Professional indemnity insurance, placed by a broker who actually works where you do.
Professional Indemnity Insurance for the South West and South Wales
Apex Insurance Brokers is a Bristol-based, FCA-authorised professional indemnity specialist serving professional firms across the South West of England and South Wales. We are directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 724952, and we hold our own permissions rather than trading under someone else's. That independence matters: it means the broker advising you on your professional indemnity (PI) cover answers to you and to the regulator, not to a network's placement targets.
This page is the regional hub for our local coverage. If you already know your profession and your town, jump straight to the relevant page in the directory below. If you want to understand why a genuinely local specialist beats a national call centre or a direct insurer with no footprint in the region, read on.
Why a Bristol broker with real local presence beats a national one
Professional indemnity is not a commodity product, and it is not one you want to buy from a stranger reading a script in another part of the country. The quality of your cover depends heavily on how well your broker understands your work, your risk profile and the insurers who genuinely want to write it. National brokers and direct insurers can quote a premium. What they rarely provide is continuity, local knowledge and someone who will fight your corner when a claim or a difficult renewal lands.
Here is what local presence actually buys you:
- A named broker, not a queue. Every Apex client has a director-level named contact who handles placement, claims advocacy and renewal. You are not re-explaining your firm to a different agent each time you call.
- Knowledge of local markets and local firms. A surveyor in Exeter, a legal practice in Cardiff and a design-and-construct contractor in Bristol face very different exposures. We place cover for firms like yours in towns like yours, so we know how underwriters read these risks.
- Insurer access without insurer bias. We have access to 30+ qualifying and professional-lines insurer markets, and we are not tied to any of them. That breadth is how difficult or hardening risks find a home.
- Advocacy when it counts. When a notification or a tricky renewal arises, you want a broker who knows the underwriter and can present your position properly. That relationship is built locally, over years.
The result of working this way shows up in one number we are happy to quote: around 95% of our clients stay with us. In a market where firms routinely shop around every year, that retention tells you clients value the relationship, not just the price.
The professions we cover
We arrange professional indemnity and wider commercial insurance for professional firms of all kinds across the region, including solicitors and legal practices, accountants, independent financial advisers and wealth managers, architects and surveyors, consulting and structural engineers, IT and management consultants, marketing and creative agencies, recruitment consultants, medical practitioners and design-and-construct contractors. Whether your cover is governed by a professional body's minimum wording or negotiated on the open market, the placement is handled the same careful way.
For solicitors in particular, PI is a specialism in its own right. We already publish an SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions (MTC) placement guide and content on placing difficult risks, and we work to the SRA's common renewal date of 1 October. If your practice is heading toward that date with a risk that has become harder to place, the earlier you speak to us the better the outcome tends to be.
Local professional indemnity pages by city
Choose your town to see cover written for your profession and area. These pages go into the specifics of local risk, market appetite and how we place each type of firm.
Bristol
- Accountants PI insurance in Bristol
- IFA PI insurance in Bristol
- Architects PI insurance in Bristol
- Management consultants PI insurance in Bristol
- Marketing agencies PI insurance in Bristol
- Design-and-construct contractors PI insurance in Bristol
Cardiff
- Solicitors PI insurance in Cardiff
- Accountants PI insurance in Cardiff
- IT consultants PI insurance in Cardiff
- Recruitment consultants PI insurance in Cardiff
- Medical practitioners PI insurance in Cardiff
Newport
Swansea
Exeter
Bath
Cheltenham
Swindon
Gloucester
Plymouth
Yeovil
Bournemouth
How we place your cover
Every placement starts with understanding the firm: what you do, who you do it for, your fee income mix, your claims history and the contractual demands your clients place on you. From there your named broker approaches the insurers most likely to offer the right terms, presents your risk properly and negotiates the wording as well as the price. Cheap cover with the wrong exclusions is no bargain when a claim exposes the gap, so we focus on getting the cover right first and the premium competitive second. For firms that need commercial insurance alongside their PI, we can bundle office, cyber, employers' and public liability into a coherent programme through the commercial quote form.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to be in Bristol to work with Apex?
No. We are based in Bristol but serve professional firms across the South West of England and South Wales, from Cardiff, Newport and Swansea through to Exeter, Plymouth, Bournemouth and the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire towns. Your named broker looks after you wherever your practice sits.
What does directly authorised, FRN 724952 actually mean for me?
It means Apex holds its own permissions from the FCA and is regulated in its own right, rather than operating as an appointed representative under another firm's authorisation. You can verify our status on the FCA register under firm reference number 724952.
How is a named-broker model different from a national broker?
Instead of a call centre or a rotating account team, you have one director-level contact who handles your placement, any claims and your renewal year after year. That continuity means faster, better-informed decisions and stronger advocacy with underwriters when it matters.
My PI renewal is difficult this year. Can you still help?
Difficult risks are a core part of what we do. With access to 30+ professional-lines markets and experience placing hard-to-place cases, we can often find terms where a single insurer or a direct approach has said no. We also publish placement guidance for challenging risks, including solicitors' MTC cover.
When should solicitors start their renewal?
Solicitors' PII follows the SRA common renewal date of 1 October. We recommend starting the process well ahead of that, ideally several weeks out, so there is time to present the risk properly and negotiate. The earlier we begin, the more options tend to be available.
Can you arrange more than just professional indemnity?
Yes. Alongside PI we arrange the wider commercial insurance professional firms need, including office, cyber, employers' liability and public liability, and can package these into a single programme through our commercial quote form.
Get a quote / Speak to a broker
Ready to talk to a broker who knows your profession and your region? Start a quote request, ask us for a commercial quote form if you need bundled cover, or contact the team to speak to a named, director-level broker in Bristol. We will take the time to understand your firm and place cover that actually protects it.