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PI buyer’s guide · Updated 6 September 2026
There is no single best professional indemnity insurer for every UK firm — the right choice depends on your profession, the limit you need, your claims history and whether a regulator dictates the wording — so this guide compares the four ways to buy, using each provider’s own published facts rather than a made-up ranking.
Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
In short
There is no single best professional indemnity (PI) insurance in the UK. The best policy for a firm depends on its profession (and whether the SRA, RICS, ICAEW or FCA dictates the wording or the insurer), the limit a client contract demands, its claims and circumstances history, and how much of the work it wants to do itself. There are four routes: direct insurers such as Hiscox, AXA and Markel Direct suit straightforward, lower-limit risks; digital brokers such as Simply Business, PolicyBee and Superscript add a panel and a fast online purchase; comparison sites mostly run one partner’s journey; and specialist brokers suit regulated professions, higher limits and anything non-standard. Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent, director-owned specialist PI broker, established 2009, with access to over 30 markets including Lloyd’s, and usually returns three or four competing quotes.
Professional indemnity insurance pays the legal costs and damages when a client alleges that your advice, design or professional work caused them a financial loss. It is written on a claims-made basis: the policy in force when the claim is made responds, subject to its retroactive date, so the wording you hold in three years’ time matters as much as the price you pay today.
That is why “best” cannot be a league table. The insurer that is right for a sole-trader IT contractor buying £250,000 of cover online is not the one for a six-partner law firm that must hold SRA-compliant cover, or for a consultancy with a notified circumstance on file. Most providers below publish a “from” price; none is a typical price, and each one’s stated basis is set out further down. Where a provider is the better choice for a type of firm, we say so.
| Route | Examples | Suits well | Look out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Direct insurer | Hiscox, AXA, Markel Direct | Straightforward risks buying online; one insurer’s wording; limits up to £5m–£10m | You are comparing one insurer only; the headline price is a starting price on a stated basis |
| 2. Digital broker or MGA | Simply Business, PolicyBee, Superscript | Sole traders and small companies who want a panel and a purchase in minutes | Limits and eligibility are set by the online journey; insurers are not always named |
| 3. Comparison site | Compare the Market, MoneySuperMarket, money.co.uk, GoCompare | Price discovery for standard trades | Most run one partner’s journey, so the “comparison” is of that partner’s panel |
| 4. Specialist broker | Independent firms such as Apex; consolidated and global brokers | Regulated professions, higher limits, claims or CCJ history, multiple activities, firms that want a named person | Ownership and market access vary widely; ask how many insurers were approached |
Two existing Apex guides go deeper on the channel question: should I use a PI broker or buy direct? and PI broker vs comparison site.
Hiscox’s PI page advertises an “Online quote in 5 minutes”, “Cover up to £10 million” and PI “from just £8.00 per month” — a figure based on “an average of all professional indemnity policies sold to at least 10% of our customer base between April 2025 and April 2026”. Its cost FAQ says “there is no average professional indemnity cost” and gives one worked example: “cover for £250,000 could cost £400, while cover for £1,000,000 could cost £600”. It also writes PI through brokers: its broker page lists professional indemnity for “small, medium or large businesses”.
Suits well: consultancies, technology and creative firms with a clean history that want one strong wording, up to £10 million, bought quickly.
AXA’s PI page advertises cover “from just £6* a month”, the asterisk reading “10% of our customers paid this or less between April and June 2026”. It offers “up to £5 million”, adding that limits “may vary depending on your occupation and individual circumstances”. Its quote form asks, among other things, for “details of any previous claims or circumstances you’re aware of”.
Suits well: sole traders and small firms in the occupations AXA lists who want a household-name insurer, up to £5 million, bought online.
Markel Direct’s PI page advertises PI “from £8 a month”, footnoted “Price based on an IT contractor requiring £50,000 of professional indemnity insurance” and “The monthly figure shown is an average equivalent monthly of the annual premium. Higher first payment applies and individual premium may vary.” It covers “over 200 professions” with “levels of cover ranging from £50,000 to £5m”, quotes online “in 90 seconds”, and publishes three indicative annual premiums: IT contractor £217.28, business consultant £281.68, marketing consultant £194.88.
Suits well: contractors, freelancers and small consultancies buying £50,000 to £5m with no complications.
Insurance Premium Tax at 12% applies to UK general insurance premiums. Check whether a headline price includes it; PolicyBee, below, says its does.
