Professional Indemnity insurance matters
Professional indemnity insurance is not a legal requirement for business but is mandatory in some industries, such as medicine, accounting, law and financial advisers and it is recommended for anyone who is providing professional services or advice in exchange for a fee – like engineers, graphic designers, or IT consultants.
protect your assets & brand reputation if your advice or services cause a client to take legal action against you.
The amount of cover your business needs will depend on the nature of your work and the type of clients you service. If you work with large organisations in heavily regulated industries, then your professional indemnity requirements are likely to be higher.
There are often exclusions, deductibles and limits which apply, so contact an Avoca Insurance Broker to discuss your specific insurance needs.
Have any questions? Call for a quick chat!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Professional indemnity insurance is not a legal requirement however it is compulsory for some professionals to hold and maintain Professional Indemnity insurance such as Accountants, Bookkeepers/ BAS and Tax Agents, Solicitors, Financial Advisors and Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Agents, Architects or some health professionals.
Other professions who provide advice or a professional service and should consider taking out a professional indemnity policy.
- Accounts Preparation
- Adoption Agencies
- Advertising Agencies & Services
- Aged Care Consultants
- Agricultural Consultant
- Agronomists
- Aquaculture Consultants
- Arbitrators
- Archaeologists
- Archival Firms
- Artists/Art Directors
- Authors
- BAS Services
- Biologist
- Book Binders
- Bookkeeper
- Botanist
- Building Designers
- Business Coaches
- Business Planning
- Business Project Management
- Business Training Courses
- Buyers Agents/Advocates
- Career Advisory Services
- Cartography Consultants
- Catering Consultants
- Change Management
- Civil Celebrants
- Company Search Agencies
- Compliance Consultants
- Conference Management
- Cooking Instructors
- Copy Writers
- Court Reporters
- Draftsperson & The Drawing
- Ecology Advisors
- Editors
- Education Advisory Services
- Education Consultants
- Electrician
- Employment Agents
- Energy Consultant
- Energy Raters
- Engineers
- Environmental Consultants
- Entomology Consultants
- Fauna Consultants
- Food Inspectors
- Forestry Consultants
- Funeral Directors
- Gemologists
- Geographers
- Graphic Designers
- Green Auditors
- Health & Safety Consultants, Workplace Assessors
- Historians
- Home Sustainability Assessors
- Horticultural Advisors
- Hospital Consultants
- Hotel Consultants
- Human Resource Consulting
- Hygiene Consultant
- Illustrators
- Image Consultants
- Import and Export Agents
- Industrial Relations Consultants
- Insurance Loss Adjusters
- Interior Designers
- Interpreters
- Irrigation Design and Consultants
- Landscape Designers
- Lapidary (Gemstones) Consultants
- Librarians
- Literary Agents
- Logistic Advisors
- Management Consultants
- Marketing Consultants
- Market Research Analysts
- Marriage and Family Counsellors
- Mediators
- Metallurgy Consultants
- Meteorology Advisors
- Methamphetamine Testing
- Microbiologists
- Migration Agents
- Multimedia Consultants
- Museum Curators
- Numismatic (Coins) Advisors
- Occupational Health & Safety Consultants
- Organisational Structure and Staffing
- Philatelic (Stamps) Advisors
- Photographer
- Pool Safety Consultants
- Private Investigators
- Process Servers
- Property Title Searchers
- Publicists
- Public Record Search Firms
- Public Relation Advisors & Firms
- Quality Control Advisors
- Recruitment Consultant
- Registered Training Organisations
- Relocation Agents
- Risk Management Consultants
- Robotics Advisors
- Secretarial Services
- Sewage Consultants
- Shipping and Freight Forwarding
- Sociologists
- Solar Energy Consultants
- Statisticians
- Strategic Planning
- Sustainable Assessors and Auditors
- Tax Agent
- Technical Writers
- Textile Designers
- Tourist Bureau and Guides
- Town and Country Planning
- Training
- Traffic Management
- Translators
- Travel Agents
- Viticulture Consultants
- Water Brokers
- Water Conservation Advisors
- Wedding Planners
- Wind Energy Consultants
- Wool Brokers and Classification
- Workflow Efficiencies
- Workplace Assessors
- Zoologists
Insurers can look to limit their exposure to consequential financial loss by limiting claims to rectification costs only and excluding consequential losses such as:
- loss of profit;
- loss of use of any plant or facility;
- loss of earning capacity;
- loss of goodwill;
- loss of contract;
- delay or interruption of business;
- depreciation of any kind; or
- loss due to delay.
Claims from consequential financial loss are costly for insurers to defend and are often difficult to value or rate by usual methods.
The occupations that have the highest exposure to consequential financial loss include those involved in, or providing services to, products, commodities or supply chains as they often include loss from business interruption, downtime or accumulation exposures, and include:
- Utilities/energy (water, gas, electricity) or technology (data/internet) where the services are used by other businesses
- Manufacturing/heavy industry where downtime of plant or machinery leads to loss of production or supply of products/commodities
- Transport/logistics that cause supply chain delays
Insureds can look to limit their exposure to consequential loss in a few ways:
- Obtaining peer review or third party sign-off on design work involved in the above activities/occupations (so any claims can be subrogated proportionally against these entities)
- Contractually, by excluding consequential loss under contract or limiting their liability under contract to the cost of the contract or to rectification costs only
Ensure they review the contracts they sign or get independent legal advice to ensure they are not picking up any unexpected or assumed liability under the contract
