Professional Indemnity Insurance

Professional Indemnity insurance (or PI cover) can be crucial to the very continued existence of your company or business. Everybody makes mistakes, however, sometimes the smallest of mistakes can cause the greatest of losses.

PI cover protects your business if it has been found that you or your employees have provided poor or inadequate services and / or advice, which has resulted in your clients or others experiencing a financial loss.

Basically, PI insurance covers for legal costs and expenses incurred in your defence, as well as for possible damages that could be awarded against your business. This means that you will ensure that you are able to defend yourself should a claim for negligence, dishonesty or defamation, amongst others, be made against your company. This is especially important when considering the exorbitant costs when involved in court action.

The policy will also protect you against any unfounded allegations that may arise as a result of your business conduct or consultations.

Many professions and contractors may require PI cover because of requirements from either professional and / or regulatory bodies, including, but not limited to, energy, financial services, IT, business management and training, and engineering sectors.

You may need PI Cover if you do any one of the following:

• deliver any professional service and could be challenged on the quality of your work;
• deliver expertise, advice or skills to a client;
• manufacture or produce materials that could in any way contravene intellectual property legislation;
• have access to or store confidential information belonging to a client.

The real cost of a professional indemnity insurance

Professional indemnity insurance can seem relatively expensive when it's covering something that's unlikely to happen; that's because when things do go wrong, they may go wrong in a spectacularly expensive way.

Small things can be put right with little effect on your business, but the big things - claims that can wipe out your business, are what you need protection from!

The price of indemnity insurance reflects the risks your business faces (an assessment based on yours and your industry's past claims) and a rough estimate of how much a claim will actually cost and will impact on the premiums.

The question isn't whether your business can afford PI Cover, the real question is whether your business can afford the consequences of not having any PI cover.

There are many different options and extras. It is important to know exactly what cover you need for your business's specific demands and needs. It is therefore best to be in contact with a broker from Windom Finance who can guide you in taking out the correct cover for your business.