Insurance for professionals

Public liability insurance

In case your business and products cause an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for professional services?

Claims against your business for:

• injuring someone else while you’re working, or afterwards as a result of your work
• damaging someone else’s property while working, or afterwards because of your work
• injury or damage caused by your employee (remember, if you employ people, you must have employers’ liability insurance – it’s a legal requirement)

For example:

• someone trips over a bag on the floor in your premises, causing them to break their ankle
• you accidentally knock a client’s laptop onto a hard concrete floor, damaging it beyond repair
• your employee smashes a TV while working in a client’s house

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

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your professional service.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• an injury that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)
• an employee, including a contractor or casual labourer, suing you after falling ill because of working for you

**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 furniture at your premises and holds you responsible
• an employee cuts their hand on a damaged countertop and sues you for operating an unsafe workspace
• a member of staff trips over while unloading business equipment, injuring their knee

Professional indemnity

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

What’s typically covered by professional services professional indemnity insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• bad and negligent advice that becomes costly for your client to fix
• errors in your work that lead to fines, claims, or other losses for your client
• other mistakes including problems in training and certification, or mishandling sensitive data

For example :

• you lose a client’s important documents or data and they claim for financial losses
• you publish a false statement that damages a person’s or business’s reputation
• you need to pay to fix a mistake or compensate your client following a dispute

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Contents insurance

In case something happens to your fixtures, fittings, or operational equipment.

What’s typically covered by business contents insurance?

Claims against your business for:

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

For example:

• someone breaks into your business premises and steals three company laptops, as well as two sets of headphones
• a faulty dishwasher floods your office kitchen, causing damage to several appliances
• your business equipment is damaged by vandals during a break-in

Read more about busines contents insurance

Business legal insurance

In case you’re hit with legal expenses connected to your service.

What’s typically covered by business legal insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• unpaid invoices
• contracts for the purchase, hire, sale, or provision of goods or services provided to you
• an alleged breach of statutory rights with an employee

For example:

• you need to recover debt after a client refused to pay their invoice, caused by a contractual dispute
• you’re facing legal costs as a client is disputing whether you met your contractual obligations with your hire agreement

Read more about business legal insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or off-duty.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• accidental death or injury, suffered by anyone covered on your policy, that happens at work or elsewhere
• income lost by your business, as well as medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

• while on holiday with your family, you trip and fall on some rocks, spraining your wrist and preventing you from working the following week
• your secretary (who you’ve covered) suffers a leg injury while swimming at the weekend, and needs time off work for physiotherapy
• a junior staff member covered on the policy is in a minor car accident at the weekend, and needs to take some time off to recover

Read more about personal accident insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to your products and consumables.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• the cost of replacing the stock you use to run your business
• stock that’s been destroyed, lost, stolen, or damaged
• stock includes food and drink products as well as branded materials and sellable items

For example :

• your stockroom gets vandalised – products you need to operate are stolen and damaged
• a fire caused by faulty electrics spreads to your stockroom and destroys sellable items
• a leaking pipe floods your business premises, destroying stock that you intend to sell

Read more about stock insurance

Tool insurance

In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by tool insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• accidental damage to specialist business equipment
• theft of the tools you use to do your job
• loss of your tools and equipment

For example:

• your tools are stolen from your car or van
• you lose some expensive equipment on the way to a job
• a flood causes irreparable damage to your tools

Read more about tool insurance

Buildings insurance

In case something happens to your business premises.

What’s typically covered by business building insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• repair and rebuild costs after damage caused by a storm, fire, or vandalism
• fittings and fixtures that get damaged
• underground pipes and cables, if you’re responsible for them

For example:

• your shop’s wooden floor is damaged during a flood and needs replacing
• your employee damages an interior wall installing new equipment, as well as a glass door
• after a pipe bursts, you need to spend lots of money replacing flooring

Read more about business buildings insurance

Excess insurance

In case you need to make a claim on your insurance policy.

What’s typically covered by excess insurance?

Claims made by you for:

• the cost of the excess you’d have to pay when making a claim on a cover included in your business insurance policy

For example :

• after a heavy storm you need to make a claim on your building cover – you don’t have to pay the £250 excess thanks to your excess insurance
• a leak in the bathroom causes a guest to slip and injure themselves and thanks to excess cover, there’s no excess to pay on the claim
• a tenant’s suitcase scratches the wooden flooring in your hallway – you won’t have to pay any excess on your accidental damage claim