You can buy Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance in two ways: directly from an insurer that markets to your profession, or through a broker that arranges cover for you. Both routes are legitimate, both are FCA-regulated, and both place insurance underwritten by the same panel of UK and Lloyd's insurers. The choice is not between "good" and "bad" — it is between two different service models that suit different practices in different ways.
This guide sets out the honest trade-offs. We are a broker, so we obviously have a perspective; we have tried to keep this comparison fair to direct routes and to other brokers. By the end you should know whether using a broker is worth it for your situation, or whether you would be just as well-served buying direct.
For the basics of PI cover, see our Professional Indemnity Insurance overview. For switching between providers mid-term, see How to switch PI insurer mid-policy.
What "buying direct" actually means
When someone says "I bought my PI direct", they usually mean one of three things, and the distinction matters:
Direct from the insurer's own brand. A handful of UK insurers market PI directly to specific professions — for example, an insurer with a self-employed consultants product that you can quote, bind and pay for online without speaking to anyone. The insurer underwrites, issues the policy, and handles any claim.
Through a price comparison website. You enter your details on a comparison site, receive several quotes from a small panel of insurers and managing general agents, and click through to bind cover. The comparison site is acting as an introducer or, in some cases, as a broker on a limited transactional basis.
Through an affinity scheme run by your professional body. Some bodies — the IET, BCS, RIBA Insurance Agency, ICAEW Member Rewards and others — partner with a single broker or insurer to offer members a scheme rate. Strictly speaking that is brokered cover, not direct, but it is often perceived as "the official option" and members take it without further shopping.
For the purposes of this article, "direct" means options one and two: cover you arrange yourself online or by phone with the insurer (or a comparison platform) without an intermediary giving you tailored advice. We treat the affinity-scheme route separately at the end.
What a broker actually does
A PI broker is an FCA-authorised intermediary that arranges insurance on your behalf. The legal model is that the broker acts as your agent in placing the cover, owes you a duty of care to assess your demands and needs, and is paid (in most cases) by commission from the insurer rather than by a fee from you. A broker's day-to-day work for a PI client involves:
Pre-renewal review. The broker should ask about your work activities, fee income, claim history, contractual obligations to clients, and any unusual exposures. The point is to understand what cover you actually need before approaching the market.
Market approach. The broker presents your risk to multiple insurers — typically three to six on a renewal, more on a difficult or specialised placement. Some insurers will only quote through brokers; some have appetite for your profession that does not appear on direct websites.
Cover comparison. Quotes come back with different premiums, different excesses, different limits, and — most importantly — different policy wordings. A broker should walk you through the substantive differences, not just the price.
Negotiation and adjustment. If a quoted excess is too high, a limit too low, or a wording contains an exclusion that doesn't suit your work, the broker negotiates with the underwriter. Direct routes generally don't allow this — the wording is what it is.
Mid-term changes. If you start a new line of work, take on a larger project, hire staff, or have a notifiable circumstance, the broker advises on how to handle it and processes the policy amendment.
Claims advocacy. If you notify a claim, the broker stands between you and the insurer. The broker reads your policy, advises on the notification, frames the circumstance for the insurer, and pushes back where the insurer's initial response is unreasonable. This is the most valuable thing a broker does, and it only matters when something goes wrong.
Annual renewal. The broker repeats the pre-renewal review each year, re-markets where appropriate, and documents the recommendation.
Not every broker does all of this well. A volume online broker that quotes via web form and emails a policy schedule provides much less of this service than a traditional broker that talks to you. Both call themselves "brokers". The honest comparison is broker-with-service vs direct, and broker-without-service vs direct — which are different comparisons.
When buying direct makes sense
Direct PI works well in defined circumstances. We will not pretend otherwise.
Single-person consultancy, low-risk work, small fee income, no regulator-imposed minimum terms. A freelance copywriter, social media manager, or independent business consultant turning over £30,000 a year with no contractual obligation to a specific cover level and no regulator requirement can buy at £100,000 or £250,000 of cover from a direct insurer for a modest annual premium. The work is generic, the wording is generic, and tailoring it adds little.
Cost is the dominant factor. Direct providers strip out the broker's commission, sometimes pricing 15–25% below comparable brokered cover for simple risks. If your work doesn't require a tailored wording and a claim seems remote, that saving is real.
