Looking for Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Professional indemnity insurance can help to ease the financial pressure if a claim is raised against you or your business as a result of advice and expertise you’ve given.
If one of your clients or customers believes that advice or guidance you’ve given them has cost them money, time and inconvenience then they may want to raise a claim against you. If you are found to have been negligent then you could be facing some expensive consequences and find yourself paying compensation as well as both sets of legal expenses too.
What kind of business needs professional indemnity insurance?
If you’re regularly handling sensitive client data, documents or information and offer advice and guidance as part of your service then you may want to consider taking out some professional indemnity insurance to cover you financially should someone raise a claim against you. There are plenty of professions which could benefit from this protection including:
- Accountants
- Consultants
- Estate agents
- Journalists
- Marketing professionals
- Financial advisors
- Mortgage brokers
- Business consultants
- IT professionals
- Architects
What is professional indemnity insurance designed to cover?
Although each insurer will have its own list of exclusions and policy stipulations, professional indemnity insurance usually covers your business against:
If you’re approaching a business for work then they may want you to have professional indemnity insurance as a term and condition of working together. If your client is giving you access to important documents, sensitive data or high-risk intelligence then having this protection in place is beneficial to you both – insurers will usually send you a certificate of insurance that you can use as proof.
What kind of claims could be made against my business?
Depending on the type of profession you work in, there are many different types of claim that professional indemnity insurance could protect you against. Here are just a few examples of claims that others have faced and ended up paying compensation, legal costs and losses too:
Dimensions on a residential project plan were slightly out but required a wall to be knocked down and rebuilt which added substantial extra cost, time and labour.
Had web hosting hacked which caused a day’s worth of client website downtime and loss of potential sales.
Put an incorrect phone number on brochures that resulted in the client’s loss of potential business as well as a reprint and resend of the brochures.
Accidentally forwarded an email that included sensitive company information to another client that leaked it.
Used an image on their client’s website that they didn’t have permission or a licence to use which resulted in the original photographer complaining and making a claim.
Professional Indemnity Insurance – Useful FAQs
You may find it beneficial to take out if you’re consulting on sensitive projects. Even if you’re self-employed, you have just as much responsibility to your clients as large businesses but may find a claim against you financially crippling.
Absolutely. From leaving sensitive documents behind on public transport to having client data leaked due to a cyber-security breach on your laptop, mistakes do happen that could be expensive for all involved.
Not necessarily. Some insurers may include unlimited access to legal helplines or professionals but it doesn’t always come as standard. When purchasing your policy be sure to double check and opt in if you think you could benefit.
The insurer will take a look at a few different factors to determine how much cover they think you’ll need:
- The business size
- How big your clients are
- How many employees you have
- How much your legal costs would be
- The industry you work in
- Whether or not your industry is regulated