Switching PI · Updated 6 September 2026

SimplyBiz member firm? What an independent PI broker does differently from a network or scheme arrangement

SimplyBiz describes itself as the leading provider of business and regulatory support to UK retail financial services; this page is for the directly authorised adviser firms among its members whose professional indemnity is arranged through a network, support provider or scheme, and who want to know what an independent specialist broker would do differently.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

In short

SimplyBiz (Simply Biz Services Limited, part of Fintel) describes itself as “The leading provider of business and regulatory support to UK retail financial services”, operating since 2002 and “trusted by >30% of directly authorised financial intermediaries”. Its website does not currently publish details of a professional indemnity facility (checked 6 September 2026), so this page describes how network, support-provider and scheme PI arrangements for advisers generally work, and what changes when a directly authorised firm briefs an independent broker. Firms typically look elsewhere when a scheme has never been re-marketed, an exclusion (DB transfers, a fund, an activity) does not fit their past advice, the FCA minimum is in doubt, there is a claim, complaint or circumstance, or the premium rose sharply. Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent, director-owned PI specialist placing adviser PI across over 30 markets including Lloyd’s.

What SimplyBiz says about itself, and how network or scheme PI usually works

From SimplyBiz’s membership page, about page and a dated article on its site, checked on 6 September 2026:

“The leading provider of business and regulatory support to UK retail financial services”; “Since 2002, we’ve been simplifying the complex world of regulation for financial professionals.”
“Trusted by >30% of directly authorised financial intermediaries to help drive growth and efficiencies.”
Services listed for financial advisers: compliance and technical helpdesks, authorisation and FCA reporting, file reviews and audits, planning and research technology, events, marketing and a firm buyout service; its membership page also addresses firms “currently an appointed representative or new to the industry” that want to become directly authorised.
On professional indemnity, the only statement we found is historical: a 31 January 2017 article by its chairman records that “in mid-2003, SimplyBiz, through a reinsurance mechanism, offered to underwrite 95 per cent of the PI risk for directly regulated firms” (source). We found no current page describing a PI facility; a page at /campaigns/pii/ returned 404 on 6 September 2026.
Simply Biz Services Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 04590781, registered office Fintel House, Huddersfield.

How network and scheme PI for advisers generally works

Whoever runs it, adviser PI arranged through a network, support provider or professional-body scheme usually shares four features in our experience: the wording is negotiated once for the whole membership, so it is written for the typical firm rather than yours; the insurer is chosen by the scheme and the risk is not usually re-marketed firm by firm; pricing is often banded by fee income or adviser numbers; and exclusions agreed for the group — defined-benefit transfers, particular funds or products, unregulated introductions — apply to every member, whether or not they match your own past advice. Apex’s financial advisers’ PI page puts it plainly: a DB-transfer exclusion on a firm that did DB transfers is a policy with a hole in it.

Who it suits well: a directly authorised firm whose past and present advice matches the scheme’s standard profile, whose limit and exclusions satisfy the FCA rules for its activities, and whose premium has been tested against the market recently.

When adviser firms typically look beyond a network or scheme arrangement

None of these means a network, support provider or scheme has done anything wrong. They are the points at which a firm’s needs move past what a group arrangement is built for.

The scheme has never been re-marketed for your firm. Group arrangements are priced for the group. If no broker has taken your firm’s own risk to competing insurers, you do not know what it is worth on its own.
An exclusion does not fit your history. A DB-transfer, fund-specific or activity exclusion negotiated for the membership can leave your own past advice uninsured; cover with a hole where your past advice sits is not cover.
The FCA minimum is in doubt. MIPRU 3.2.7R requires €1,300,380 for a single claim and the greater of €1,924,560 and 10% of annual income in aggregate (capped at £30m); IPRU-INV 13.1.10R sets the same euro figures for firms under the Insurance Distribution Directive. Check the schedule, the excess and any aggregate cap against those figures.
A claim, complaint, FOS referral or notified circumstance. Once there is a history, you want several insurers’ views on it, presented by someone who has read the file, rather than one scheme underwriter’s.
You are leaving a network, or changing status. A firm moving from appointed representative to directly authorised, or between support providers, needs its own PI in place from day one with a retroactive date that covers advice given under the old arrangement.
The premium rose sharply with no explanation. Group renewals can move with the group’s claims experience rather than your own, so a firm with a clean record may be paying for others’ losses.

What changes with an independent specialist

Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker established in 2009 and based in Bristol, owned entirely by its directors and directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, placing professional indemnity insurance for directly authorised financial advisers, IFAs and financial planners across the UK. It is one of the longest-established independently owned professional indemnity specialists in the UK, and it is not for sale: we have declined approaches to buy the firm. We are not tied to any single insurer or professional-body scheme, we do not run our own policy or underwriting, and we have no placement quotas. We have access to over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, and we usually return three or four competing quotes set out so you can compare them like for like. Every client has a named broker — the same person from first quote to renewal — and every claim notification gets director-level attention rather than a call-centre queue.

What that means in practice:

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.

How a placement runs:

A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as an adviser firm: 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.