Simply Business is a trading name of Xbridge Limited, an FCA-regulated broker. Its PI page advertises quotes “from £6.90 per month”, footnoted “The price is for up to £1 million of professional indemnity insurance – 10% of customers paid £82.75 or less annually between 1st Jan – 30th Jun 2026. Equivalent to £6.90 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly).” It offers limits “between £50,000 and £5 million, depending on your business type”, shows Allianz, AIG, AXA, Churchill, Covea, Hiscox and Zurich as its insurers, and states “Join over a million customers”, “£57 million in claims paid out in 2025” (a figure it says is rounded across its product range) and “Rated 4.5/5 based on 40k reviews”. Its journey also sits behind Compare the Market and MoneySuperMarket (Route 3).
Suits well: sole traders, partnerships and small companies that want several insurers priced in one online journey.
PolicyBee describes itself on its PI page as “a specialist business insurance broker”. It advertises “Professional indemnity from £8.14 a month for £100,000 cover”, “Based on a quote for IT services with an annual income of up to £25,000. All prices include IPT at 12%.” It offers “up to £10,000,000 cover”, a “Quote online in less than 2 minutes” and “Rated 4.8/5 based on 6,350 reviews”, and names ICAEW, ARB, RICS and the FRC as bodies that require PI. Its PI page does not name the insurers behind the policies.
Suits well: freelancers and small businesses across the hundreds of occupations it lists, including some needing a higher limit than most online journeys offer.
Superscript is a trading name of Enro Limited, FCA-authorised. Its PI page shows no headline price; it says “Pick the insurance limits you want and tweak your policy at any time with no extra fees”, “We’ll beat the price of any like-for-like quote. T&Cs apply”, “We offer PI cover to over 1,000 industries” and “Our insurance products are underwritten by Standard & Poor’s A-rated financial strength or higher”, and runs a separate broker service for “high-growth tech companies with complex risks”. Its journey powers money.co.uk’s PI comparison, whose price table is Superscript customer data (see the from-price table below).
Suits well: start-ups, technology firms and businesses that expect to change limits or add covers during the year.
Compare the Market’s PI page carries a “Provided by Simply Business” mark, refers enquiries to “our team of insurance experts at Simply Business”, and says its phone lines “are operated by our trusted partner, Simply Business”; it lists Covea, AXA, RSA, Churchill, Zurich, QBE, Finsbury, Lexicon and Chiswell as providers (reviewed by Amy Rootham, 10 June 2026).
MoneySuperMarket’s PI page says “Find cover from £6.70 a month. In partnership with Simply Business” and “MoneySuperMarket has a commercial partnership with Simply Business”; its footnote reads “According to Simply Business data, 10% of customers paid £6.70 or less monthly … between 1st May – 31st Jul 2026”. It also publishes Simply Business averages for October–December 2024 — accountants £87.86 a year, consultants £111.03 (reviewed by Beth Leslie, 24 August 2026).
money.co.uk’s PI page is marked “Provided by Superscript” and its price table is Superscript data (last updated 24 August 2026). GoCompare also lists professional indemnity; its site declined our automated check on 6 September 2026, so nothing is quoted from it.
The practical point: a comparison site shows one partner’s panel priced for a standard trade. It is not a survey of the UK PI market, and it is not built for regulated wordings or non-standard histories. See price comparison sites and business insurance.
A specialist PI broker presents your risk to insurers that do not sell direct. That is not a marketing line: the SRA’s participating insurers page says “Most Participating Insurers prefer to be contacted by broker only” (SRA), and ICAEW’s 2025–26 list marks the great majority “Contact via broker only” (ICAEW). For regulated firms and for anyone with a claim, a circumstance or a CCJ on file, the broker route is where most of the market lives.
Specialist brokers differ most in ownership and market access. Some are owned by their directors; many well-known names are now owned by consolidators, private-equity groups or global brokers. Our record of UK PI brokers sets out who has been bought and who is still independent. Whichever broker you use, ask how many insurers were approached, which declined and why, and whether the recommendation is tied to a scheme. And if you want the cheapest possible policy bought online in five minutes with no conversation, an online product may suit you better; we would rather say so than waste your time.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker established in 2009 and based in Bristol, owned entirely by its directors and directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, placing professional indemnity insurance for solicitors, accountants, surveyors, architects, engineers, financial advisers, consultants and other professional firms across the UK. It is one of the longest-established independently owned professional indemnity specialists in the UK, and it is not for sale: we have declined approaches to buy the firm. We are not tied to any single insurer or professional-body scheme, we do not run our own policy or underwriting, and we have no placement quotas. We have access to over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, and we usually return three or four competing quotes set out so you can compare them like for like. Every client has a named broker — the same person from first quote to renewal — and every claim notification gets director-level attention rather than a call-centre queue.
