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Proposal form guides
A walkthrough of Apex's PI proposal form for IT consultants, management, marketing and HR consultants, designers, trainers and other professions without a dedicated form. It explains what each section asks and why.
Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
In short
Apex uses one PI proposal form for consultants and other professions that do not have a form of their own, so your description of what you actually do carries most of the weight. Underwriters want to know who is insured, what work you do on what terms, and whether anything has gone wrong. IT consultants should separate advice, development, implementation and managed services, and flag critical systems, personal data and onerous contract terms. Under the Insurance Act 2015 the duty of fair presentation goes beyond the questions asked, so anything material that does not fit a box belongs in a covering note.
This is the form Apex uses for consultants and other professionals who do not have a dedicated proposal form of their own: IT consultants and developers, management, marketing and HR consultants, designers, trainers, and anyone else whose business is advice, design or a professional service sold to clients. Because one form has to fit so many businesses, your free-text answers carry most of the weight.
For a business, the form is the main vehicle for the duty of fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015. Answering the questions asked is not the end of it: you must disclose every material circumstance you know or ought to know, or enough to put the insurer on notice to ask more. If something material does not fit any box, it goes in a covering note. Our page on why the proposal form matters covers the general principle.
Have to hand: your last accounts, a list of your largest contracts, your standard terms, subcontractor details, your current policy schedule, and any correspondence with an unhappy client.
Expect questions on every trading name and entity to be insured, offices, professional bodies, and the firm's history: name changes, mergers and purchases.
What the underwriter is establishing: exactly who is being insured. List every entity and trading name that signs client contracts or issues invoices. A limited company invoicing while the policy is in a sole trader's name is a common and avoidable gap.
The history questions exist because professional indemnity is written on a claims-made basis. Claims arrive about work done years earlier, and a business that has bought or merged with another may have taken on its liabilities. Give dates, names, and whether the other business's past work is meant to be covered.
Sole practitioners are asked who looks after clients if they are ill or absent. A named associate or written arrangement is a better answer than "n/a".
The form asks you to list each partner, director or sole practitioner, then give headcount split between principals, qualified staff, other technical staff and admin. It also asks whether any principal has a financial interest in another practice, company or organisation.
Headcount shows the scale of the operation. In IT, marketing or design, "qualified" is less clear-cut than in accountancy, so say in a note how you have categorised people.
The financial-interest question is about conflicts, and about advice given to businesses in which a principal has a stake. Include directorships, shareholdings in client companies, and any separate company doing similar work for similar clients.
This is the section that matters most on this form. The form's own help text puts it plainly: "consultancy" is not enough. Say what kind of work you do, for what kind of client, and on what basis: advice only, or delivery and implementation; fixed price or time and materials; direct engagements or work placed through an agency.
You are then asked to split your activities by percentage, totalling 100%. Take the split from your fee records, not memory. A "management consultancy" earning a third of its fees from recruitment or software presents a different risk, and an undeclared activity may not be covered. If the work has shifted in the last five years, or will in the next twelve months, say how.
IT consultants. Underwriters distinguish sharply between kinds of IT work, so be precise. Say whether you advise, design architecture, write or configure software, implement or migrate systems, provide ongoing support or managed services, carry out security testing, or supply people to work under a client's direction. Name your sectors and say whether anything you deliver is business-critical, handles payments or processes personal data. Contract terms belong here too: service levels with service credits, liquidated damages, uncapped liability, intellectual property indemnities, and any obligation to achieve a result rather than to use reasonable skill and care. Our IT consultants' PI guide and the page on where IT PI ends and cyber cover begins go further.
Other professions. Management consultants should separate strategy advice from implementation and interim management roles. Marketing consultants and designers should flag work with intellectual property exposure, such as branding, content and campaign assets. HR consultants should say whether they advise on dismissals; trainers, whether they also assess or certify.
The five largest contracts of the last five years size the tail. Turnover shows how busy you are; the largest contract shows how large a claim could be. A small firm with one major implementation carries an exposure its income does not reveal.
Using a standard letter of appointment that defines scope and limits liability is a positive answer; if you usually sign the client's own terms, say so. If verbal reports are not always confirmed in writing, explain why: undocumented advice is a frequent source of disputes about what was actually said.
Subcontractors, including freelance associates and offshore developers: say what they do and whether you check their qualifications and their own PI. Where you retain responsibility to the client, your policy faces the claim if they are uninsured; see whether PI covers work by subcontractors.
The form asks for your financial year end, gross income or fees year by year, the average and largest fee from any one client, and details of any overseas work.
