The list of qualifying insurers is one of the few places in the PI market where regulatory consumer protection is named, public, and binary. A firm’s insurer is either on the list, or the firm is not compliant.
A qualifying insurer, in the RICS context, is an insurer that has signed up to the participating insurer agreement with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is therefore permitted to write professional indemnity cover for RICS-regulated firms on the RICS Minimum Approved Wording. The concept is not unique to surveyors — the Solicitors Regulation Authority operates a parallel system of “participating insurers” for solicitors’ PI under the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions. The purpose is the same in both cases: to ensure that the firm’s compulsory PI cover is written by a regulated, financially stable insurer that has agreed to a defined minimum standard. This guide explains what RICS actually requires of a qualifying insurer, what protections the buyer gets, and how the system parallels the SRA’s participating insurer model.
RICS publishes and maintains a list of qualifying insurers. The current list is updated periodically and is available from RICS directly. An RICS-regulated firm must hold its PI cover from an insurer on that list, on the minimum approved wording, for a limit at least equal to the prescribed minimum for the firm’s fee income band.
To be on the list, an insurer must:
Being on the list is not a guarantee of insurer solvency. The FCA and PRA regulate the insurer’s financial standing separately. What RICS does provide, alongside its listing, is a defined route to a successor insurer if the qualifying insurer becomes unable to meet its obligations. The successor insurer mechanism — sometimes called the “Assigned Risks Pool” route or the “successor practice” arrangements depending on the specific regulator — gives the regulated firm a defined fallback. The detail varies, and the buyer should always check the current RICS rules on this point, but the principle is that an RICS-regulated firm cannot simply be left bare because its insurer has failed.
The list of qualifying insurers is also a market signal. Insurers leave the list periodically — most recently in the wave of capacity contractions following the cladding crisis from 2018 to 2022. A firm whose renewal incumbent has come off the list mid-policy needs a replacement qualifying insurer for the unexpired portion of the cover; the broker’s job is to find one before the regulatory gap opens.
For the policyholder, the qualifying insurer concept has three practical effects:
It mandates wording. A qualifying insurer cannot offer the regulated firm a policy narrower than the RICS minimum approved wording. Broader is fine; narrower is not. This means that a firm buying from a qualifying insurer can rely on the structural protections (each-and-every-claim limit, defence costs in addition, no aggregate erosion on the primary layer, run-off requirement, defined aggregation language) without having to negotiate them.
It mandates conduct. The participating insurer agreement requires the insurer to handle claims and notifications in line with RICS expectations. In practice this means insurers cannot use abusive notification arguments, cannot decline cover on grounds inconsistent with the minimum wording, and cannot impose conditions that undermine the minimum cover. The Insurance Act 2015 — particularly section 3 on the duty of fair presentation and section 11 on terms not relevant to actual loss — applies in addition.
It provides a successor route. If a qualifying insurer fails or withdraws from the line, the regulator’s rules provide a mechanism for the firm to find replacement cover. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme provides separate protection for the policyholder against insurer insolvency, with the relevant compensation level depending on the policyholder’s status (small business or otherwise). The qualifying insurer route and the FSCS route can work together: FSCS picks up the loss from the failed insurer, and the qualifying insurer arrangement gets the firm on cover going forward.
The parallel to the SRA’s “participating insurer” model is close but not identical. Both regimes mandate minimum terms (SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions; RICS Minimum Approved Wording), both maintain a list of authorised insurers, and both have historic experience with insurer failures and capacity contractions. The SRA’s regime also operates an Assigned Risks Pool and has dealt with the qualifying insurer failures of the 2010s. The detail differs — solicitors’ MTCs are notably more aggressive than the RICS wording on certain points, including the absolute prohibition on aggregate limits at the prescribed minimum level — but the architecture is the same.
A six-partner surveying practice has been with a long-standing qualifying insurer for twelve years. At the broker’s quarterly market briefing, the firm hears that the incumbent insurer is reducing its appetite for residential project monitoring and is rumoured to be considering withdrawal from the RICS qualifying list. The firm’s current cover incepts in March and is on a £3m each-and-every limit with a fire safety endorsement carved back to relevant buildings.
The broker arranges a parallel quotation from a different qualifying insurer ahead of renewal. The alternative insurer’s primary wording is identical (RICS minimum approved) but the fire safety endorsement is broader, and the alternative will not agree to carve back to relevant buildings only. The broker secures cover with a third qualifying insurer that will match the carve-back at a 15% premium increase. The firm accepts. Six months later, the original incumbent does withdraw from the qualifying list. The firm has already moved; the firms still with the incumbent must find new cover or face a regulatory gap.
The premium increase was the cost of optionality. The firm bought a market alternative before it became a forced choice.
Apex’s view: The qualifying insurer concept is one of the most underrated protections in the surveyors’ market. The list itself is a piece of regulatory infrastructure that does a great deal of consumer-protection work invisibly — it standardises wording, disciplines insurer conduct, and provides a defined route through insolvency. The risk is complacency. A firm that has been with the same qualifying insurer for twelve years can be one withdrawal announcement away from a forced move. The right discipline is to test the market every two or three years even when the incumbent is comfortable, and to know the alternative qualifying insurers’ wording positions before they become the only option. The list is the floor; the broker’s job is to build a policy that sits well above it.
Apex Insurance Brokers serves UK professional services firms and commercial businesses. Call 0117 325 0027, email hello@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk, or request a quotation.
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