You are comfortable reading policy wordings. Direct cover gives you the wording and expects you to know what it says. If you have read it, understood the warranties and exclusions, and are content with what you've bought, the broker's interpretive role is something you don't need.
Your profession's regulator does not impose minimum policy terms. For regulated professions (solicitors, architects, surveyors, accountants — see Does my professional body require PI insurance?), the policy must meet detailed minimum wording requirements that direct websites rarely advertise compliance with explicitly. For unregulated professions there is no such requirement and direct cover is easier to validate.
If those four conditions apply to you, buying direct is a reasonable decision. The broker's value-add in your situation is modest.
When using a broker makes sense
The case for a broker is strongest in the opposite situation:
You are in a regulated profession with minimum-terms PI requirements. SRA, ARB, RICS, ICAEW, ACCA and other bodies set detailed cover requirements that the policy must satisfy. A broker working with these professions every day will know which insurers' wordings comply and which don't, and which exclusions cause problems with the regulator. Buying direct without confirming minimum-terms compliance is a regulatory risk.
Your work involves contractual obligations to clients. Large clients — government, corporates, large construction firms — impose detailed PI requirements in their appointment terms. Cover of £X per claim, retroactive cover from Y date, run-off of Z years. A broker reads the appointment and confirms the policy meets it. Direct cover may not, and you typically only discover the gap when a claim is notified or a renewal is required to show evidence of cover to the client.
You have had a claim, a notification, or a difficult risk feature. A claim history, a notified circumstance, a fitness-for-purpose obligation in a contract, a high-risk activity, or any other complication makes direct quotation difficult or impossible. A broker presents the risk properly to insurers willing to consider it and finds cover where direct websites would decline.
You want a human relationship at renewal and during a claim. PI insurance can run for years without incident and then a claim arrives — typically at the worst possible moment, with a client demanding a response within days. Having a broker who knows your business, has the file, and can advise immediately is materially different from a call-centre conversation with an insurer who has not heard from you since you bought the policy.
Your premium is large enough that broker commission is small as a percentage of total spend. Above roughly £3,000 a year of premium, the cost of broker service is a small share of the total and the value-add scales up.
The cost question — does using a broker cost more?
This is the most common question and the answer is "it depends".
On commission economics. Brokers are typically paid 15–25% of the gross premium by the insurer. That commission is built into the rate the insurer offers. A direct insurer that pays no commission can in principle offer a lower rate for the same cover, and often does — for simple, well-understood risks.
On placement leverage. A broker placing significant volume with an insurer can negotiate rates that are not available to a direct buyer. For specialist professional indemnity classes — solicitors, architects, surveyors — the rates a broker secures often beat direct equivalents, even after commission. The market is competitive at scale; an individual practice arriving at an insurer's website is not.
On cover differences. Comparing premium to premium is only useful if the cover is the same. Direct policies often have higher excesses, lower sub-limits on certain extensions, and more restrictive wordings on issues like aggregation, defence costs, and run-off. A "cheaper" direct policy with a £2,500 excess versus a brokered policy with £1,000 excess is not cheaper if you ever have a £1,800 claim that you now self-fund.
On the long-term claim cost. The real cost of PI is paid in claims, not premium. A policy that responds well to a notified claim — early defence cost cover, sympathetic claims handling, no aggressive coverage disputes — is worth significantly more than the headline premium suggests. The reverse is also true: a cheap policy that fights you on coverage when a claim arises has a "real" cost far above its annual premium.
The honest summary: for simple low-value risks, direct is often cheaper. For complex, regulated, or claim-sensitive risks, brokered cover is often comparable on price and stronger on substance.
What about the affinity-scheme route?
Many professional bodies endorse a scheme run by a specific broker (sometimes more than one). The scheme rate is negotiated by the body for its members. The cover is typically tailored to that profession's regulatory requirements. Examples include the RIBA Insurance Agency for architects, the ICAEW scheme for accountants, and various IT and engineering schemes.
Affinity schemes are a third route. They are brokered cover, but the broker is selected by your professional body rather than by you. The advantages are scheme economics (volume rates) and confidence in regulatory compliance. The trade-offs are less individual underwriting attention, less ability to negotiate non-standard terms, and — in some schemes — limited insurer choice if your risk profile doesn't fit the scheme's standard parameters.
It is worth obtaining a scheme quote and an independent broker quote at renewal. The two are often close on price, and the choice comes down to service preference and willingness to negotiate non-standard cover.
