Professional Indemnity Insurance

Professional indemnity insurance can be complex. We are here to assist and demystify the process for you.

Mistakes happen, its a fact of life.

It doesn’t matter how experienced you are or how good your intentions were, mistakes still happen. This is why professional indemnity insurance is so important for anyone who receives a fee either directly or indirectly for advice or service.

Professional Indemnity Insurance will protect you should you become legally liable for costs as a result of:

• Any actual negligent act, error or omission; or
• Any alleged negligent act, error or omission

To put it simply, professional indemnity insurance will give you protection should you make a mistake without the financial strain of having to defend yourself.

So you have decided that you need Professional Indemnity Insurance. The next question is always how much cover do I need?

The amount of cover that is usually required can be dictated by the following outside influences:

• Your association or industry standard,
• The companies requiring your service, or
• Government Legislation

If you fall in the above categories it can be easy to set your requirement limit as it is usually done for you. If you fall outside of these guidelines you will need to consider the following when selecting a limit of cover:

• The highest potential financial loss that a third party can claim against you, based on the value of the contract you enter in and the loss of future earnings.
• The policy limit must be sufficient to respond not only to the largest claim but also the total number of claims in a year.
• Consideration must be given to the cost of legal costs as these can represent a significant portion of any claim.

If you are still unsure of which limit to go for, I am more than happy to have a chat with you to determine your requirements.

With the recent availability of online based professional indemnity insurance, it has become, a lot simpler and quicker for some occupations to get PI insurance put in place. This has assisted the rest of the market in that a majority of quotes can now be turned around in less than 24 hours. Some traditionally difficult occupations such as engineering can take a bit longer.

With most occupations, the process of organising cover is pretty straight forward. Gone are the days of long paper proposal forms to complete. Most forms these days are electronic and short, some as short as one page.

Information used to quote can be obtained in a variety of ways including over the phone, completing a proposal form or using an online enquiry form.

As all insurers vary in their insurance offerings. There are a lot of different things to look out for when selecting a professional indemnity policy that is right for you.

These include:

• Suitable level of excess including whether it is including or excluding costs
• Cover for past work if you have not previously had a policy
• Number of Reinstatement’s of the Sum Insured should you have multiple claims in a year
• Limits to territory – ie Australia/New Zealand only or worldwide cover
• A suitable description of the work undertaken
• The endorsements & exclusions noted within the schedule and policy wording

It is vital to carefully review each policy to determine which one it is suitable for your requirements. As an Insurance Broker, this forms an integral part of our service, allowing you to be confident that you have received quality advice as to what policy is most suited to your needs, taking into consideration your unique situation.

Check out the Professional Indemnity FAQ’s.

To arrange an obligation-free quote please click the button below – if you would like more information or have any questions, please call us on 1300 932 237.