Professional indemnity broker · Insurance brokers · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for insurance brokers

Professional indemnity for insurance brokers, intermediaries and appointed representatives going directly authorised — placed by a broker that has to buy exactly the same cover for itself.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

Who this page is for

• FCA-authorised insurance brokers and intermediaries, from start-ups to established regional firms.
• Appointed representatives leaving a network or principal to become directly authorised.
• Brokers holding client money under CASS 5, whose PII excess is capped more tightly by the FCA.
• Brokers whose insurer has withdrawn from the intermediary market, or whose renewal arrived with a loading and no explanation.
• Brokers with a complaint, a FOS referral or an E&O claim in their history that a standard form declines.

What brokers’ PI has to do

A broker’s errors and omissions exposure is failing to arrange the cover a client needed, arranging it wrongly, or missing a disclosure so that a claim is refused. The claim is for the loss the client would have recovered had the cover been right — which can be the full value of a fire, a liability judgment or a business interruption loss. The limit has to reflect the largest risk you place, not your commission income.

The FCA sets minimum limits for insurance intermediaries in MIPRU 3.2 and caps the excess you can carry, with tighter caps for firms that hold client money. Underwriters price on income, the classes you place, wholesale and delegated-authority arrangements, client-money permissions and claims history.

• Delegated authority and binders change the risk profile and must be declared as activities in their own right.
• Client money. CASS 5 firms face lower excess caps and closer questions on controls.
• Euro limits. The MIPRU minimums are set in euros; a sterling policy must meet the euro equivalent at inception and at renewal.
• Leaving a network. Who answers for business you placed while you were an AR needs agreeing in writing before you go directly authorised.

The minimum cover the FCA requires

Under MIPRU 3.2.7R an insurance intermediary must hold PII of at least €1,300,380 for a single claim and, in the aggregate, the higher of €1,924,560 and 10% of annual income, up to a maximum of £30 million. The excess is capped at the higher of £2,500 or 1.5% of annual income for firms that do not hold client money, and £5,000 or 3% of annual income for firms that do. Limits must be stated in euros or the euro equivalent met throughout the policy year.

Most brokers carry more than the minimum because a single missed cover on a large commercial client can exceed it several times over.

How Apex places professional indemnity for insurance brokers

• A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as insurance brokers and intermediaries: 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 insurance brokers 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
• Insurance brokers 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
• Leaving a network or principal?

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.