Professional Indemnity Insurance, UK and Worldwide.
Professional Insurance Agents is a market leading, specialist professional indemnity insurance broker, established for over 25 years. Our PI insurance expertise and commitment to helping our clients manage their risks is evident in every aspect of our business.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Professional Indemnity Insurance is essential for any company, organisation, consultant or contractor that gives advice or provides services in a professional capacity. In today’s competitive, fast moving commercial environment the potential for errors in the performance of services – alleged or actual – is all too real. Dissatisfied customers increasingly sue when things go wrong and the financial ramifications can be severe.
Professional Indmenity Insurance Cover available
IT Contractors indemnity limit up to £5,000,000
Accountants indemnity limit up to £2,000,000
Architects indemnity limit up to £2,000,000
Surveyors indemnity limit up to £5,000,000
Engineers indemnity limit up to £5,000,000
Additional cover for public liability and employers liability insurance can be added to your PI policy
Why do you need Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Without PI insurance, you run the risk of being exposed to many liabilities such as:
Libel and slander
Negligence
Loss of data or documents
Malicious falsehood
False attribution of authorship
Passing off copyright or trademarks
Infringment of intellectual property rights
Breach of confidentiality
Breach of normal rights
and more…
Providing invaluable financial protection and peace of mind aside, indemnity insurance (PI Insurance) can also help secure new contracts as clients are now more likely to insist that companies, organisations, contractors and consultants carry professional indemnity insurance as a prerequisite for conducting business with them. It is also beneficial to freelancers.
Furthermore, many professional authorising bodies (such as ACA, RIBA, ARB, FSA) insist that all members have a minimum level of professional indemnity insurance cover.
If you have any further questions regarding your professional indemnity and liability insurance requirements please call our brokering team on 01323 648000.
USA business tends not to use the internet to purchase their insurances but prefers to go through the more traditional route of speaking with a broker. However, there is a change of thinking starting to happen, be it on a B to B basis mainly pioneered by Willis, a broker who has set up an automated quote and buy system that has according to recent publications got 2000 brokers using the multiquote system to offer their commercial clients a range of leading insurers products across a wide selection of policies such as Professional Indemnity, Public Liability and workers comp.
Maybe with Hiscox also attacking the USA market with their online quote and buy facility this time direct, the USA market is begining to consider this option of buying commercial insurance online an ok thing to do.
The USA insurance markets pretty much own most of the larger insurance companies operating around the world and already now have to consider their costs for supplying quotes and explaining to brokers about their new deifnitions for each of the insurance products they wish to offer brokers and their clients.
All well and good if it is “Cheap” (although I hate that word) but if you don’t get the correct cover for your PII Policy it could be very expensive.
You need to check that the cover you get suits your requirements. It could be that your policy doesn’t extend beyond the UK and with more and more companies now operating outside the UK, this needs to be a consideration. Many problems also occur with contractual agreement that could over extend your Professional Indemnity wordings, best to get this checked with your brokers.
Unfortunately because Professional Indemnity Insurance has become easier to obtain online some companies don’t have the in dept experience to help you with what your policies are actually offering. So ‘cheap’ isn’t always the best option, cheaper may save you some money at the point of sale, but what about when you go to claim?
Only the professional can assess the amount of cover appropriate to the business. In determining how much cover to effect, it is important that a realistic view is taken of the potential damages and legal costs for which the business could become liable. Being under-insured can be almost as financially disastrous as being without insurance at all – as the examples below reveal.
We recommend that no insurance policy is taken out with a limit of less than £250,000. We will, however, provide a quotation for lower levels of indemnity if asked to do so. We are also able to provide cover up to a limit of £10,000,000 in most cases. Any professionals in doubt about the amount of cover they should take out should consult their legal advisers.
The following examples highlight the dangers of being under-insured.
Case 1 – It was alleged that surveyors were negligent in their valuation of a property on behalf of a lender.
Loss: £1.5m
Insurance: £1m
Case 2 - A consulting engineer designed a roof which proved to be defective..
Loss: £350,000
Insurance: £100,000
Case 3 – A design consultant provided designs for tools to be used in manufacturing process. It was alleged that the designers were inaccurate..