Use gross fee income, not profit, and make sure the figures reconcile with your accounts. Where you give an estimate for a future period, treat it as a representation of expectation: the Act requires it to be made in good faith, so base it on your pipeline rather than a round number.
The largest-fee question shows client concentration and the size of your biggest engagement. Where one client provides most of the income, the terms of that client's contract usually set the real exposure.
For overseas work, say where, for whom, and which country's law governs the contract. Work for clients in the USA or Canada, or under contracts governed by their law, is usually treated differently and is sometimes excluded, so a passing mention is not enough. Include work delivered remotely from the UK to overseas clients.
These questions can look as if they belong on a crime policy: references for staff handling money, independent checks of cash and bank reconciliations, two signatures for cheques above £25,000, daily and off-site backups, and past losses through fraud or dishonesty.
They are asked because PI wordings commonly respond to claims arising from the dishonesty of an employee, and some include cover for lost or damaged documents and data. Weak internal controls make both more likely.
Answer as things actually are, not as the procedures manual says. If one person raises and reconciles payments, say so and describe any compensating control. If payments go by bank transfer, describe your approval process, including dual authorisation in online banking.
For IT businesses, the backup answers double as evidence of how you look after client code, data and credentials. Disclose any past loss through fraud or dishonesty, including invoice fraud where money went to a fraudster's account, with dates, amounts and what changed afterwards.
The form asks about current cover, any refusal or special terms, every claim against the firm or any past or present principal, and, after enquiry, any circumstance that might give rise to a claim.
The current-cover details show continuity. Most PI policies carry a retroactive date, and moving insurer without preserving it can leave past work uncovered. If you have held continuous cover, say since when.
"Successful or not" and "past or present principal" are deliberate. Include defended claims and complaints that became a demand for money, and say what changed afterwards.
The circumstances question is the one most often answered too narrowly. It covers the client withholding payment and blaming your work, the system that went live late with talk of lost revenue, and the email that says "we are reviewing our position". Ask every principal, in writing, and record the answers. If something has come up, it normally belongs with your current insurer as a notification before expiry, then disclosed here as well; see circumstance notification explained.
You choose a limit of indemnity (the form offers options from £250k to £5m, or other), an excess preference and a start date.
Start with your contracts. Many clients, particularly in IT and the public sector, specify the PI limit they need and whether it must apply to each and every claim or in the aggregate. If you are unsure, tell us what your contracts typically require and we will work backwards from that. The right limit relates to the largest loss a client could suffer, not to your turnover.
A higher excess may reduce the premium, but it applies to each claim, so choose a figure the business could pay without strain. If you are replacing existing cover, use the renewal date as the start date so there is no gap.
You give your name and your position in the firm. The declaration confirms that the answers are true and complete and that nothing material has been withheld.
The person signing should be a principal with authority to bind the firm and the knowledge to stand behind the answers. Under section 4 of the Act, what the firm knows includes what its senior management and the people responsible for its insurance know, and what a reasonable search would have revealed. Signing for colleagues who have not been asked is a common way a presentation falls short.
The duty applies until the contract is entered into. If a complaint arrives after you submit but before cover starts, tell us.
It is Apex's form for consultants and other professionals without a dedicated form: IT consultants and developers, management, marketing and HR consultants, designers, trainers and similar professions. Accountants, solicitors, architects, surveyors, engineers, financial advisers and insurance brokers have their own forms.
No. Underwriters treat advice, development, implementation, managed services and security testing very differently. Say what you deliver, for which sectors, on what terms, and whether it is business-critical or handles personal data. Our IT consultants' PI guide explains why.
Because PI policies commonly respond to claims arising from employee dishonesty, and some cover lost or damaged documents and data. Good financial controls and backups make those losses less likely.
Notify it to your current insurer before the policy expires, then disclose it on the proposal form as well. Professional indemnity is claims-made, and a circumstance validly notified under the expiring policy is generally dealt with under that policy rather than the new one.
Yes. Where the client is based, and which country's law governs the contract, affects how a claim would be brought. Work for clients in the USA or Canada in particular is usually treated differently and is sometimes excluded, so describe it specifically.
No. It follows the questions on Apex's own online proposal form for consultants and explains why underwriters ask them. An insurer may ask further questions or use its own wording and definitions, and those answers need the same care.
Start your proposal online and save it as you go, or upload a completed proposal from your current broker on the first page. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your proposal Request a callbackApex 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, not advice on your individual circumstances. It explains the kinds of question asked and does not reproduce any insurer's form or guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
