What is Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Professional indemnity insurance (also known as professional liability insurance) is a commercial insurance policy that protects you from professional negligence claims made by clients during the course of business. Examples include offering poor advice, producing faulty products, or accidentally disclosing a client’s private data.
Mistakes can arise at any time, so professional indemnity policies protect you from the financial implications arising from these errors. Moreover, professional indemnity insurance can be a positive indicator of being outside IR35, as it can help show you are a genuine business that is taking on financial risk.
What does Professional Indemnity Insurance cover?
Professional negligence
If you make an error while undertaking work for a client, you could face a negligence claim. Say, for instance, you took inaccurate measurements that led to incorrectly-sized fittings. A client may seek financial reimbursement for the time lost putting things right. In this scenario, professional indemnity insurance covers the associated financial costs.
Loss of private data or documents
We all understand how stringent data security laws are today. As such, if you were to lose a document containing your client’s information, the implications could be devastating. Therefore, you could receive a claim for loss of business.
Loss of money or goods
In some lines of work like financial services, you may be trusted with a client’s money or goods. If you were to lose or damage these, you could receive a claim to cover the value lost.
Defamation
If an employee is claimed to have spoken, written or printed a false statement about another organisation or individual, you may be sued. As such, many professional indemnity policies cover libel and slander lawsuits as standard.
Breaching copyright or confidentiality
It’s easy to accidentally use someone else’s intellectual property, even if never intended. For instance, a designer might use a copyrighted font or image without realising it. The good news? Our professional indemnity business insurance offers legal protection in these situations.
If you’re keen to safeguard your business against any of the above claims, get in touch with the Kingsbridge team today, and we’ll tailor a quote in minutes.
Do I need Professional Indemnity Insurance?
For all contractors, whether you provide consultancy, handle clients’ private information, store business data or are entrusted with customer goods, you could face costly consequences if the worst happens. Therefore, you can think of PI insurance as your financial safety net, offering support for claims that arise from mistakes or failings, regardless of whether or not they’re justified.
Professional indemnity cover is included in our (along with other liability covers), all packaged into one policy, so you can have peace of mind that your business is covered.
Why choose Kingsbridge?
- We are specialist insurers of contractors, protecting thousands of professionals from corporate claims that could otherwise leave a hole in their finances
- Professional indemnity is part of our comprehensive core contractor insurance policy, so securing all the cover you need is simple
- Comprehensive insurance, up to £5M cover for an individual professional indemnity claim
- Kingsbridge offer a price promise – if you find cheaper cover elsewhere we’ll match the quote
- All Kingsbridge policies are underwritten by A rated insurers
- No hidden fees or charges
- Retroactive cover included, so your policy will cover claims made against work carried out before your policy started
Want to find out more? Get a quote online or give one of our team a call on 01242 808 740.
Frequently asked questions
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Is Professional Indemnity Insurance required by law?
No legislation makes professional indemnity cover compulsory, but many clients and recruiters stipulate that a policy is required. You may also have to show confirmation of insurance.
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How much does Professional Indemnity Insurance cost?
At Kingsbridge, professional indemnity insurance is included within our contractors’ insurance package, meaning you benefit from multiple protection, all packaged in one policy. Get an instant quote online, or contact our team.
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What is retroactive cover?
Retroactive cover means that your policy will cover claims made against work carried out before your policy started. Professional indemnity claims operate under a “claims made” basis, which means you must have insurance in place at the time of the claim and not necessarily when the work was carried out.
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What does on a ‘claims made’ basis mean?
It’s always important to understand the terms of a policy, and the difference between “claims made” and “claims occurring” is one of the key distinctions. A “claims made” policy will pay out for any valid claim reported during the policy period. This can happen even if an incident or alleged breach of duty occurred before the policy period, as long as the policy period includes a retroactive date that covers the incident.
A “claims occuring” policy will only pay out for claims arising from loss or damage that occurs during the policy period. However, it can cover claims for loss or damage for events that happened during the policy period even if they come to light after it has elapsed.
