Insurances you should consider as a Project Manager

As a Project Manager, you’re used to being on the ball and getting everyone on your project organised – no matter the field you’re working in. You might be overseeing a big IT project, a research project for a charity, a huge engineering project, or a regulatory project for a financial services organisation. Whatever it is, you’re the go-to person when clients want projects delivering on-time and on-budget with tangible results.

But during your busy workload, have you ever stopped to get yourself organised? One of the things you really should have in place as a Project Manager is your business insurance and, while you may have the basics, you may not quite have considered everything you may need. So what insurances should a Project Manager be considering?

Professional indemnity for Project Managers

Professional indemnity is a must-have insurance for a Project Manager, as it covers you against claims of negligence. This includes things such as making a mistake or giving bad advice, but also breaches of intellectual property, data loss, loss of documents, defamation and libel.

So, imagine you’re managing a financial services project and you make a mistake that puts your client in breach of FSA rules. The resulting investigation finds that you are at fault and your client seeks compensation of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Your professional indemnity cover steps in, protecting you financially.

Public liability when contracting

Public liability insurance covers contractors for damage to third party property or injury to third party persons. So, for instance, you have come in to your client’s office to present on the progress of the project. While plugging your laptop into their projector you accidentally knock it off the table, breaking it beyond repair.

The client makes a claim against you for the cost of the projector and your public liability insurance covers it – nice and simple.

Occupational Personal accident cover

Occupational personal accident cover might not be something you think you need as a Project Manager, but it really could prove to be a lifeline. In relation to business insurance, personal accident cover is there to pay out in the case of work-related injuries (in a similar way that an employer’s insurance would pay out should an employee be injured while carrying out their work).

Imagine you’re managing a civic engineering project that requires you to spend some time at the construction site. While there you trip on some equipment and sustain a broken hip that then requires multiple operations and leaves you unable to work for a period.

Your personal accident cover would pay out a weekly sum for this time so you were not left without an income.

Employers’ liability

Employers’ liability insurance is there to protect any employees that work for you. This can include, for example, your spouse or partner who carries out some administrative work for you.

Directors’ and officers’ liability

This is another one you may not have considered but, as a self-employed Project Manager, you are the director of your own limited company. This means that you could be held responsible should your business be accused of a health and safety breach, financial mismanagement, a legislative failure, or a breach of company law and directors’ and officers’ liability cover protects you here.

Imagine you forget to submit your accounts to the Registrar of Companies within the allotted timeframe. You could be prosecuted under the Companies Act and would have court costs and legal fees to pay. If you hold directors’ and officers’ liability cover, you can claim for defence costs on your policy.

How to ensure you’re adequately insured as a Project Manager

If you’re looking at all of those insurances and thinking that it’ll be a project in itself to organise them all, you needn’t worry. Kingsbridge offers an all-in-one package of contractor insurances that includes:

• Professional indemnity (unlimited in the aggregate)
• Public liability (unlimited in the aggregate)
• Employers’ liability (unlimited in the aggregate)
• Directors’ and officers’ liability: £100,000 any one claim (and in the aggregate)
• Personal accident cover: weekly benefit of up to £500 for a maximum of 52 weeks, and death and disablement cover up to £100,000

With different cover levels available depending on your requirements, to find out more information you can speak to our friendly team of contractor insurance experts on 01242 808740 or you can get a quote and buy online here.