Insurance for professionals
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For 80% of settled claims
Insurance for professionals – why is it important?
Whether you employ people or work from home, you need to protect yourself against the risks that come with running a professional business. With the right cover you can get back to business as normal. You can start with public liability insurance and build from there.
- professional indemnity insurance for professionals, UK claims and contact team
- public and product liability between £1 million and £10 million
- trusted by over 900,000 small UK businesses for flexible, tailored cover
What does insurance for professional services cover?
It’s quick to add covers to your quote and build a policy that suits your needs as a professional service. Most businesses start with public liability insurance, which protects your business against third party claims for injuries or property damage. Then, you can add covers that protect against other risks.
Public liability insurance
In case your business and products cause an injury or property damage.
Employers’ liability insurance
In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your professional service.
Professional indemnity
In case a client loses money because of your advice, services or designs.
Contents insurance
In case something happens to your fixtures, fittings, or operational equipment.
Business legal insurance
In case you’re hit with legal expenses connected to your service.
Personal accident insurance
In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or off-duty.
Stock insurance
In case something happens to your products and consumables.
Tool insurance
In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.
Buildings insurance
In case something happens to your business premises.
Excess insurance
In case you need to make a claim on your insurance policy.
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
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 professional services 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 £1.90 per month
Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.
Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes
*How we work out example prices 10% of our customers paid up to £22.81 a year for a professional indemnity insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £1.90 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
Public liability | No excess | £750 |
Employers' liability | No excess | No excess |
Contents | £200 | £4,000 |
Stock | £200 | £4,000 |
Main building | £200 | £400 |
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.
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How do insurance claims work for professionals?
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 team any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.
£39 million in claims paid out in 2022
Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022
The figure above is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.
Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords
We started out as a team of 5 back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their insurance.
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Rated 4.7/5
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Insurance for professionals FAQs
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 off licences. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.
Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work.
If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.
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 installments.
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.
Make sure you’re covered for the services you provide:
- View all business insurance covers
The types of businesses we insure:
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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