20 Questions to Ask Before Appointing a PI Broker

20 Questions to Ask Before Appointing a PI Broker

This checklist is written to help a UK professional services firm conduct a structured, fair comparison between brokers when placing or re-tendering its professional indemnity programme. It is deliberately neutral. The same questions are useful whether the firm chooses to appoint Apex, retains its current broker, or appoints someone else.

A broker is appointed for years, not for the duration of a single placement. The questions below test the qualities that matter over that period: market access, sector understanding, claims advocacy, transparency on remuneration, regulatory standing, and the way the broker behaves when a client has a problem.

How to use

Print the checklist. Send it, in advance, to each broker invited to pitch. Ask for written answers within an agreed timeframe. Use the same questions for the firm’s incumbent broker. Do not award points for charm. Award points for evidence.

Part one — market access and placement

1. Which insurers are you able to approach for our class of business, and on what basis (open market, scheme, MGA capacity)? Please list the insurers approached for similar firms in the last 12 months.

What you are testing: breadth of market access and whether the broker can in fact reach the markets that matter for your firm and size. A broker without access to your relevant markets is not in a position to test pricing or wording.

1. Which insurers, if any, do you have a particular distribution arrangement with (binder, delegated authority, exclusive scheme) that could affect how you place our business?

What you are testing: whether any commercial arrangement could give the broker an incentive to favour one insurer over another. The answer does not need to be “none” to be acceptable; what matters is disclosure.

1. Will you provide a written market report after each placement showing which insurers were approached, which declined, which quoted, and how the recommended option was selected?

What you are testing: whether the firm will receive an audit trail of the placement decision.

Part two — sector specialism and team

1. How many UK firms in our sector do you currently place PI for, and at what range of fee income and limit size?

What you are testing: whether the broker has a credible book in your sector, not whether they have heard of it.

1. Who will be the named broker on our account, what is their experience in our sector, and who covers them when they are unavailable?

What you are testing: continuity of relationship and depth of bench. The named broker should not be the only person who knows the file.

1. What is the team’s typical response time for routine queries, and what is the agreed escalation route for urgent matters such as a claim notification?

What you are testing: process, not promises. We have deliberately not asked for an SLA. Listen for an answer that describes a process the broker can actually run.

Part three — claims advocacy

1. Describe the broker’s role in claims handling once a notification has been made. Will you advocate for the insured on coverage decisions, panel solicitor selection, reserve setting, and settlement discussions?

What you are testing: whether the broker actively represents the insured at the point of claim, or whether the broker steps back once the notification is passed to the insurer.

1. How many PI claims have you supported to resolution in our sector in the last 24 months? Please describe two anonymised examples illustrating the broker’s role.

What you are testing: actual experience, not theoretical capability.

1. What is your approach where the insured and the insurer disagree on coverage?

What you are testing: whether the broker has thought about this in advance and has a process. A broker who has never had a coverage dispute either places very few claims or is not in a position to recognise one.

Part four — remuneration and transparency

1. How will you be remunerated for placing our PI: commission, fee, profit share, or a combination? Please disclose the basis and the amount, in writing, before placement.

What you are testing: transparency. UK brokers must disclose the nature and basis of their remuneration on request; this question is asking the broker to make it standard for your account.

1. Will you disclose any profit-share, override, or contingent commission arrangements with the insurer on our policy?

What you are testing: whether the broker is willing to put any indirect remuneration on the table.

1. Do you offer a fee-based alternative to commission, and if so, on what basis?

What you are testing: whether the firm has the option of a fixed fee model, which some firms prefer for budgeting reasons.

Part five — regulatory and complaints record

1. Provide your FCA firm reference number and confirm the permissions you hold for advising on and arranging professional indemnity insurance for our type of firm.

What you are testing: that the broker is authorised for the activity the firm is asking them to carry out. Verify the answer at register.fca.org.uk.

1. Provide a summary of any FCA enforcement action, voluntary undertaking, or material regulatory finding in the last five years.

What you are testing: candour. Most established brokers will have something to disclose at some level; the absence of any disclosure may itself warrant a follow-up question.

1. How many formal complaints did your firm receive from clients in the last reporting period? How many were upheld? How many were referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service?

What you are testing: that the broker has a complaints log and is willing to share the headline numbers, in line with normal regulatory expectations.

1. What is your published Trustpilot score, Feefo score, or equivalent public client feedback measure? If the firm does not solicit public feedback, please say so.

What you are testing: whether the firm collects and publishes feedback. Absence is acceptable if openly stated.

Part six — governance, conflicts and vulnerable customers

1. Provide a copy of your conflicts of interest policy and describe how it would be applied in our placement.

What you are testing: that a written policy exists and that the broker can explain its operation in plain English.

1. Provide a copy of your vulnerable customer policy, and describe how the policy applies where the insured is a firm (for example, in a sole practitioner or owner-managed context).

What you are testing: that the broker has thought about vulnerability beyond the consumer context. Some professional services principals — sole practitioners, small partnerships, recent bereavements — can present vulnerability characteristics.

1. Describe your approach to data protection, including the steps taken to protect the firm’s submission, claims file and any sensitive personal data shared with the broker.

What you are testing: a brief, evidenced answer covering data location, access control, breach response and onward sharing with insurers.

1. What is your process for notifying us, in writing, of any material change in the broker’s ownership, authorisation, capacity arrangements, or service team during the year?

What you are testing: that the broker has a process for keeping the firm informed of changes that could affect the relationship.

Scoring guidance

This is a comparison aid, not a scientific instrument. Use it the way a procurement team would: read the written answers, score each one on a simple 1 to 5 scale (1 = vague or evasive, 5 = clear, specific and evidenced), and weight the categories according to what matters most to your firm.

Firms placing standard PI at low limits often weight market access and remuneration transparency most heavily. Firms with complex programmes, multiple disciplines or significant claims history often weight claims advocacy and sector specialism most heavily. There is no single right weighting.

Pay particular attention to the answers to questions 7, 8, 9, 13 and 17. Vague answers in these areas are more important than vague answers elsewhere.

A short note on this checklist

We are an FCA-authorised broker. We are happy for any firm to use this checklist to interrogate us alongside other brokers. We would rather a firm appoint a broker on the basis of the right questions than appoint us on the basis of the wrong ones. If the firm chooses to appoint someone else, that is a sensible outcome of a sensible process.

If you would like to discuss any of the questions or how we would answer them, we are reachable on the details below.

Apex Insurance Brokers Ltd. Registered office: c/o Westcan, 5 Anglo Office Park, Bristol BS15 1NT. Trading address: QCS, 53 Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol BS1 4HQ. Registered in England and Wales, Companies House number 07014570. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 724952. Verify our registration at register.fca.org.uk.

Speak to Apex about your cover — 0117 325 0027 or info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk

Last reviewed: May 2026