Professional Indemnity Insurance

Professional Indemnity Insurance FAQs

• Why is Professional Indemnity Insurance necessary?

  Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance protects you if advice you give in a professional capacity causes a client financial loss or a claim is made against you for negligence, dishonesty, defamation, infringement of intellectual property rights or loss of data.

  Essentially, if your business or trade consists of giving advice and the advice given affects your client to the extent that they make a financial loss, they could make a claim against you. Professional Indemnity helps to protect you if this happens.

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• Which professions should invest in PI Insurance?

  If you provide advice and consultancy, handle people’s information or provide an expert service, then you should invest in a indemnity insurance policy.

  The Insurance Octopus provides specialist policies for:

  • Accountants (both ICA and Non-ICA)
  • Architects
  • Engineers
  • Computer Consultants
  • Surveyors and Property Managers
  • RICS Surveyors

  However, we also provide Professional Indemnity policies for a range of additional professions including Directors and Officers, Marketing Consultants, Photographers and many others.

  Can’t see your profession listed? Search for it when you get a quote – visit our business insurance by trade page.

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• What optional covers should I combine with my PI policy?

  Do you have employees?

  If you employ anyone outside of your immediate family, including casual workers, part-time workers and temporary staff, then the law requires you to have Employers’ Liability cover for injury or sickness claims from employees to minimum of at least £5 million. You should check carefully if you need it, because you can be fined £2,500 for each day you do not have suitable cover in place.

  Do you have contact with third parties?

  Any business which involves contact with customers – whether having people visit you, or you visiting them – should consider Public Liability cover. If you or your business ends up being responsible for injuring someone or causing damage or destruction to their property, then public liability insurance can cover the cost related to someone making a claim against you.

  What would happen if you couldn’t work?

  If you had an accident or received a serious injury, leaving you unable to work, then you can get Personal Accident cover which would pay a weekly or lump sum to help you while you recover. It provides financial help if you have a serious accident or injury, or if you suffer a fatal accident.

  If something happened to your business premises that meant you had to re-locate or an unforeseen even interrupted the operations of your business leaving you at risk of losing income what would you do? You may want to consider taking out Business Interruption insurance to help you to maintain the turnover of your business during indemnity period following an insured incident so that you can resume trading at its anticipated pre loss trading level.

  Do you have business premises and business equipment?

  Computers, laptops and mobile phones and other equipment, and any other contents you have in your office can be covered with Contents Cover or Laptop and Mobile Phone Cover.

  Both help to replace items in the event that they are damaged maliciously or by a storm, fire or other severe weather event, if they are stolen or robbed and a number of other types of qualifying conditions.

  Have you had continuous PI Insurance in the past?

  If you have had continuous Professional Indemnity insurance in the years previous to taking out a policy with The Insurance Octopus, we can help to ensure you have Retroactive Cover in place. This will protect you against any claims that may be made against you for previously completed work when insured by a different provider. It is important to make sure you do not let your Professional Indemnity insurance lapse to ensure you are eligible for Retroactive Cover.

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• What level of professional indemnity cover do I need?

  We would discuss with you the risk profile and nature of your business, the total income of your business, and the required limit of indemnity and the level of excess in order to help work out the right level of cover for your business. This can include optional extras you decide to add to your policy.

  Our PI Insurance specialists can help to discuss your specific requirements over the phone should you need some help and guidance, or you can get a quote easily online.

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• When do I need to notify The Insurance Octopus of a potential claim?

  You should let us know at the earliest opportunity if a client has a problem with your work which you think is likely to give rise to a claim against your business for compensation. In order to try and minimise the problem and avoid unnecessary legal costs and distress, it is important to take prompt action.

  You should also let us know if you receive a complaint from a client or realise you have erred somewhere and can’t easily resolve the problem; if you receive a series of escalating complaints on a project; if a client withholds payment to you after a complaint, or if you become aware of a shortcoming in your work that you can’t put right easily.

  It’s important to check the terms and conditions of your industry-specific indemnity policy for information on your notification requirements – take special note of if a late notification or failure to notify will cause adverse repercussions for your business such as withdrawal of insurance cover.

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