Whichever route you take, an insurer issues the policy. Apex publishes neutral pairwise comparisons of nine insurers that write UK professional indemnity: Hiscox vs Markel, Hiscox vs AXA, AXA vs Zurich, Aviva vs RSA, Chubb vs CNA Hardy, Markel vs Travelers. Simply Business names Allianz, AIG, AXA, Churchill, Covea, Hiscox and Zurich; Compare the Market lists Covea, AXA, RSA, Churchill, Zurich, QBE, Finsbury, Lexicon and Chiswell. The SRA’s and ICAEW’s participating-insurer lists each run to dozens of insurers, most of them broker-only.
“A-rated” refers to a financial-strength rating from an agency such as Standard & Poor’s or AM Best: an opinion on the insurer’s capacity to pay claims, not a judgement on its wording, claims handling or appetite for your profession. Regulators use ratings as a floor — RICS requires a listed insurer rated at least B+ by AM Best or BBB by Standard & Poor’s (RICS) — and sellers use them as reassurance, as in Superscript’s “underwritten by Standard & Poor’s A-rated financial strength or higher”. A rating is worth checking; it is not a reason to skip the exclusions. See A-rated vs unrated PI insurers and Lloyd’s vs company-market PI.
| Your situation | Sensible route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sole-trader contractor or freelancer, £50,000–£1m, no claims | Direct insurer or digital broker | This is the risk the from-prices are built on; buy online, then read the retroactive date and exclusions |
| Consultancy or agency with staff, £1m–£2m, client contracts | Digital broker or direct; specialist broker if a contract asks for bespoke terms | Unusual indemnities, jurisdictions or additional-insured demands need a conversation |
| Solicitor (SRA) | Specialist broker | A participating insurer on the SRA minimum terms (£2m each claim; £3m for recognised or licensed bodies); most participating insurers are broker-only |
| Accountant (ICAEW, ACCA, AAT) | Direct or specialist broker | ICAEW cover must be with a participating insurer; Hiscox is listed as contactable directly or via a broker, most others via broker only |
| Surveyor (RICS) | Specialist broker | A listed insurer on the RICS minimum wording; minimums of £250,000, £500,000 or £1m by turnover |
| Architect (ARB) | Direct or specialist broker | £250,000 each-and-every claim; design-and-build or unusual projects push towards a broker |
| Financial adviser (FCA MIPRU or IPRU-INV) | Specialist broker | Euro-denominated minimums, DB-transfer history and exclusions need an insurer that understands adviser risk |
| Any firm with a claim, a circumstance, a decline or a CCJ | Specialist broker | See non-standard professional indemnity; the Apex Non-Standard PI Desk gives a straight answer in five working days |
| Limit above £5m | Hiscox or PolicyBee online (both state up to £10m), or a specialist broker | Most online journeys stop at £5m; excess-of-loss layers are a broker job |
| Premium rose sharply, or nobody has re-marketed the risk in years | Specialist broker | A re-market, or a written stay-put letter if the existing cover is right |
Every headline price on this page is real, and none is what a typical firm pays. Each provider says so in its own footnote:
| Provider | Headline | Its own stated basis |
|---|---|---|
| AXA | from £6 a month | “10% of our customers paid this or less between April and June 2026” |
| Simply Business | from £6.90 per month | up to £1m of PI; “10% of customers paid £82.75 or less annually between 1st Jan – 30th Jun 2026”; excludes the extra cost of paying monthly |
| MoneySuperMarket | from £6.70 a month | Simply Business data; 10% of customers paid this or less, 1 May – 31 July 2026 |
| Hiscox | from £8.00 per month | “an average of all professional indemnity policies sold to at least 10% of our customer base between April 2025 and April 2026” |
| Markel Direct | from £8 a month | “an IT contractor requiring £50,000 of professional indemnity insurance”; an average monthly equivalent of the annual premium, higher first payment applies |
| PolicyBee | from £8.14 a month for £100,000 | “a quote for IT services with an annual income of up to £25,000. All prices include IPT at 12%” |
| money.co.uk (Superscript data) | £7.58–£11.92 a month by profession | the 10th percentile, July–September 2024; the 90th-percentile column on the same table runs from £13.25 to £79.17 |
So a “from” price is a tenth-percentile or a £50,000-limit figure; a firm with fee income, staff, a £1m or £2m limit and a regulated wording should expect a multiple of it. Monthly figures often exclude the cost of paying monthly, and Insurance Premium Tax at 12% is added to premiums, which only some headline figures mention. Apex’s PI cost guide publishes ranges by profession from our own placements, with the basis stated.