Five questions to ask before deciding
If you are weighing broker against direct for the upcoming renewal, these are the questions that usually resolve the choice:
1. Does my regulator or my client contract require specific minimum terms I need to verify? If yes, brokered cover is usually safer. If no, direct is viable.
2. Have I had a claim, notification, or unusual circumstance in the last six years? If yes, brokered placement gives you better market access. If no, direct quotation is straightforward.
3. Is my work routine and well-understood by direct insurers' standard wordings? If yes, direct is straightforward. If no — bespoke services, hybrid roles, niche professions — a broker can frame the risk.
4. What happens if a claim arrives in year three of the policy? If you are confident handling the notification, dealing with the insurer's solicitors, and advocating for cover yourself, direct is workable. If not, a broker's claims-advocacy role is meaningful.
5. Is the premium difference material, or marginal? A £100 saving on a £500 policy is meaningful in percentage terms; a £100 saving on a £4,000 policy is not. Frame the comparison by the absolute cost of the broker service against the value of what it does.
How Apex approaches this
We are an FCA-authorised broker (firm reference 724952), independent, and not tied to any single insurer. We arrange PI for sole practitioners and small-to-mid-sized practices across the UK, with focus on regulated professions and specialised consultancies where the broker's role is most useful.
We are happy to say where we are not the right fit. A self-employed copywriter with £40,000 of turnover and a simple risk profile can buy good direct cover at a price we will struggle to match — and we will tell them that on the first call. Our value sits with professionals who need their PI to be right at the wording level, and who want a relationship through the year rather than just a renewal quote.
To explore whether we are the right fit for you, the contact page is the place to start, or read our about page for who we are and how we work.
Frequently asked questions
Is a PI broker always more expensive than buying direct?
Not always. For simple risks where direct insurers compete aggressively online, direct is often cheaper because no broker commission is built into the rate. For complex, regulated, or larger risks, brokered placements often match or beat direct prices because the broker can present the risk to insurers who price more competitively at scale.
Do brokers charge me a fee on top of the premium?
Most UK PI brokers are paid by commission from the insurer, included in the quoted premium. Some charge an arrangement fee on top, particularly for non-standard or high-touch placements. Reputable brokers disclose all fees and commissions in writing under FCA conduct rules before you commit.
Does my broker have to give me the cheapest quote?
No. A broker's duty is to assess your demands and needs and recommend a policy that suits them — which is not the same as "cheapest". A broker may recommend a slightly higher-priced policy if its wording responds better to your work. The broker should explain the choice, and you remain free to disagree.
If I buy direct, can I switch to a broker later?
Yes. There is nothing irrevocable about a direct policy. At renewal — or earlier if circumstances warrant — you can appoint a broker, who will then handle the next placement. See How to switch PI insurer mid-policy for the practical steps.
What happens to my broker relationship if I notify a claim?
A broker should act as your advocate with the insurer when a claim is notified. That means reviewing the policy, advising on the form of notification, framing the circumstance to the insurer, and pushing back if the insurer raises a coverage issue. The broker's commission does not change based on whether you claim, so there is no economic disincentive to advocate for you.
Is buying through a price comparison site the same as buying direct?
Functionally, mostly yes. Comparison sites typically act as introducers or as a transactional broker, with limited advisory role. You self-serve, you read the wording yourself, and there is usually no individual relationship to call on when something goes wrong. Treat them as the direct route for service-model purposes.
Does FCA regulation differ between brokers and direct insurers?
Both are FCA-regulated; the conduct rules differ slightly because a broker is acting as your agent (intermediating insurance), while a direct insurer is the principal. Both must give clear product information, treat customers fairly, and handle complaints. Brokers must also assess your demands and needs and document the recommendation — a duty that does not formally apply to a direct insurer selling to an informed buyer.
Can my professional body tell me whether to use a broker?
Professional bodies generally do not mandate broker use. They specify the cover requirements and leave you to source it. Some bodies endorse a scheme broker (the affinity route discussed above). Members are free to use the scheme or to place independently.
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Related guides
- Professional Indemnity Insurance overview
- How to switch PI insurer mid-policy
- What to do if your PI claim is rejected
- Does my professional body require PI insurance?
- About Apex Insurance Brokers
About Apex Insurance Brokers — Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA firm reference 724952. Registered in England and Wales, Companies House 07014570. Last reviewed: May 2026.