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Creative insurance

Join over 18,430 UK creatives like you with cover from £3.19 per month*. Compare tailored insurance from trusted brands.

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Insurance for creatives – why is it important?

In the studio or out and about – wherever the ideas take you, legal differences, slips and trips, and other unexpected events can hit hard. From product and public liability insurance, built to cover property damage or injuries caused by your work, to equipment damage or theft, our insurance is designed to keep your mind on the project, not the what-ifs.

  • creative insurance, UK-based claims and customer service team
  • rated 4.7/5 based on 39K+ public and product liability customer reviews
  • optional personal accident cover, in case an injury stops you working

Start your quote

What does creative insurance cover?

Typically, we’ll start with public liability insurance, built to cover creatives against accidents and slip-ups, usually to clients and other members of the public. Most quotes also build in cover for your specialist equipment and stock, plus any employees you have. From there, you can add specific cover for legal support, plus personal accidents which may stop you working.

Public liability insurance for creatives

In case your business causes an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public and product liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, caused by your business
  • an injury or illness caused by your business activities and products
  • accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

For example:

  • a new painting you’ve hung in your studio falls and causes a client a head injury
  • while working on an installation, you leave a cable lying across the floor, causing a trip and fall accident

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case an employee gets sick or injured while working for you.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an injury or illness that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • your employee injures their lower back while moving heavy equipment between rooms at a gallery space you’re renting
  • a temp you’ve hired for the busy festival season injures their foot when an installation material overturns on them

Professional indemnity insurance for creatives

In case a client loses money because of your advice, services or designs.

What’s typically covered by professional indemnity insurance?

Claims against your creative business for professional negligence or a loss-causing breach of contract. This can include:

  • advice which turns out to be incorrect
  • mistakes in your work that cost others money to fix

For example:

  • a cyber attack exposes sensitive data which you’re using to create a board meeting pack, and your client needs to hire an expert to address the damage
  • you miss a contractual deadline and your client is forced to delay their new product launch

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Business and office equipment insurance

In case things like laptops or office filing cabinets are lost, stolen, or damaged.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • accidental damage to the equipment you use to run your creative business
  • theft, flood, and fire damage

For example:

  • while moving your desktop computer and two processors to a new studio space, you trip and drop everything on a concrete floor
  • during a break-in at your business unit, three laptops are stolen, plus six sets of headphones

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Tools insurance

In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of your tools and equipment
  • handheld, portable tools, including electronics
  • cover for your tools in transit in any vehicle owned or leased by you, anywhere in the UK

For example:

  • your tools are stolen from an overhead locker while you’re travelling to an industry showcase
  • you leave a small bag of tools in a shared workspace, and they’re never recovered

Read more about tools insurance

Stock insurance

In case the materials you rely on for work are lost, stolen, or damaged.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of things like memory cards, creative supplies, and branded materials

For example:

  • you’ve ordered a shipment of painting supplies for a school demonstration, which get damaged while you’re unloading your car
  • a flood at your storage unit destroys your entire stock of imported glass

Read more about stock insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you face legal costs in connection with your creative business.

  • legal costs attributed to your creative business
  • property damage, nuisance, or trespass – specifically, the associated legal claims and compensation payouts
  • tax and compliance disputes and investigations you need help with
  • access to expert advice – including a tax advice phone line, confidential 24/7 legal phone line, and crisis PR support to help you protect your reputation as a respected creative

For example:

  • you incur legal costs when your employee raises a claim against you for lower back problems
  • you need to pay for legal representation when a studio employee damages your specialist equipment

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or elsewhere.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • accidental injury or death at or outside of work, for anyone covered on the policy
  • lost income, medical costs, and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • you’re in a minor car accident on your way to the studio, and can’t work for three weeks due to severe bruising
  • your business partner is thrown from their horse while riding and breaks their collarbone, causing them to miss an important pitch

Read more about personal accident insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does insurance for creatives cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £3.19 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example creative insurance quotes, real prices

hiscox insurance

£13.43 /month

£114.34 /month

A self-employed graphic designer who works with small businesses

  • 3-4 years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in High Wycombe
  • Public liability

    Not included

  • Employers’ liability

    Not included

  • Professional indemnity

    £50,000

maltings insurance

£56.61 /month

£503.16 /month

A small design company offering website design and marketing materials nationwide

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Oxford
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Professional indemnity

    £500,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 23/09/2020). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Professional indemnity

No excess

£2500

Public liability

£200

£750

Contents

£100

£750

Portable equipment

£100

£500

Employers liability

No excess

No excess

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tool cover.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.

You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.

Does creative insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It's important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider web designer insurance or designers insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

Other types of insurance

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Creative insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about insurance for creatives. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 043 8527 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

  • Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

  • You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

    • one-off credit or debit card payment
    • BACS payment
    • Direct Debit

    If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly instalments.

  • If you change your business legal structure from sole trader to limited company mid-way through your policy, give us a call straight away on 0333 043 8527. It’ll only take us a few minutes to cancel your existing policy and replace it with one that correctly covers your new legal structure. It’s worth bearing in mind that your insurer and premium amount may need to change.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

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

Helpful articles for creatives

Freelance graphic designer at sourcing images on a computer

16 Oct 2019 • 5-minute read

How to become a freelance graphic designer: 5-step guide

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