Professional indemnity broker · Accountants · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for accountants

Professional indemnity for accountancy, tax and bookkeeping practices that meets your professional body’s rules — and actually fits the work you do now.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

In short

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 accountants, tax advisers and bookkeepers 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. For accountants that means cover that meets your body’s PII regulations — ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, CIMA or ICAS — with tax, R&D-claim and payroll exposures presented properly rather than hidden in a tick-box.

Who this page is for

Sole practitioners, partnerships and limited-company practices regulated by ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, CIMA or ICAS.
Tax advisers and bookkeepers, including firms that are not members of a body but whose clients still require PI.
Practices doing audit, R&D tax-relief claims, IR35 or capital-allowances work — the areas insurers now question most closely.
Firms that bought through a body-endorsed scheme years ago and have never seen a competing quote.
Practices with a claim, an HMRC enquiry that could turn into a claim, or a fee-income jump that has pushed them into a higher minimum.

What accountants’ PI has to do

Accountants’ claims are rarely dramatic; they are attritional. A missed filing deadline, a tax computation that HMRC later reopens, advice on a restructuring that turns out to have a cost, an R&D claim that is clawed back with penalties. The policy has to respond to all of those, and the limit has to be sized to the largest client engagement, not the average one.

Insurers price on gross fee income, the split between compliance and advisory work, audit and specialist tax work, the largest client, staff qualifications, and claims history. They increasingly ask specific questions about R&D and payment-diversion fraud controls.

Advisory work needs to be declared. Tax planning, corporate finance, forensic and expert-witness work can sit outside a basic accountancy wording unless declared.
Watch the excess. Your body caps the excess you can carry; a cheap quote with a large excess may not be compliant.
Fee income changes the minimum. Cross a fee-income threshold and your minimum limit changes with it — check at renewal, not when a client asks for a certificate.
Fraud is not PI. Client funds diverted by a fraudster are usually a crime or cyber loss, not a negligence claim. We make sure the gap is covered somewhere.

The minimum cover your body requires

ICAEW: under the current ICAEW PII Regulations the minimum limit is £2m for any one claim and in the aggregate; firms with gross fee income below £800,000 may instead hold two and a half times gross fee income, subject to an absolute minimum of £250,000. The aggregate excess must not exceed the higher of £3,000 or 3% of gross fee income, and cover must be with an ICAEW participating insurer.

ACCA: a firm with total income below £600,000 must hold the greater of 2.5 times its total income or £100,000; a firm with total income of £600,000 or more must hold at least £1.5m.

AAT: the greater of 2.5 times gross fee income or a floor that depends on structure — £50,000 for sole traders, £100,000 for partnerships and limited companies.

These are floors, not recommendations. A practice with one large client, audit work or exposure to HMRC penalties on R&D claims usually needs more than the minimum, and we will tell you where we think that line sits.

How Apex places professional indemnity for accountants

A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as accountants, tax advisers and bookkeepers: what you do, who for, fee income, staff, contracts, claims and anything unusual.
A written presentation to insurers. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you have a duty of fair presentation. We help you meet it — and a well-presented risk gets better terms than a bare proposal form.
Quotes set out to compare. Usually three or four, with limits, excesses, retroactive dates, exclusions and premium side by side, and our recommendation in plain English.
No gap in cover. If you are moving from another broker, insurer or scheme, we put the new policy in place before the old one lapses and check the retroactive date protects your past work.
The same person afterwards. Mid-term changes, contract queries, certificates for clients, circumstance notifications and next year’s renewal all go through your named broker.

Why accountants move their PI to Apex

Owned by its directors, not for sale. No consolidator, no private-equity owner, no external shareholders — and we have declined approaches to buy the firm. Read the Apex Independence Charter.
Independent, not tied. No single-insurer scheme, no in-house policy, no placement quotas — the recommendation is the one that fits, not the one we are paid to push.
Over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s. Specialist UK PI insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, so a risk that one underwriter dislikes can still be placed properly with another.
Usually three or four competing quotes, laid out side by side — limit, excess, retroactive date, exclusions and premium — with a plain-language note on the trade-offs.
The stay-put letter. If your existing cover is right, we say so in writing, free and without obligation. How the stay-put letter works.
A named broker all year. The person who places your cover is the person who picks up the phone at renewal, on a mid-term change, or when a letter of claim lands.
Director-level attention on claims. We help you notify circumstances early and in the right form, stay involved once the insurer’s panel solicitors are appointed, and tell you plainly where you stand.
Directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, not an appointed representative trading under someone else’s permissions.

When it is worth getting a second quote

You have outgrown a professional-body or adviser-network scheme, or an online-only policy, and nobody has re-marketed your risk in years.
A client, lender, framework or regulator now requires a higher limit, a different basis of cover, or evidence your existing broker cannot produce quickly.
Your insurer has non-renewed, withdrawn from your profession, or imposed an exclusion you were not warned about.
Your renewal rose sharply with no explanation, or the person who knew your firm has left, retired, or been absorbed into a consolidator.
You have a claim, a circumstance, a CCJ or something else non-standard, and your current arrangement treats it as a tick-box decline.
Your broker has been bought by a consolidator or a global broker and the independence you chose them for has gone.

None of these needs a falling-out with your current broker. Send us the renewal, we tell you plainly whether you are well placed. If you are, we say so. How switching broker works without a gap in cover →

When we are not the right broker

You want the cheapest possible policy bought online in five minutes with no conversation. An online-only product may suit you better, and we would rather say so than waste your time.
Your regulator or professional body requires you to use one specific scheme with no alternative. That is rare, but where it applies we will tell you.
You are outside the UK, or your firm is effectively a US-domiciled business with a UK office.

Related guides

Frequently asked

Do I have to buy through my professional body’s scheme?

No. Your body sets the minimum wording, limit and (for ICAEW) the list of acceptable insurers; it does not require you to buy through any particular broker or scheme. A compliant policy from any acceptable insurer satisfies the rules.

Will R&D tax-credit work make my PI harder to place?

It makes it more scrutinised. Insurers ask how many claims you have prepared, on what basis you are paid, and whether any have been challenged. Presented clearly, most practices are still placeable; hidden, it can void the policy under the Insurance Act 2015.

My fee income has grown — is my old limit still compliant?

Possibly not. ICAEW, ACCA and AAT minimums are all linked to fee income, so growth can push you over a threshold. Send us your last accounts and current schedule and we will check it against your body’s rules.

Can you place PI for an accountant with a claim or an HMRC enquiry?

Yes, in most cases. A single claim with a clear explanation and a change in process is routine for specialist insurers. We cannot promise terms, but we will tell you quickly if the market is difficult.

What if no insurer will offer terms?

ICAEW-regulated firms can apply to the ICAEW Assigned Risks Pool as a last resort, but it is expensive and reputationally awkward. The better answer is to re-market early with a full presentation before it gets to that.

Get your practice’s PI re-marketed

Send us your renewal schedule and last proposal form. A named Apex broker will check compliance against your body’s rules, tell you if the limit still fits, and show you what the wider market would offer. Or call 0117 325 0027.

Get an accountants’ PI quote → Request a callback

Apex 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 about professional indemnity insurance, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.