Professional indemnity insurance is there to protect your business if a client or customer says you’ve made a mistake. For example, if a customer alleges that you gave incorrect advice – and that this has negatively impacted their business – they may sue you. Another example is if a customer says poor advice from you has damaged their reputation. Professional indemnity insurance is there to help you defend your business against these types of claims.

Probably, yes. Professional indemnity insurance isn’t required by law. However, many professional bodies require their members to have it – including accountants, architects and surveyors. Your business may also need professional indemnity insurance to be able to get onto supplier frameworks. Generally, if you are providing professional services, having professional indemnity insurance means that if a customer or client ever did try to make a claim against you, you’re covered.

Professional indemnity insurance covers a range of situations where claims could be made against your business, related to the quality of your work or advice. These include:

• Professional negligence, breach of duty and breach of care: This is where a client feels they or their business have suffered because of poor advice you supplied.

• Defamation: A client may sue you for defamation if they believe a statement you have made about them or their business has damaged their reputation.

• Breach of confidence: This is when a client believes you or your company has shared confidential information without consent.

• Breach of copyright: If a client feels that you or your business have used or taken their intellectual property, they could sue under copyright law.

• Lost or damaged documents: Professional indemnity insurance can also cover costs related to retrieving and replacing documents.

When you partner with Lockton, your insurance is likely to be tailored to your company’s needs, so be sure to read your policy – or talk to your advisor – to understand the finer details of what you’re covered for.

Broadly speaking, professional indemnity insurance covers you for claims relating to the quality of your work, services and advice. It doesn’t cover claims or liability relating to:

• Your duties as an employer – you will need employers’ liability insurance for this

• Tax

• Mismanagement of a pension scheme

• Anything you or your teams do – or fail to do – recklessly and without care

• Cyber attacks, hacking or social engineering – you will need cyber and data cover for this

Remember, you also won’t be covered for:

• Anything you knew about – or should reasonably have known about – before you took out your policy

• Any work carried out before your professional indemnity insurance started

The level of professional indemnity cover you choose depends on a number of factors. At a very basic level, your professional body or clients’ procurement teams may require certain levels of cover.

It also depends on the level of risk you want to take as a business, the types of activity you’re involved in – and your strategic goals.

At Lockton, we partner with you to fully understand your business and its needs. Then we leverage our deep connections in the insurance market to create bespoke solutions for you. The best way to find out what level of professional indemnity cover you need is to talk to us.

Yes, we do. Whatever your profession, we will work with you to understand your business’ unique circumstances and needs. We work with many regulated professions such as Solicitors, Accountants, Architects, Chartered Surveyors and Financials Advisors. However, we’re also proud to have created bespoke cover for Recruitment Agencies, Media Companies, Management Consultants, Will Writers and more.