Professional indemnity renewal is rarely just an admin task. The wording, the limit, the excess, the retroactive date and the disclosure you provide all carry consequences that can sit on the firm’s balance sheet for years. The PI market for UK professional services is also still adjusting after several harder cycles. Firms that begin renewal preparation 90 days out tend to have more options and fewer surprises than firms that begin two weeks out.
This checklist sets out 30 actions, grouped by timing. It is not a substitute for advice on your specific firm. It is a working aide for the people inside the firm who own the renewal.
Print it. Allocate each item to a named person inside the firm. Diary the four timing windows. Bring the completed checklist to your renewal meeting with your broker, even if Apex is not that broker.
The four windows are:
T-90 to T-60: planning and stocktake. T-60 to T-30: gathering disclosure and underwriting material. T-30 to T-7: review, decision and instruction. T-7 to T-0: execution and filing.
Diary the renewal date in three independent places. The partner diary, the practice management system and a paper or shared calendar accessible to a second person. Missed renewal dates are still one of the most common preventable causes of uninsured exposure.
Identify a single named owner of the renewal inside the firm. The owner is responsible for the process, not the cover decision. Without a named owner, work tends to pile up against the deadline.
Pull the current policy schedule and the full policy wording. Not the certificate, the wording. Read it. Note any endorsements, sub-limits, and aggregated provisions you have not previously studied.
List the firm’s current regulated and unregulated activities. Compare the list to the schedule. Activities that have crept in during the year — new service lines, new advisory work, advice to overseas clients — need to be disclosed.
Reconcile fee income for the past 12 months against the figure declared at the last renewal. Material under-declaration of fee income is a disclosure issue. Plan to declare an honest projected figure for the new period.
List all subsidiaries, trading names, joint ventures and group companies that may rely on the policy. Cover usually attaches to named insured entities only. Group structure changes need a fresh look.
Note any change in regulated status during the year. New permissions, removed permissions, change of designated office holder, change of supervising body. Each may affect underwriting.
Cross-check professional body minimum requirements for the new policy year. SRA, RICS, ARB, ICAEW, ACCA, RIBA and others publish minimum terms and minimum levels. Confirm yours have not changed.
List sub-contractors, consultants and agency staff who carried out client-facing work during the period. Confirm whether their work is covered under your policy or relies on their own. Gaps here are common.
List every jurisdiction where the firm has advised, accepted instructions, or carried out site visits. Territorial and jurisdiction limits are two separate clauses and both matter.
Update the schedule of territorial and jurisdiction limits you will be requesting. Wider is not always better; a wider limit can attract a higher premium without commercial benefit if the firm does not work there.
Run a documented circumstance review with every principal, partner and senior fee-earner. Ask each, in writing, whether they are aware of any matter that could give rise to a claim. Keep the responses on file.
Record any threatened claim, complaint, regulatory letter or fee dispute on file. The proposal form will ask. Late disclosure of a known circumstance can void cover for that matter.
Speak to outgoing and incoming partners about prior acts cover. A partner joining from another firm brings exposure for work done before they joined. A partner leaving may need run-off arrangements. Document the position.
Check the retroactive date on the current policy. It should usually match or precede your earliest exposure. A later retroactive date is a common and serious gap that often gets missed for years.
List any business acquired, merged in, or taken on by way of asset purchase during the year. Acquired liabilities and prior-acts cover for absorbed work need explicit treatment.
Decide whether to request alternative limit options. Most insurers will quote two or three layers if asked. Asking does not commit you to buying.
Decide whether to request alternative excess options. A higher excess in exchange for a lower premium is sometimes appropriate, but it changes the firm’s cash exposure on any single claim and needs partner sign-off.
Request a no-claims confirmation or claims experience letter from the current insurer. Allow at least three weeks for it to arrive.
If you intend to invite alternative brokers to quote, give written notice to the current broker that they should not approach insurers without your instruction. This avoids the market being “blocked” by overlapping submissions.
Brief your broker formally in writing. The brief should cover the firm’s structure, fee income, activity mix, claims history, target programme, and any specific cover features that matter to the firm. A written brief gives you something to measure quotations against.
Receive the market submission draft from your broker. Sign it off only when you are satisfied that every disclosure question has been answered fully and honestly. The named signatory is personally exposed if disclosure is materially wrong.
Sign the proposal form or market submission. Keep a dated copy.
Receive quotations. Tabulate them on a single side of paper: insurer, limit, excess, premium, key endorsements, exclusions, retroactive date, and any subjectivities.
Review wording differences as carefully as price. A cheaper premium with a tighter wording, a later retroactive date, or an aggregated rather than each-and-every-claim limit can be materially worse value.
Confirm any subjectivities. Subjectivities are conditions the insurer requires before cover incepts (for example, a signed warranty or a confirmation of a process). Unmet subjectivities can leave the firm without effective cover.
Confirm payment terms. If you intend to use premium finance, factor in the credit cost, the cancellation provisions and the working-capital impact of monthly instalments versus an annual payment.
Receive the draft policy schedule and wording. Read them side by side with the agreed terms. Query anything that does not match.
Receive the final, executed policy documents. File the schedule, wording, endorsements, premium invoice, broker’s market report and signed proposal in one place. Most firms regret it when these documents sit across four mailboxes.
Update the firm’s compliance log and notify the supervising professional body if required (some require notification of the renewed policy details). Diary the next renewal at T-90 and start the cycle again.
Under the Insurance Act 2015, the firm has a duty of fair presentation. That means more than answering the questions on the proposal form. It means putting the underwriter in a position to make an informed decision. If something is borderline, disclose it. If something is “interesting”, disclose it. The cost of a slightly higher premium is almost always less than the cost of an avoidance dispute three years later.
Your broker should be able to tell you, in writing, how they are remunerated for placing your PI policy: commission, fee, profit-share, or a combination. You can ask. They should be willing to disclose it. The Financial Conduct Authority requires brokers to disclose the nature and basis of their remuneration on request, and many disclose it as standard.
If this is your first renewal as the named owner, if the firm’s fee income has changed by more than 25 per cent year-on-year, if there is a notified circumstance on file, or if you have not reviewed the wording in three or more years, consider bringing in a specialist broker to walk through the programme with you. The work is largely the same; the difference is having someone who has seen the same patterns at other firms.
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
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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