BUSINESS GUIDE
Professional indemnity insurance explained
Public liability handles the ladder through the window. Professional indemnity handles the advice, drawing or spreadsheet that cost a client money. If what you sell is expertise, this is the cover that matters most.
Last reviewed August 2026
What it responds to
Professional indemnity deals with allegations of negligence in your professional work: wrong advice, a design that does not perform, a missed deadline that caused loss, a specification error, a breach of confidentiality or intellectual property.
Crucially it covers defence costs. Many claims are ultimately unfounded, and the money still has to be spent proving it.
Who typically needs it
If a client could sue you over the quality of your thinking, you are in scope.
- Consultants, coaches and trainers
- Architects, surveyors, engineers and project managers
- IT developers, agencies and marketing firms
- Accountants, bookkeepers and financial administrators
- Recruiters, HR advisers and health and safety consultants
- Designers, copywriters and translators
Contracts often set the limit
Client contracts and framework agreements frequently specify a minimum limit of indemnity and require it to be maintained for a stated number of years after the work completes. Public sector and construction contracts are the strictest on this.
Regulated professions may also have a required minimum set by their regulator or professional body, with prescribed policy wording.
Why claims-made cover changes the maths
Most professional indemnity is written on a claims-made basis. What matters is having a policy in force when the claim arrives, not when the work happened. Letting cover lapse after a project completes leaves years of past work unprotected.
Related to this is the retroactive date. When you move insurer, the new policy should pick up past work from the original date you first had continuous cover, otherwise a gap opens behind you.
What to have ready
A specialist can place most professional risks quickly with these details.
- A plain description of the services you provide
- Fee income, and the largest single project value
- Any contract-required limit and maintenance period
- Whether you subcontract, and to whom
- Claims, complaints or circumstances that could give rise to a claim
- When you first held continuous professional indemnity cover
Get the right limit in place
Tell us what your business does in about 60 seconds and a UK insurance specialist calls you back — usually the same working day.
Request my callback →Common questions
- What is professional indemnity insurance?
- Cover for claims that your professional advice, designs, specifications or services caused a client a financial loss, including the legal costs of defending the allegation.
- Who needs professional indemnity insurance?
- Consultants, designers, architects, engineers, IT and marketing firms, accountants, bookkeepers, recruiters and anyone whose deliverable is advice or intellectual work. Some regulators and professional bodies require it.
- What does claims-made mean?
- The policy responds to claims first made against you during the policy period, regardless of when the work was done, provided the policy has been in force continuously. That is why cancelling cover after finishing a project can leave you exposed.
- What is run-off cover?
- Cover maintained after you stop trading or stop doing a type of work, so a claim arising later from past work still has a policy to respond. Many professionals carry it for several years after closing.
Keep reading
General information only, written for UK readers. It is not insurance advice and does not take account of your circumstances. Cover Sorted collects your enquiry and passes it to an FCA-authorised insurance specialist. Cover Sorted does not provide quotations, comparisons or recommendations.