Professional Indemnity Trade Insurance

Whilst indemnity insurance is not required by law, it is a type of insurance that the vast majority of businesses could not do without, particularly when you are giving advice. Just having a claim raised against you, regardless of whether it’s founded or even successful, can be timely and very costly. Our professional indemnity cover provides legal defence costs from the outset. If the claimant is successful and you have given wrongful advice, the policy will pay compensation awarded against you.

It’s also true that many professional trade organisations and institutions require you to have minimum levels of indemnity insurance before becoming authorised or a member.

You are unlikely to find an insurance company who will advise you exactly on how much cover you need. It is essentially your responsibility to take out adequate levels of cover although our advisers can go through your options over the phone and advise on what you should take into account.

Check contracts and your customer and other regulatory requirements. Many industry organisations or professional bodies will likely be able to offer you some guidance on this also.

Professionals offering design, advice or consultancy services from their own home can make professional errors for which they may be liable, in exactly the same way as can occur whilst working from an office, design studio, surgery or a contract site. Never make assumptions!

It’s very important that you do not assume that just because you tucked away working from your own home, out of sight, that you can’t breach your professional duties of care. Do speak with an adviser about your risks.

When you stop trading or retire, we recommend you still have insurance known as ‘Professional Indemnity run off’ cover. This would protect you from allegations of negligent advice raised against you in retirement that arise from past contracts and services performed. Legal limitations permit claims to be made against you for up to six years from the time the breach of contract was committed, known legally as the ‘date cause of action’ accrued. Claims in Tort can be longer. For more information refer to Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980.

Many professional bodies insist on professional indemnity ‘run-off’ cover being in place for retired practitioners – i.e. Chartered accountants, surveyors and many more.

Yes we do. When you buy a policy from us, we email you all the policy documentation with full details of the cover you have with us. You can use this to present to your clients as proof of cover.

The answer depends on your business activities. We can readily provide public, products and employers' liability insurance packaged together with professional indemnity insurance in one combined package. In addition to protecting your liabilities, we can also offer business insurances cover for loss or damage to commercial property, buildings, office contents, stock and computer equipment (including loss of data.) and business interruption cover for loss of income.

Read our guide on  'What is the difference between professional indemnity and public liability insurance?'.

If you would prefer to spread the cost of your policy you have the option of setting up a Direct Debit to pay your premium in equal monthly instalments through our preferred provider, Premium Credit Limited (PCL).

If you want to know more about our monthly payment option, please read our dedicated page on Direct Debit.

To understand more about how PCL work together with Towergate, please read our Regulatory Information.