Professional indemnity broker · Financial advisers · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for financial advisers

Professional indemnity for directly authorised IFAs, financial planners and wealth managers — including advisers leaving a network and firms whose scheme cover no longer fits the business they have become.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

Who this page is for

• Directly authorised IFAs, financial planning firms and wealth managers, from one-adviser firms to multi-office practices.
• Advisers leaving a network or service-provider scheme to become directly authorised, who need their own PII in place for day one.
• Firms that have outgrown a network or scheme policy that was never re-marketed.
• Firms with legacy defined-benefit transfer, SIPP or unregulated-collective exposure that makes standard forms decline them.
• Mortgage and protection advisers who need PII that satisfies the FCA without paying for investment exposure they do not have.

What financial advisers’ PI has to do

The FCA treats PII as part of an adviser firm’s prudential resources. That means the policy is not only about paying claims; it has to meet the FCA’s minimum limits, keep the excess within what the firm can carry without holding extra capital, and avoid exclusions that leave the firm exposed on advice it actually gave. Insurers, for their part, price on the advice mix — defined-benefit transfers, SIPPs, unregulated collectives, high-risk products — and on complaints and FOS history.

If you are leaving a network, the question of who answers for advice you gave while you were an appointed representative needs settling in writing before you go, not after. Your new directly authorised policy must have a retroactive date that matches the advice it is meant to cover.

• Exclusions decide the value. A DB-transfer exclusion on a firm that did DB transfers is a policy with a hole in it. We show you what each quote excludes before the premium.
• Excess and capital. The FCA links the excess you carry to the capital you must hold. A cheap quote with a high excess can cost more in capital than it saves in premium.
• Retroactive date. Advice is claimed on years later. The date must reach back to when you started advising, or a run-off arrangement must fill the gap.
• Networks and schemes can be the right answer for some firms and a poor fit for others. If you have outgrown yours, we will say so plainly — and if you have not, we will say that too.

The minimum cover the FCA requires

For personal investment firms the FCA sets minimum PII limits in IPRU-INV 13, expressed in euros under the Insurance Distribution Directive framework and indexed periodically. They are currently in the region of €1.3m for any one claim and €1.9m in the aggregate, which at recent exchange rates equates to roughly £1.1m per claim and £1.7m aggregate. The FCA also restricts the excess a firm can carry without holding additional capital.

Check the euro equivalent at inception and at renewal, not just once: a sterling limit that met the minimum last year may not this year.

How Apex places professional indemnity for financial advisers

• A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as financial advisers, IFAs and financial planners: 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 financial advisers 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

• Get a professional indemnity insurance quote
• Best professional indemnity insurance in the UK: how to choose
• SimplyBiz member firms: getting an independent PI quote
• Financial advisers professional indemnity insurance — the full UK guide
• How much professional indemnity insurance do you need?
• What professional indemnity insurance costs, and what drives the premium
• Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
• When to switch business insurance broker
• Non-standard professional indemnity: CCJs, claims, declines, adverse credit
• The Apex Independence Charter: owned by its directors, not for sale
• PI minimum limit calculator: what your regulator requires
• UK PI brokers: who has been bought, and who is still independent
• Outgrown your adviser network’s insurance scheme?

Frequently asked

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.