How to move without a gap in cover

Professional indemnity is claims-made: the policy in force on the day a claim is made responds, and only for work done after its retroactive date. Moving insurer is safe if these things happen in order.

Notify known circumstances first. Anything you already know about that could lead to a claim belongs with the outgoing insurer; a new policy will exclude it (Hiscox’s PI page, for one, excludes “Anything you knew, or should reasonably have known, before taking out your policy that would likely lead to a claim or a loss”).
Carry the retroactive date across. The new schedule must show a retroactive date no later than the one you hold now, ideally the date you first held continuous cover; otherwise work done in between is uninsured.
No lapse. The new policy goes on risk before the old one ends: at renewal, terms bound before expiry; mid-term, the old policy cancelled under its own terms only once the replacement is in force.
Make a fair presentation. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you must disclose every material circumstance you know or ought to know; a written presentation is how a broker earns better terms than a form.
Plan for run-off. If you later close or merge, run-off cover keeps past work insured; ask how the new insurer prices it before you move.

When to stay with the scheme

Stay with a network or scheme arrangement if its wording matches the advice you have actually given, the limit and excess meet MIPRU or IPRU-INV for your activities, the exclusions leave no hole in your past, and the premium has been tested against the open market recently. Group buying can be genuinely efficient for a standard firm, and membership services such as compliance support have nothing to do with where the PI sits; you can keep the one and re-market the other.

If your existing cover is right, we say so in a stay-put letter, free and without obligation.

Related Apex pages

Sources checked 6 September 2026

Frequently asked

Is it cheaper to buy adviser PI through an independent broker than through a network or scheme?

Sometimes. Scheme pricing is banded for the group; open-market pricing follows your own firm. A clean firm with no DB-transfer history and modest fee income often prices well on its own; a firm with a history may find the scheme cheaper. The only way to know is to have the risk presented to competing insurers and compare like for like, which is what we return in writing, with a stay-put letter if the scheme wins.

Will my premium go up if I leave the scheme?

Not because you left. Premium follows your activities, fee income, adviser numbers, the limit and excess you carry, your claims and complaints history and each insurer’s appetite for adviser risk. Firms that leave a scheme have usually changed — grown, added a permission, acquired a history — and that is what moves the price. Insurance Premium Tax at 12% applies whoever arranges the cover.

Can I keep my retroactive date when I leave a network or scheme?

You must, and it is the first thing we check. The new policy’s retroactive date should be no later than the date you first held continuous cover, including advice given as an appointed representative where the new insurer agrees to pick it up. Where a network’s policy will not carry your past advice forward, run-off or a retroactive extension has to be priced before you move, not after.

Do I need to tell the network or the scheme before I move my PI?

Read your membership terms and the policy documents: some arrangements tie PI to membership, some do not, and the policy sets out notice and cancellation terms. Before the old policy ends, notify every circumstance, complaint or FOS matter you are aware of to the outgoing insurer, because the new policy will exclude anything you already knew about. We prepare that notification with you.

Can I move mid-term or only at the scheme renewal?

Either. Renewal is simplest because the old cover ends naturally. A mid-term move works where there is a reason, such as an exclusion that leaves past advice uninsured or a limit that no longer meets MIPRU; the new policy goes on risk first and the old one is cancelled under its own terms afterwards. Nothing is cancelled until the replacement is bound and the retroactive date is confirmed.

Will Apex quote the same insurer as the scheme?

If your schedule names the insurer, send it to us and we will say whether that insurer is a market we can approach directly and whether it is worth approaching alongside others. Scheme terms negotiated for a membership are not automatically available to an individual firm, and open-market terms are not automatically worse. We compare wording, limit, excess, exclusions and retroactive date on each quote, not the name on it.

What if we have a DB-transfer history, a complaint or a notified circumstance?

Say so at the start. Adviser firms with legacy DB-transfer advice or an open complaint are what our Non-Standard PI Desk exists for: it gives one of three answers within five working days of having the documents — yes with indicative terms, yes with restrictions explained, or no with the reasons and what would change them. The presentation to insurers is written, not a tick-box form.

How long does moving adviser PI take?

It depends on your history and how close you are to renewal. A firm with its current schedule, three years’ claims and complaints record, fee income by activity and adviser numbers to hand can be presented to insurers quickly; DB-transfer or complaints history takes longer because insurers ask more. We publish no turnaround promise for standard risks; for non-standard ones the desk commits to five working days.

Send us your scheme schedule and we will tell you where you stand

A named broker checks the wording, exclusions, limit and retroactive date against MIPRU or IPRU-INV and the advice you have actually given, then either re-markets the risk or tells you in writing to stay put. Or call 0117 325 0027.

Get a PI quote Brief a broker (financial advisers)

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, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms. Statements about other providers were taken from those providers’ own websites on 6 September 2026 and may have changed since; any prices are the starting prices they publish, on the basis they state, not typical premiums and not quotes. Provider names are the trade marks of their owners and are used only to identify them; no provider named has endorsed this page. Apex publishes no premium figures of its own on this page.