Buying your Professional Indemnity Insurance online? Don't make this mistake...
Paul Baldwin
Chartered Insurance Broker | Director of Cass-Stephens Insurances, Gloucester
I have just been sent the insurance schedule of a web design and marketing company who arrange their business insurance with a very well respected insurance company through one of the most popular online small business "brokers". Their professional indemnity policy is written on the following basis:
Limit of Indemnity £50,000 any one claim and in the aggregate including defence costs
Not really worth the paper it is written on to be honest. They are saying the most they will pay in a year for all claims is just £50,000. Professional Indemnity claims can be very complex and defence costs rack up quickly. This limit is not enough for one claim including defence costs, let alone for a year.
The minimum limit I would recommend is £250,000 any one claim, excluding defence costs, and depending on what you do that may well be nowhere near enough.
Moral of the story; although it might be a great insurance company, a snazzy website and a great price please make sure you understand exactly what it is you are actually getting. Otherwise when the worst happens and you need to rely on your insurance you may find yourself with a very expensive headache...
Membership expert - actively developing membership based projects. Chartered Manager with 50 years of accumulated business knowledge and expertise
9yTotally agree with the principle, but it is a shame that brokers can often turn into aggressive selling machines when they find out that a company is looking for insurance. I lost count of the number of unsolicited broker approaches I have received in the past coming up to renewal time for policies. No surprise that each broker tells me that they are better than the others.
Global Head of M&A, Howden - Past President of the Chartered Insurance Institute
9yOne of the main tasks Brokers fulfil is to very simply make sure that clients are buying exactly what they need. There's a time for DIY - and it's not when arranging one of the most important purchases a business can make.
Account Executive with Howden Insurance - Passionate about sourcing the best deal for my customers.
9ySo true. By the time defence costs etc are taken into account this is very unlikely to be sufficient.