Professional indemnity broker · Designers · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for designers

Professional indemnity for graphic, brand, digital, UX, product, packaging, interior and exhibition designers, and the agencies that employ them — with the intellectual-property sub-limit read before you rely on it.

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 designers and creative agencies 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 designers and creative agencies that means PI sized to agency-network and procurement requirements — £2m is now the common baseline for agency and public-sector work — with the intellectual-property and media-liability sub-limits checked, because those are where design claims actually come from.

Who this page is for

Graphic, brand, digital, UX, packaging and surface designers, from freelancers to multi-disciplinary studios.
Creative, advertising and content agencies that publish, campaign and build for clients.
Interior designers, exhibition and retail designers, and studios taking principal-designer roles on fit-outs.
Studios whose agency-network or public-sector client has asked for £2m or £5m and a certificate by Friday.
Designers who bought an online policy at launch and have since found the IP sub-limit is a fraction of the headline.

What designers’ PI has to do

The most common claim against a designer is not that the work was bad; it is that the work infringed someone else’s rights — a font, an image, a mark, a copied layout — or that a campaign defamed someone. Many PI policies cap intellectual-property cover well below the main limit, sometimes at £100,000 or £250,000 inside a £2m policy, so the sub-limit is the effective ceiling for the claim you are most likely to face.

There is no statutory minimum PI requirement for most designers. PI is, however, almost always required contractually by larger clients, agency networks, public-sector frameworks and procurement-led B2B buyers. Interior and exhibition designers add physical-world exposure: a fit-out that fails, a specification that breaches fire regulations, a principal-designer duty under the Building Safety Act.

IP and media liability. Check the sub-limit and the territory. A global campaign with a £100,000 IP sub-limit is under-insured on day one.
Agency networks and frameworks specify limits and often ask for evidence within days, so the policy needs to be right before the request lands.
Interior and fit-out work needs a wording that covers specification and design of physical works, not just artwork.
Subcontracted creatives and freelancers should be declared so their work on your projects is covered.

What limit designers actually need

As a working guide: sole traders commonly carry £250,000 to £500,000; small studios £1m to £2m, and £2m is now the standard procurement-driven baseline for agency and public-sector work; mid-sized integrated studios typically carry £2m to £5m; interior and higher-risk-building practices commonly carry £5m or above, with £10m not unusual for principal-designer roles.

Read the IP sub-limit before the headline limit. If it is a fraction of the policy, the policy is a fraction of what you think it is.

How Apex places professional indemnity for designers

A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as designers and creative agencies: 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 designers 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 designers legally need professional indemnity insurance?

No statute requires it for most design disciplines, but larger clients, agency networks and public-sector buyers almost always make it a condition of contract. Without it you will be excluded from the work that pays.

Does PI cover a copyright or trademark infringement claim?

Only up to the intellectual-property sub-limit, and only in the territories the policy covers. Many policies cap IP cover at £100,000 or £250,000 inside a larger limit. We show you the sub-limit on every quote.

We are an interior design studio — is ordinary designers’ PI enough?

Usually not. Interior, fit-out and exhibition work needs a wording that covers specification and design of physical works, and principal-designer duties where you take them on. Insurers ask different questions and the limit is usually higher.

A client wants a £2m certificate by Friday — can you do that?

Yes, in most cases. If your existing policy is at a lower limit we can usually increase it or arrange an excess layer within days and issue the confirmation the client needs.

Can freelancers and sole-trader designers use Apex?

Yes. A sole-trader designer with a handful of agency clients still faces the same IP and contractual exposures as a studio. We place small policies properly rather than pushing them to an online form.

Get your studio’s PI read properly

Send us your schedule and the insurance clause from your largest client or network agreement. A named Apex broker will tell you what the IP sub-limit really covers and whether the limit matches what you have signed. Or call 0117 325 0027.

Get a designers’ 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.