. It is prudent to notify your insurer if you become aware of any circumstances because delays in making a notification may prejudice your cover and entitle them to repudiate a claim.
We recommend always checking your policy schedule / wording and speaking with your broker before notifying a claim. You should not be negatively penalised at renewal for being prudent and acting conservatively.
PI Market Access
London Market & Lloyds
We have access to a wide range of composite PI insurers, MGAs, and Lloyds Syndicates with A-rated capacity to meet even the most challenging needs. Increased competition means we can negotiate improved pricing and coverage terms.
For complex PI risks, access to Lloyds and the wider London Market means higher capacity, and flexible policy structures for businesses with challenging exposures.
We can help clients present their PI risk clearly to underwriters that have a wider risk appetite, allowing us to solicit cover for professionals that standard composite insurers don’t want to offer capacity.
PI Paid Claims
Factors that influence your Claims
- Downstream implications - unfortunately even the simplest of administrative mistakes can have serious financial consequences for your clients.
- Consequential and indirect losses - although typically excluded under contract, does not mean a court of law may find you liable (i.e. loss of profit and reputational damage).
- Project size and parties involved - high-value projects or large corporations can amount to higher damages and the willingness to pursue legal action.
- Contract terms and liability caps - if you have sought to limit your liability under contract your insurer may be able to rely upon that agreed term.
- Legal and defence costs - typically amounts to 50% of the average PI claim, which if there are significant delays can mean even higher costs and expenses.
Client Testimonials
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Frequently Asked
Questions
Why is the definition of Professional Service important?
PI insurance does not automatically cover every activity undertaken by a business. Insurers provide cover based on the professional services declared and accepted at inception. If a claim arises from activities falling outside the stated services, insurers may argue that the exposure was never presented for underwriting.
This becomes increasingly important for businesses that diversify services, launch new products or services, or the business model pivots during the course of the policy period. We recommending engaging with your insurance broker to ensure your new activities are covered
Are we covered if a client demands their fees are returned?
PI insurance does not cover simple fee disputes or a client's unhappiness with your pricing. However, if the client asks for their money back and threatens to claim compensation, many policies will provide for Mitigation Costs which can include the payment of the client fee to mitigate any further action on behalf of the client.
What is PI Run-off cover?
Run-off cover, also known as an extended reporting period, allows claims to be reported to the insurer after the policy has expired, to ensure you are protected from services already provided.
Run-off cover should be considered whilst the period your clients could make a claim against yourself is reduced, typically by the statute of limitations (civil wrongdoing in tort is six years). There are a number of situations, such as an acquisition, or your business has ceased trading, that may cause you to purchase run-off cover
What is an Excess Layer?
We may recommend that we split the amount of cover you purchase between different insurers under separate insurance policies.
For example, a Primary £2 million Limit, followed by a £3 million in Excess of £2 million, which means the total amount of cover is £5 million. This can be a cost effective option for ‘hard to place’ risks or if high limits of indemnity are required.
Who is protected by a PI policy?
These policies are designed to cover the legal entity named on the policy, which typically extends to all wholly owned subsidiary companies.
For sake of clarity, cover is provided to directors and employees with respect to the performance of their duties on behalf of the business. Compensation claims made by your clients will typically name the legal entity included within your contracts.
Is a broker more expensive than a direct insurer?
Using a PI broker will usually provide better value because we can make sure you structure your policy correctly, avoid any gaps in cover, and provide guidance on what is negotiable.
While price is important, the quality of cover and claims advocacy is equally important. A slightly cheaper policy with restrictive exclusions could prove far more expensive if a claim arises and the cover does not respond as expected.
Do we need a specialist broker if we’re a growing business?
Yes. Growing businesses are as equally exposed to professional indemnity claims. In fact, smaller firms may face greater financial pressure if a claim arises because they typically have fewer resources available for legal costs and expenses.
It’s worth spending the time to ensure you arrange your cover correctly, like ensuring the business description accurately reflects the services provided. Online quotes and direct insurers will typically have restrictive eligibility criteria, statement of facts, and wordings.
What happens if we want to change brokers?
Changing brokers is generally straightforward and does not affect your existing cover. If you decide to appoint ourselves as your broker, please complete our Letter of Appointment and that will allow us to engage with your current insurer and obtain policy information on your behalf.
We can then review your current insurance arrangements, approach alternative insurers at renewal, seek to negotiate improved terms and pricing, whilst ensuring continuity of cover, and maintaining your retroactive date.