Let’s Get Your Professional Indemnity Quote!
Despite the name of our website, we understand that a small business has additional insurance requirements besides just public liability.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
One form of cover that many business types should not be without is professional indemnity insurance.
In this guide we’ll take a look at what professional indemnity covers, which types of businesses need it and how much it costs.
What is professional indemnity?
Professional indemnity is a form of insurance which can protect you and your business in the event that another person suffers a loss due to the professional services provided by you.
In simple terms, professional indemnity is very similar to public liability. Where they differ is that public liability is more about your physical actions whilst professional indemnity is more about your non-physical actions (i.e. advice and professional services).
The policy will cover you for alleged negligence or breach of duty arising from an act, error or omission in the performance of your professional services. Cover includes the client’s costs as well as your legal defence costs.
Who needs cover?
There was a time when professional indemnity was only required by people such as doctors, solicitors and accountants, but things have changed over the last decade or so.
Today there are a huge range of occupations and business types which require insurance.
As a general rule, if you are providing advice or services to other people as a skilled, expert or professional person, then you have professional duty to your clients.
If you breach that duty by doing something (or not doing something) that results in a loss to your client, then you could find yourself legally liable for their loss and therefore needing insurance.
Some of the common occupations that can benefit from professional indemnity insurance include engineers, consultants, midwives, IT professionals and many more.
For some professions the insurance will be mandatory. These occupations include accountants, financial advisers, solicitors, insurance brokers and medical practitioners.
How much does it cost?
As with any form of insurance, the cost of professional indemnity can vary dramatically depending on the person or business to be insured.
For a consultant operating as a sole trader the cost of the insurance can be from as little as $500, whereas for a large multinational the costs can climb well into the hundreds of thousands.
Here at publicliabilityinsurance.com.au we can assist you with quotes on professional indemnity insurance along with a range of other business insurance types.
For a quote on your business insurance please complete our online quote request or call our office on 1300 542 245.