Professional indemnity insurance
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What is professional indemnity insurance?
Professional indemnity insurance is an important type of business insurance if you give advice, provide a professional service to clients, or handle other people's data or intellectual property. It's for situations where a client loses money because you provide negligent advice, services or designs.
Professional indemnity insurance covers legal fees and compensation payments if a client loses out financially or professionally because of your work.
- professional indemnity insurance, UK-based claims and customer service team
- get it as a standalone cover or add it to a broader business insurance policy
- quotes start at £4.78* a month based on 2021 data
What does professional indemnity insurance cover?
It’s important to review an indemnity insurance quote carefully, checking your insurer offers cover for the risks you face. Most PI insurance policies are built to cover legal and compensation costs if a client makes a financial loss because of your work. From mistakes or bad advice and copyright infringement to mishandling of confidential information, professional indemnity insurance can cover a range of risks.
What does this cover?
- advice which leads to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you advise your client on the best way to improve their business performance, but after implementing they suffer a financial loss
What does this cover?
- errors in your certification services which lead to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you provide certification in your line of work which contains an error, causing your client to suffer a financial loss
What does this cover?
- negligent advice which leads to a client’s financial loss
- legal fees and professional indemnity cover, up to the level stated on your policy wording
When would I need to make a claim?
- for example, you’re submitting a tax return for your client but miss a document, resulting in a fine
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
Why is professional indemnity important?
If you’re advising clients, or helping them navigate complex financial or legal affairs, simple errors can cost thousands. Professional indemnity insurance (PI for short) is designed to protect you if a client makes a financial loss, because of your work. Trade associations and customers will often require a minimum level of PI insurance – we offer between £50,000 and £5 million, depending on your business type.
Examples of situations when professional indemnity insurance can cover you include:
- if you make a mistake in your work or providing bad advice
- if you use copyright protected content without permission
- if you share confidential or sensitive information without consent
- if you lose a client's documents or data
- if you publish a false statement that damages a person's or company's reputation
Find more information on our professional indemnity insurance FAQ page.
How much does PI insurance 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 £6.77 per month
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How we work out example prices We take the highest price from the bottom 10 per cent of all our customers paying in monthly instalments (based on data from 1 January - 31 August 2021). Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.
Example professional indemnity insurance quotes, real prices
£13.26 /month
£112.63 /month
A self-employed builder that works on both residential properties only
- 1-2 years' experience
- Sole trader
- No employees
- Based in Manchester
Public liability
£2000000
Employers’ liability
Not included
Tools
Not included
£33.92 /month
£301.49 /month
A private tutor that works in clients' homes
- 5+ years' experience
- Limited company
- 3 employees
- Based in Edinburgh
Public liability
£5000000
Employers’ liability
£10000000
Professional indemnity
£50000
How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 14/09/2021). 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 property. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.
How it works
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Does professional indemnity insurance cover my work?
Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect your business properly. Some examples of trades we cover include:
Is your profession not listed? When you run a quote you can select your trade from over 1,000 options.
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
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.
£30 million in claims paid out in 2019
Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2019
Example claim
Having professional indemnity insurance through Simply Business has saved small business owners thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.
Rosie saved more than £41,000
Rosie (not her real name) was working alongside a construction team and design engineer, with responsibility for leveling and surveying a new building site. She made a mistake when measuring the referenced elevation point, which ended up being out by 260mm. Her professional indemnity insurance policy covered the claim raised by her client, who suffered a substantial loss.
Insurance payout
£41,975
Covering the cost of negligence
Rosie’s costs
£100
The excess amount stated in Rosie’s policy terms
Chosen by 800,000 small businesses
We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 800,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.
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Professional indemnity insurance FAQs
Whether you’re new to buying insurance or you’ve been operating your business for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about indemnity insurance.You can also check out our professional indemnity insurance FAQs.
Professional indemnity insurance can be an important cover for a range of businesses, from accountants and architects to surveyors and consultants.
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.
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 insurance:
- 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.
Public liability insurance covers compensation claims from the public if someone is injured or loses out financially and blames your business. Professional indemnity insurance covers claims from clients who lose out financially because of a mistake you made or advice you gave.
Public liability insurance at a glance
- if your work causes injury or property damage
- covers compensation payouts and legal costs
- even covers damage to third party property
- covers you for past mistakes
- some clients or trade bodies may require a certain level of public liability cover
Professional indemnity insurance at a glance
- if a client decides your work or advice is inadequate
- covers you in case you need to fix your mistake at your own expense
- protects you against financial loss while you're defending or settling a claim
- a key consideration for businesses that provide advice or services
- you may be able to backdate your policy start date to cover you for previous work
Read more about the difference between professional indemnity and public liability.
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.
This depends on factors like the nature of your business, the type of work it carries out, and the level of cover you choose. You can easily check how much professional indemnity insurance will cost by running a quick quote. Businesses with higher levels of risk usually pay more for their policy.
Read more about how much professional indemnity insurance costs.
Businesses can deduct 'allowable expenses' when calculating their taxable profit and business insurance is an allowable expense. This means you can deduct the cost of professional indemnity insurance when calculating your taxable profit. Make sure you keep a record of your income and expenses for HMRC.
Read more about whether professional indemnity insurance is tax deductible.
If you think you may need professional indemnity insurance, you should first check whether your regulator or professional body requires you to have a policy. Certain professions, such as architects, accountants, and chartered surveyors, must have professional indemnity cover in order to operate legally.
Some client contracts will require that you have a certain level of professional indemnity cover.
But if this isn't the case, you may still feel that professional indemnity insurance is right for your business. 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.
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.
Make sure you’re covered for the services you provide:
Other types of insurance
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
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