Professional indemnity insurance

Professional indemnity insurance can be an important cover for a range of businesses, from accountants and architects to surveyors and consultants, who must have professional indemnity cover in order to operate legally. It’s particularly popular with businesses that provide advice or a professional service because it can cover you if your work leads to a financial loss for your client. Some client contracts will require that you have a certain level of professional indemnity cover.

Even if you’ve done nothing wrong, the cost of defending yourself against claims for negligence or mistakes that leave your client out of pocket can be very high. You might need professional indemnity insurance if you:

• provide a service
• give advice
• handle sensitive data

Read more to help you decide whether you need professional indemnity cover.

Professional indemnity insurance isn’t a legal requirement. But regulators and professional bodies may require your business to have professional indemnity insurance, so you should check whether it’s compulsory. As an example, professions like solicitors, accountants and architects may need it.

Read more about whether you need to have professional indemnity insurance.

It’s important to give accurate information when building your quote to make sure you’re getting the right cover for your business. Here are some of the questions you’ll be asked when you buy professional indemnity insurance online:

• are you a sole trader or limited company?
• does your business deal with members of the public?
• do you work with clients or customers?
• do you handle data or intellectual property?

If you’re not sure about the details you need to give, you can always call us on 0333 014 6683 and someone from our UK-based team of experts will help you with your quote.

You’ll need to think about the type of projects you work on, and whether your clients, regulator or professional body ask you to have a minimum level of cover. You can usually choose between £50,000 and £5 million of professional indemnity insurance.

Your clients may tell you the cover amount they need you to have in place. If they don’t, it’s always worth checking before you take on the work.

If you need to change your cover level, it’s important to let us know. Underestimating the cover you need can lead to your claim not being paid.

When you take out your professional indemnity cover, make sure you check any exclusions on your policy, and whether it includes legal expenses cover. With Simply Business, you can check the details of your policy wording before you buy.

Read more about deciding your cover level.