If a client makes a claim against you in 2026 for work you did in 2023, your 2026 policy responds.
- Maintain a valid MOT certificate if the vehicle is over the required age, as insurance may be void without it.
- Keep the vehicle in a roadworthy condition; insurers may refuse claims for defects that caused an accident.
- Do not use the vehicle for any purpose excluded by the policy, such as racing or track days.
- Secure the vehicle against theft by using appropriate locks and alarms as specified by the insurer.
This has an important practical consequence: your PI cover must be continuous. If you allow your policy to lapse, you lose protection for past work as well as current work. This is why it is critical to renew every year without a break, and why run-off cover (covered below) matters so much when you stop practising. Occurrence-based PI policies are less common in the UK market.
What This Guide Covers
The starting point is your regulatory requirement, if you have one. Solicitors must comply with SRA minimum limits. For professions with no regulatory floor, consider the following questions. 1.What is the maximum fee value of any single contract or project you undertake? Your indemnity limit should typically be a multiple of this, not equal to it, because legal costs alone can easily exceed the value of the contract in dispute.
Is professional indemnity insurance mandatory for chartered accountants?
2.What do your clients contractually require? Check your standard client contracts and any frameworks or approved supplier lists you are registered on. Many specify minimum PI limits of £2 million, £3 million, or higher. 3.What is the highest-risk piece of advice or bet betting sites with instant withdrawal work you provide? Think about the downstream consequences if that advice is wrong. With an occurrence policy, the policy that responds to a claim is the one that was in force at the time the work was done, regardless of when the claim is actually made. These policies can provide cover even after they have expired.
What Professional Indemnity Insurance covers for accountants
A solicitor in a high-volume conveyancing practice operates in one of the most heavily loaded PI risk categories in the UK market. An architect working on large bet all uk betting sites list commercial projects faces fundamentally different exposure to one producing domestic planning applications. The same profession can carry very different premiums depending on the specific risk profile of the individual business. Selecting the lowest available premium without understanding the quality of the cover behind it is one of the most common and costly mistakes professionals make with PI insurance. A policy with a high excess, restrictive exclusions, or poor claims handling can leave you significantly exposed at exactly the moment you need your insurer to perform.
5.2 Excess
The most accurate and reliable way to understand what PI insurance will cost for your specific business is to speak with an independent broker who has direct access to a wide panel of specialist PI insurers and understands the underwriting criteria each one applies to your profession. Call Artemis on 020 8619 5000 or email info@artemisltd.co.uk for a no-obligation PI insurance quote tailored to your profession and your risk profile. We will give you a real figure based on your actual situation, not a generic estimate. •Your profession and the nature of the work you do •The indemnity limit you require, for example £500,000 versus £5,000,000 •Your excess, which is the amount you contribute to each claim before the insurer pays •Your claims history over the previous five years •The size of individual contracts or projects you undertake •Whether your clients include public sector bodies or large organisations with higher risk profiles •Whether your work has an international element, as some policies exclude non-UK work Choosing the right indemnity limit is one of the most important decisions you will make when taking out a PI policy. Too low and you risk being underinsured when a significant claim is made . Run-off cover is an extension to your professional indemnity insurance that continues to protect you from claims arising from past work after you have stopped trading, retired, or closed your business.
- Understand the claims process, including how to contact the insurer's emergency helpline.
- Know what is not covered (exclusions) such as wear and tear, mechanical breakdown, or damage from certain events.
- Check if the policy provides a guaranteed hire car following a non-fault accident.
- Be aware of the insurer's approved repairer network and any implications for using it.
Because PI policies are typically written on a claims made basis, simply letting your policy lapse when you close your business does not mean you are protected from future claims about past work. A client could bring a claim years after you have ceased trading.
| Annual Gross Fee Income Band | Minimum PII Cover (Any One Claim) | Minimum Aggregate Cover |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £100,000 | £100,000 | £200,000 |
| £100,001 - £200,000 | £250,000 | £500,000 |
| £200,001 - £500,000 | £500,000 | £1,000,000 |
| £500,001 and above | £1,000,000 | £2,000,000 |
Run-off cover is particularly important for solicitors, accountants, architects, and any professional who has carried significant responsibility over a long period. In regulated professions, run-off requirements are often stipulated by the professional body. The SRA, for example, requires solicitors' practices to maintain run-off cover for a minimum of six years following closure. The cost of run-off cover varies depending on your profession, the level of cover, and the period for which it is required.
