Professional Indemnity Key Benefits
- Experienced staff & Underwriters with access to an extensive range of markets.
- We are able to cover Professional Indemnity Insurance across Europe.
- Speak directly to staff and underwriters – No automated phone service.
Professional Indemnity Insurance Explained
What is professional Indemnity Insurance?
Professional Indemnity Insurance, sometimes known as Professional Liability Insurance is there to protect businesses or sole trading professionals whose occupation is to offer advice, knowledge or skills and offers protection for possible claims against them in circumstances where general liability insurance wouldn’t cover. Professionals are advised to have PI insurance to protect them in the case of a claim made against them by a client or third party for things such as negligence, breach of confidentiality, wrong advice or mistakes made in relation to the services provided and will cover the legal costs and damages up to the limit of the insurance policy.
Do I need professional Indemnity Insurance?
If you are in the business or giving advice, offering know-how or skills then YES is the simple answer. There are many professions whose authoritative body usually requires them to have PI Insurance in place before they can offer their services and for certain professions it is a legal requirement including Solicitors, Lawyers, accountants and financial advisers. You should however seriously consider getting PI insurance if your business offers a professional service that includes giving advice to clients or you are in a position where you handle confidential information or copyrighted material that belongs to third party. In a time where businesses are looking for areas to cut their overheads and improve their overall balance sheet this is one business expense that no profession should consider avoiding in order to cut costs. The legal costs alone would be enough to put many small businesses into liquidation and single cases can run on for a substantial amount of time. A claim could be made against you or your business out of the blue for an error of judgment, or wrong advice that the claimant considers has lead to a loss of business as a result. This maybe for advice given in the past for previous services offered and something you may not be expecting. Whether the claim against you or your business has a strong case or not you will still need to fight your corner and usually with considerable legal costs involved. Professional Indemnity insurance is there to pay all reasonable running costs allowing you to focus all your energies on defending your case. Should however you lose the case PI Insurance will also pay any compensation costs due up to the agreed limit on the policy. It is advisable to keep all client work, advise given and anything related well documented so that if needs be a court can gauge an accurate visual account of your dealings with that client and would also have a positive reflection on your professionalism. Good records will also help you to remember things that could be used in your defense and provide the ammunition needed to build a stronger case and give your legal team more to work with.
What do I need to consider for PI Insurance?
Before looking for PI Insurance you should understand your profession and the nature of the industry your business operates in first. It is important to be as risk averse when assessing the level of cover you may need, for example what kind of claims could be made against you? Research and find out about previous cases in the media and within your industry, what levels of compensation were paid out? Don’t limit your indemnity below the levels of compensation that you know have been paid out in in the past and remember that past examples are there as a guideline only and future cases could be considerably more. You need to look internally at your business, who are your clients?, what is their turnover?, the size and nature of your contract with these clients?, are you handling sensitive information? what is the size of a potential claim that could be made against you? For a comprehensive Professional Indemnity Policy look no further than Highouse Insurance. We compare insurers and can tailor a policy to meet your exact needs whilst offering a competitive quote.
Professional Indemnity Insurance, sometimes known as Professional Liability Insurance is there to protect businesses or sole trading professionals whose occupation is to offer advice, knowledge or skills and offers protection for possible claims against them in circumstances where general liability insurance wouldn’t cover. Professionals are advised to have PI insurance to protect them in the case of a claim made against them by a client or third party for things such as negligence, breach of confidentiality, wrong advice or mistakes made in relation to the services provided and will cover the legal costs and damages up to the limit of the insurance policy.
Do I need professional Indemnity Insurance?
If you are in the business or giving advice, offering know-how or skills then YES is the simple answer. There are many professions whose authoritative body usually requires them to have PI Insurance in place before they can offer their services and for certain professions it is a legal requirement including Solicitors, Lawyers, accountants and financial advisers. You should however seriously consider getting PI insurance if your business offers a professional service that includes giving advice to clients or you are in a position where you handle confidential information or copyrighted material that belongs to third party. In a time where businesses are looking for areas to cut their overheads and improve their overall balance sheet this is one business expense that no profession should consider avoiding in order to cut costs. The legal costs alone would be enough to put many small businesses into liquidation and single cases can run on for a substantial amount of time. A claim could be made against you or your business out of the blue for an error of judgment, or wrong advice that the claimant considers has lead to a loss of business as a result. This maybe for advice given in the past for previous services offered and something you may not be expecting. Whether the claim against you or your business has a strong case or not you will still need to fight your corner and usually with considerable legal costs involved. Professional Indemnity insurance is there to pay all reasonable running costs allowing you to focus all your energies on defending your case. Should however you lose the case PI Insurance will also pay any compensation costs due up to the agreed limit on the policy. It is advisable to keep all client work, advise given and anything related well documented so that if needs be a court can gauge an accurate visual account of your dealings with that client and would also have a positive reflection on your professionalism. Good records will also help you to remember things that could be used in your defense and provide the ammunition needed to build a stronger case and give your legal team more to work with.
What do I need to consider for PI Insurance?
Before looking for PI Insurance you should understand your profession and the nature of the industry your business operates in first. It is important to be as risk averse when assessing the level of cover you may need, for example what kind of claims could be made against you? Research and find out about previous cases in the media and within your industry, what levels of compensation were paid out? Don’t limit your indemnity below the levels of compensation that you know have been paid out in in the past and remember that past examples are there as a guideline only and future cases could be considerably more. You need to look internally at your business, who are your clients?, what is their turnover?, the size and nature of your contract with these clients?, are you handling sensitive information? what is the size of a potential claim that could be made against you? For a comprehensive Professional Indemnity Policy look no further than Highouse Insurance. We compare insurers and can tailor a policy to meet your exact needs whilst offering a competitive quote.
