Also known as PI, PII or Professional Liability Insurance this type of insurance protects you and your business from claims arising from professional mistakes, errors and omissions. In this day and age people and businesses expect accountability and will look for recourse when things go wrong. Professional Indemnity Insurance offers you protection against potentially disastrous financial loss and is a standard compulsory requirement of many professional bodies e.g. RIBA, RICS, ABE. Professional Indemnity Insurance is also a common contractual requirement if you work for local authorities, schools or for large blue chip companies.
Traditionally, firms of Accountants, Architects, Surveyors, Solicitors, and Engineers, the ‘traditional’ professions, were regarded as ‘the professionals’. However, times have changed and there is now a long list of people who provide services who are considered to be professionals. This list includes Acoustic Consultants, Bat Consultants, Fire Risk Assessors, Health & Safety Consultants, IT Consultants, Training Consultants, Zoology Consultants and so on. Modern reliance upon services provided by others and the increased use by business of outside consultants has increased the scope of this term and a professional is often now regarded as any person who offers ‘specialist advice or services’.
As a Professional you would be expected to exercise whatever degree of skill and care could be reasonably expected of a competent professional in your profession. If you provide advice or services negligently to another person or business, you can be held legally liable for the financial consequences. Without Professional Indemnity Insurance you could face substantial costs in fighting a negligence claim and if you lose you could find that your personal assets are exposed!
Professional Indemnity Insurance is a specialist area of insurance with many pitfalls and variances in the cover that’s available. It is a class of business that is often not understood by high street brokers and unless you work with a specialist firm, you could end up buying defective or inadequate cover.