PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY · SOLICITORS · EXETER & DEVON

Solicitors' professional indemnity insurance in Exeter

By Matt Bartlett, Director, Apex Insurance Brokers — FCA authorised (FRN 724952). Bristol-based, serving Exeter, Devon, Cornwall and the wider South West.

If you run or manage a solicitors' firm in Exeter, your professional indemnity (PI) cover is not a discretionary purchase. It is a condition of your practising certificate. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will not let you keep your doors open without qualifying insurance that meets its Minimum Terms and Conditions (MTC), and that cover falls due for renewal every year — for most Exeter firms on the common 1 October date. This page is written for the partner, practice manager or COFA actually buying the cover, not for other brokers. It explains how the market works for a Devon firm, where the friction usually sits, and how we place it.

Exeter is the primary legal centre for Devon and Cornwall. Around the Cathedral Green, Southernhay and Queen Street you have long-established high-street practices, regional multi-office firms serving the whole peninsula, and a steady flow of conveyancing, private client, family and commercial work driven by the city's growth around the university, Exeter Science Park and the M5 corridor. That mix — heavy on residential conveyancing and probate — is exactly the profile PI insurers scrutinise most closely, which makes how your submission is presented matter a great deal.

Why Exeter solicitors bring their PI to Apex

Directly authorised by the FCA (FRN 724952) — you deal with a regulated specialist broker, not a lead-generation site.
Solicitors' PI is a core discipline for us, not a sideline. We place SRA minimum-terms cover across firms of one partner up to multi-office practices.
Named broker-director on every account. The same person handles your quote, your renewal and any claim notification — no call centre, no reassignment.
Access to the specialist PI market. We approach the qualifying insurers and MGAs that actively want good conveyancing and private-client firms, rather than putting you in front of one reluctant market.
Local to the South West. We understand the Exeter, Plymouth and Cornwall firm profile and the limited specialist competition on the ground here.

The SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions — what you cannot negotiate away

Every qualifying PI policy for a solicitors' firm must comply with the SRA MTC. This is the floor set by the regulator, and it is more demanding than an ordinary commercial PI wording. The essentials every Exeter firm should understand before renewal:

Minimum limit of indemnity. £2m per claim for most firms, rising to £3m for firms set up as an LLP or company. Given typical Exeter conveyancing values, most firms should be looking well above the minimum in any case.
Cover on a "civil liability" basis for the whole of your private legal practice, with the insurer unable to avoid or repudiate for most of the reasons a normal policy would allow.
No aggregate cap on defence costs and mandatory run-off if the firm closes.
The insurer must be a participating insurer — one that has signed up to the SRA's qualifying insurer agreement. Not every PI market qualifies, which is why generic online PI quotes are usually worthless to a law firm.

Because the MTC is fixed, insurers compete on price, appetite, excess, service and the extras that sit above the minimum — not on the core wording. A good broker's job is to get you in front of the markets whose appetite actually matches your work type, claims history and fee income. Our solicitors' PI insurance guide walks through the MTC in full.

The 1 October renewal — and why Exeter firms should start early

Historically the solicitors' PI market renewed on a single common date of 1 October, and although firms can now agree different dates, a large proportion of Exeter practices still renew then. That creates a compressed, competitive window across September when underwriters are working through hundreds of submissions at once. Firms that leave their proposal to the last fortnight get the least attention and the fewest options.

We start renewal preparation 60 to 90 days out. That means getting your proposal form, claims experience and fee-income split clean and complete early, so we can market the risk properly rather than accepting a rushed default quote from your incumbent. For a firm with any complexity — recent claims, a conveyancing-heavy book, a change in work mix — that lead time is the difference between a competitive placement and an uncomfortable one. If you are approaching renewal now, get a quote or speak to a broker directly.

What Exeter and Devon firms need to present well

The dominant PI exposure for most Exeter high-street firms is residential conveyancing — buyer funding fraud, undisclosed defects, lender claims, and the fallout from a busy or under-resourced property department. Insurers price on it. To place your risk competitively we help you evidence the controls that reassure an underwriter:

Your split of fee income by work type (conveyancing, private client, family, litigation, commercial) — the single biggest driver of your premium.
File and supervision procedures, particularly around client account, source of funds and identity checks.
Your full claims and circumstances history, presented straight rather than buried — underwriters reward transparency.
Cyber and fraud controls; Friday-afternoon completion fraud and email interception are live PI-adjacent exposures for conveyancing firms.

Many Exeter firms also carry commercial exposures beyond PI — offices around Southernhay and out toward Sowton and the Science Park, staff, and cyber risk. We can look at those alongside the PI programme; see our sector index or start a commercial quote.

Run-off, mergers and difficult-risk placements

Not every Exeter placement is straightforward, and the local specialist market is thin — which is exactly where a broker earns its keep. We regularly handle:

Run-off cover for firms winding down, retiring sole practitioners, or partners with no succession. Under the MTC, run-off runs for six years, and how it is arranged materially affects cost.
Firms with a claims history that their incumbent has declined or heavily loaded — these need marketing to the insurers who will actually engage rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it quote.
Mergers and acquisitions of books, where prior-practice liability and successor-practice rules need careful handling.
Start-ups and newly established firms in the city, where a first PI placement sets the tone for years of renewals.

If your firm has been told it is a difficult risk, that is a reason to talk to a specialist, not a reason to accept the first number offered.

How an Apex placement works

Same person from first quote to renewal, and every claim notification handled at broker-director level. In practice: we take a full picture of your firm and work type, prepare a clean submission, approach the qualifying insurers whose appetite fits you, present the options with the trade-offs explained plainly, and hold your renewal timetable so nothing lapses. When a claim or circumstance arises, you notify us and we manage it into your insurer properly — because a mishandled notification can prejudice cover under the very MTC that is meant to protect you.

Frequently asked

Do I have to use an Exeter-based broker for my PI?

No. There is no requirement to use a local broker, and specialist solicitors' PI competition on the ground in Exeter is limited. What matters is access to the qualifying insurer market and someone who handles solicitors' risks day in, day out. We are Bristol-based and act for firms across Exeter, Devon and Cornwall, with a named director on your account throughout.

What limit of indemnity do we actually need?

The SRA minimum is £2m per claim (£3m for LLPs and companies), but the right limit depends on the value of the transactions you handle. For a conveyancing-heavy Exeter firm dealing in higher-value Devon property, the minimum is often too low relative to a single lender claim. We advise on an appropriate limit rather than defaulting to the floor.

When should we start our 1 October renewal?

Ideally 60 to 90 days out. Because much of the profession renews on the same date, September is congested and late submissions get the fewest options and least favourable terms. Early, well-prepared submissions are marketed properly.

Our firm has had a claim — can you still place us?

Usually, yes. A claims history narrows the field but rarely closes it. The key is presenting the history honestly with the remedial steps you have taken, and approaching the insurers who genuinely underwrite firms with claims rather than the ones who will simply decline. That is core to what we do.

We're closing the firm — how does run-off work?

Under the MTC, run-off cover runs for six years after closure and is mandatory. How and when it is arranged affects the premium significantly, and it is an area sole practitioners and retiring partners often leave too late. Talk to us before you set a closure date.

Can you look at our office and cyber cover too?

Yes. Many Exeter firms buy PI, office and cyber as separate afterthoughts. We can review the whole programme so there are no gaps or overlaps — start with our sector index or a commercial quote.

Ready to review your solicitors' PI? Get a quote or speak to a broker. Apex Insurance Brokers is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 724952.