Do You Have a Legal Requirement to Have Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Note for Solicitors: The SRA sets minimum indemnity limits and requires policies to be taken out with SRA-approved insurers only. Artemis Insurance Brokers has direct access to leading Law Society-panel insurers and can arrange SRA-compliant PI cover for solicitors of all sizes. Beyond the regulated professions above, there is a very broad range of UK businesses and self-employed professionals for whom PI insurance is strongly advisable, even when not legally required. If any of the following apply to your business, you should be considering PI cover. •You provide advice, recommendations, or professional opinions that clients rely on to make decisions •You produce designs, plans, specifications, documents, or reports that form the basis of your client's actions •Your contracts with clients include performance obligations or professional standards requirements •Your clients are larger organisations that require proof of PI insurance before awarding work •You work in the public sector or on government contracts, where PI insurance is almost universally required •You handle sensitive client information, financial data, or intellectual property •You provide IT, technology, or software development services •You work as a contractor through an agency or umbrella company The list of professions for whom PI insurance is commercially essential, even without a regulatory mandate, includes management consultants, marketing and communications agencies, PR firms, HR consultants, business coaches, software developers, IT consultants, project managers, training providers, healthcare consultants, and many more.
6.4 Run-off
Cost is one of the first practical questions professionals ask when researching PI insurance, and it deserves a straight answer. The honest truth is that there is no meaningful figure we can give you without understanding your business, because the variables that drive PI premiums are significant and they interact in ways that make any generic number misleading. What we can tell you is exactly what those variables are, because understanding what drives your premium is the most useful starting point before you speak to a broker or insurer. The main factors that affect the cost of professional indemnity insurance in the UK are your profession and the specific nature of the work you carry out, your annual fee income or turnover, the indemnity limit you need, whether your regulatory body sets a minimum that you cannot go below, your claims history over the previous five years, the size of individual contracts or projects you take on, and whether your clients are large organisations with contractual minimum requirements built into their supplier agreements. A sole trader consultant in a lower-risk advisory field will pay considerably less than a technology company handling sensitive client data on high-value contracts. Your broker should discuss run-off provisions at or before the point of any planned business closure or change in structure.
- Report any accident or incident to the insurer within the timeframe specified in the policy document.
- Cooperate fully with the insurer's appointed claims handler or loss adjuster during a claim.
- Do not admit liability at the scene of an accident; let the insurers handle the investigation.
- Obtain a police report for any accident involving injury, significant damage, or a hit-and-run.
- Keep detailed records and photographs of damage, the scene, and other parties involved.
Professional indemnity insurance for solicitors in the UK is mandatory under the SRA's Indemnity Insurance Rules.
Meet Your ACCA CPD Requirements with Learnsignal
The potential financial impact on your client should inform your indemnity limit. 4.What level of excess can you comfortably absorb? A higher excess reduces your premium but means you pay more of each claim yourself. Make sure the excess is genuinely affordable without causing financial strain. Artemis Advice: We always recommend erring on the side of a higher indemnity limit rather than a lower one. All solicitor practices must hold PI cover with an SRA-approved insurer.
- Keep proof of insurance accessible, either in physical or digital form, for presentation to authorities.
- Ensure all named drivers on the policy are disclosed and meet the insurer's eligibility criteria.
- Pay insurance premiums on time to avoid policy lapse and potential legal penalties.
- Understand the policy's territorial limits and ensure coverage applies for where you drive.
The minimum indemnity limit is £3 million for incorporated practices and £2 million for unincorporated practices.
8. AAT Licensed Member PI requirements
If your professional work inadvertently infringes a third party's copyright, trade mark, or other intellectual property rights, PI insurance can cover the claim. This is a growing area of risk for designers, copywriters, marketing agencies, and software developers. If client documents, data, or records in your care are lost, damaged, or destroyed, PI insurance covers the resulting claim. This is particularly relevant for legal, accounting, and financial services businesses that hold significant volumes of sensitive client records. Important: PI insurance does not cover intentional wrongdoing, fraud, or criminal acts.
What are the regulatory requirements?
It does not cover claims arising from work that was explicitly outside the agreed scope of your services. It does not cover personal injury or property damage claims, which fall under public liability insurance. It does not cover employment disputes with your own staff, which is the territory of employers liability insurance. Several UK professions are required to hold professional indemnity insurance as a condition of their regulatory authorisation or professional body membership. Operating without it in these cases is not just financially risky. Artemis Insurance Brokers has relationships with leading Law Society-panel insurers and has been arranging solicitors PI insurance for over 20 years.
Frequently Asked Questions About Professional Indemnity Insurance
The additional annual premium for moving from £500,000 to £1,000,000 of cover is often a few hundred pounds at most. The difference in protection it provides can be the difference between a business surviving a claim and one that does not. This is one of the most important technical distinctions in professional indemnity insurance, and one that many business owners overlook when comparing policies. The vast bet top betting websites sports majority of PI insurance policies in the UK are written on a claims made basis. This means the policy that responds to a claim is the policy that is in force at the time the claim is made against you, not at the time the work was originally carried out.
