How much does professional indemnity insurance cost for solicitors in the UK?

Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director · Last reviewed 8 July 2026

The honest answer is that professional indemnity for a solicitor's firm in England and Wales does not have a shelf price. The Solicitors Regulation Authority sets the minimum terms, the qualifying insurers set the appetite, and the underwriter sets the number after reading the submission. A three-partner private client firm and a three-partner conveyancing practice with the same turnover can sit thousands of pounds apart on premium because the risk profile is entirely different. This page sets out what actually drives the figure, what the SRA requires, and how Apex Insurance Brokers approaches a solicitors' PI submission.

What determines the premium

Underwriters look at a small number of factors in a fairly consistent order. Turnover is the starting point because it scales exposure, but two firms with identical turnover can attract very different terms. Work-type split is usually the biggest single lever after size. Residential conveyancing, commercial property, wills and probate involving property, and any historic mining, cladding, or new-build exposure all carry a higher rating factor than, say, family or private client advisory work. A firm doing 60% conveyancing will typically pay a materially higher rate on income than a firm doing 60% commercial advisory.

Claims and circumstances history matters at the level of substance, not just the level of the box on the form. A single notified conveyancing circumstance five years ago that closed with no payment is different from an open claim with reserve. Underwriters will read the narrative and price accordingly. The number of qualified fee-earners, the ratio of partners to junior staff, supervision arrangements, and file-review procedures are all factored in. Cyber and cybercrime cover is often built into or around the primary PI policy and needs to be considered together, particularly for firms handling client money on completion days.

Limit of indemnity is the next lever. The SRA minimum is £2 million each and every claim for firms structured as unlimited-liability partnerships or sole practitioners, and £3 million each and every claim for firms structured as recognised bodies with limited liability (LLPs and limited companies). Many firms buy higher primary limits or add an excess layer where their work profile demands it. Retention (the self-insured excess) is set at a level the firm can afford to absorb and is one of the few levers the firm can pull to reduce premium in a hard market.

The regulator's requirements

The SRA's Indemnity Insurance Rules and the Minimum Terms and Conditions (MTC) sit alongside the SRA Standards and Regulations. Every SRA-regulated firm must hold qualifying insurance at all times with a participating insurer. Cover must be written on a claims-made basis, must include the SRA minimum terms without variation, and must include run-off cover for six years automatically on cessation of practice (this is contractually built in and cannot be excluded).

The renewal date for the vast majority of firms is 1 October each year, which creates a compressed underwriting window through August and September. The MTC prohibits the insurer from avoiding cover for innocent partners on the ground of non-disclosure or misrepresentation, which is a significant departure from ordinary commercial contract law and one of the reasons SRA PI is priced the way it is. Firms that have historically had claims, that specialise in higher-risk work, or that have a recent history of merger, acquisition, or partner departure will typically need earlier engagement with the market to secure terms.

How Apex approaches solicitors' cover

Apex Insurance Brokers is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference number 724952) and places solicitors' PI with participating SRA-qualifying insurers. We are a named-broker practice: Matt Bartlett or a named colleague reads every submission personally, drafts the presentation, and negotiates on the firm's behalf. We do not run submissions through an aggregator or a call-centre process.

Our client retention rate across the book is approximately 95%, measured on the count of firms renewing with us year on year. We work with firms across the spectrum from sole practitioners through to multi-partner practices, and we place both primary and excess layers where the work profile requires it. Our approach is to engage early, build a full presentation that reflects the firm's actual risk profile, and market to the insurers most likely to give competitive terms for that profile rather than blanket-marketing the whole panel.

Ballpark ranges — with the health warning

Any range published on a web page is a starting point for conversation, not a quote. With that on the record: a small sole-practitioner private client firm with clean claims will often see primary MTC premiums starting in the low thousands of pounds, whereas a small conveyancing-heavy firm at the same turnover can sit several times higher. Mid-sized firms with mixed work often pay a low single-digit percentage of turnover on primary PI, but the number moves sharply with claims history, work profile, and the limit purchased.

Firms with recent notified claims, heavy exposure to historic conveyancing, or cross-border work should expect terms to reflect that. Firms with clean records and a lower-risk work profile should expect the market to compete for them. The specific figure comes out of the underwriter's assessment of the submission, not from a table.