For regulated professions, the “best” insurer is first of all one the regulator accepts.
Check your figure with the PI minimum limit calculator; how much PI insurance do you need, the PI buyer’s checklist and is cheap PI a false economy? cover the wording itself.
Insurer comparisons: Hiscox vs Markel, Hiscox vs AXA, AXA vs Zurich, Aviva vs RSA, Chubb vs CNA Hardy, Markel vs Travelers.
Sources checked 6 September 2026
The one whose wording, limit and insurer fit your profession, contracts and history. For a freelancer with no claims, a direct insurer or digital broker is often best. For solicitors, surveyors, ICAEW firms and financial advisers, the insurer must first be one the regulator accepts, and most of those only deal through brokers. Compare wordings and retroactive dates side by side, not logos or headline prices.
There is no reliable UK-wide average; Hiscox’s own cost page says “there is no average professional indemnity cost”. Published figures are channel-specific: MoneySuperMarket reports that Simply Business customers who were accountants paid £87.86 a year on average and consultants £111.03 (October–December 2024). Regulated firms with fee income and higher limits pay far more; Apex publishes ranges by profession on its PI cost page.
No official ranking exists. Apex publishes neutral comparisons of Hiscox, Markel, AXA, Zurich, Aviva, RSA, Chubb, CNA Hardy and Travelers, all of which write UK PI. For regulated firms the relevant list is the regulator’s: the SRA and ICAEW publish participating insurers, RICS publishes listed insurers. The “top” insurer is the one on the right list with the right wording and appetite for your firm.
The lowest published starting prices in September 2026 are AXA’s £6 a month (its cheapest 10% of customers, April–June 2026) and Simply Business’s £6.90 a month (£82.75 a year or less for its cheapest 10%, January–June 2026, up to £1m), both before the cost of paying monthly. The cheapest usable policy is the one that still responds when a claim arrives; a low premium with a short retroactive date can be worthless.
If you give advice, produce designs or handle clients’ money or data, one allegation of negligence can cost more in defence costs than years of premiums, whether or not you were at fault. Many clients will not sign a contract without it, and the SRA, RICS, ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, ARB and FCA make it compulsory for the firms they regulate, for whom it is a condition of practising.
Usually yes, but read your policy’s cancellation terms first, because any refund depends on them. Because PI is claims-made, the new policy must start before the old one ends and its retroactive date must reach back to your earliest continuous cover, or past work falls into a gap. Notify known circumstances to the outgoing insurer before you move; a new insurer will exclude them.
A limit that meets your contracts and regulator; a clear statement of whether defence costs sit inside or on top of that limit; a retroactive date covering all past work; an excess you can pay; and exclusions you have actually read, especially contractual liability, specific activities, jurisdictions and cyber. Regulated firms also need the regulator’s minimum wording, and every firm should know how it will buy run-off cover.
An each-and-every limit applies in full to every claim in the year; an aggregate limit is the most the insurer pays for all claims combined, so £1m aggregate with two £700,000 claims leaves £300,000 for the second. Regulators specify the basis: the SRA minimum terms require £2m each claim (£3m for recognised and licensed bodies); ICAEW’s £2m applies to any single claim and in the aggregate; ARB expects £250,000 each-and-every claim.
PI policies respond to claims made during the policy period, but only for work done after the retroactive date in the schedule; Hiscox’s PI page describes it as “usually the date from which you have held continuous cover”. If a new policy carries a later retroactive date than the old one, the work in between is uninsured, so check the new schedule before the old policy lapses.
Run-off is PI cover that continues after a firm stops trading, merges or a practitioner retires, so that claims arriving later about past work are still insured. The SRA and RICS both require six years, and ARB expects six years. The premium is normally a multiple of the last annual premium, so ask how run-off will be priced when you choose the insurer, not when you close.
Tell us your profession, fee income, the limit you need and anything unusual; a named broker approaches the markets that fit and returns quotes you can compare like for like. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Get a PI quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms. Statements about other providers were taken from those providers’ own websites on 6 September 2026 and may have changed since; any prices are the starting prices they publish, on the basis they state, not typical premiums and not quotes. Provider names are the trade marks of their owners and are used only to identify them; no provider named has endorsed this page. Apex publishes no premium figures of its own on this page.
