If your renewal premium has gone up and you don't quite understand why, this article is for you. Solicitors PI is priced on roughly nine objective factors plus underwriter judgement, and the relative weight of each shifts year by year as the Participating Insurer market hardens or softens. Understanding the underwriting model lets you predict what's driving your number and, more importantly, what you can change to improve it.
This article complements the full Solicitors PI Guide and the Solicitors sector page.
The market context for 2025-26
After a hard period that ran roughly 2019-2022, the SRA Participating Insurer panel has expanded materially. The 2025/26 indemnity year has 52 participating insurers, the highest number ever recorded and double the 26 at the start of the 2019 hard market. More capacity has meant more competition for risks and better terms for the well-run firms.
The practical effect for most firms: the 1 October 2024, 1 April 2025, 1 October 2025, and 1 April 2026 renewals each saw rate softening for clean records. Howden reports the majority of clients secured rate reductions at 1 April 2026, with 18-month policies now widely offered (a meaningful efficiency for firms). Difficult risks (high-volume consumer claims firms in particular) continue to face firmer underwriting, but conveyancing-heavy firms have seen materially more insurer choice than at any point since 2019: one insurer cited by Howden moved its conveyancing tolerance from 5% to 50% of fees.
Whether the soft cycle continues into 2026-27 depends on insurer profitability through this period.
The nine factors in order of approximate weight
1. Gross fee income
The primary rating factor. Premium is typically expressed as a percentage of gross fee income, with the percentage varying by firm size, work mix, and claims record. The exact percentage range is firm-specific and not something we publish; your named broker will benchmark your specific position at renewal.
What moves it. Fee income alone, year-on-year, drives premium up or down roughly in line. A firm that grew fees 20% will typically see premium up around 20% even with everything else flat. Howden's April 2026 review specifically warns that rate reductions do not always mean premium reductions, because fee growth pulls the number the other way.
Lever you control. Restate fee income at renewal if there has been a material change. Some firms under-report at the start of the policy year and over-pay; others over-report and overpay. Accurate disclosure matters.
2. Work mix
The single biggest non-fee-income lever. Each work type is rated differently by insurers because each carries a different historic claims pattern.
Higher-rated work types (insurer-loaded):
- High-volume consumer claims (housing disrepair, motor finance commission, data breach, diesel emissions). Currently the single hardest segment of solicitors PI given the SSB Law collapse, the SRA's 2025 thematic review, and joint SRA/FCA action.
- Conveyancing, particularly where it is a high proportion of total fees.
- Commercial property.
- Construction-related advice.
- Trust and probate work above certain estate-value thresholds.
Lower-rated work types (insurer-favoured):
- Family law.
- Employment (most categories).
- Immigration.
- Will-writing for smaller estates.
- Most criminal work (legal aid criminal in particular).
Lever you control. The split of fee income by work type is something you can present to insurers in detail. A firm whose conveyancing percentage has dropped over the year should make sure that change is reflected in the renewal submission.
3. Claims history
Insurers typically look back over five to six years when underwriting, though some review the full claims history of the firm.
What moves it.
- A clean record over the look-back window typically attracts the best terms available for the firm's size and mix.
- A single moderate claim is usually absorbable but typically produces a loading at renewal. The size of the loading depends on the insurer, the claim's cause, and any process changes the firm has made.
- Multiple claims, or a single severe claim (six-figure or seven-figure paid), will push the firm into difficult-market territory with materially higher premiums and potentially specific exclusions.
Lever you control. Once a claim is paid, the loading is what it is. But how the claim is presented at renewal matters. Apex's experience is that the same claim history presented two different ways produces different underwriting reactions. A clear narrative explaining the cause, the resolution, and any process changes the firm made is materially better than a row of dates and amounts.
4. Fee-earner-to-partner ratio
Insurers use this as a proxy for supervision quality. A firm with one partner supervising fifteen fee-earners is rated differently from one with five partners and ten fee-earners.
Lever you control. The ratio is what it is. But the way the firm describes its supervision and review processes in the proposal (formal file-opening protocols, second-partner sign-off on high-value matters, COLP / COFA arrangements, documented quality management) can soften an insurer's view of a high ratio.
5. Regulatory history
Any prior SRA investigation, intervention, or finding affects underwriting. Routine SRA monitoring visits are not material; specific findings are.
Lever you control. Disclose proactively. Insurers reward firms that present regulatory history clearly and explain what has been done in response. Discovering a finding after binding because the insurer pulls the SRA Register is a far worse position than disclosing it up front.
6. Firm structure changes
A merger, demerger, partner exit, or change in legal entity within the look-back window will affect the underwriter's view. Successor practice rules in the MTC can create unexpected exposures when firms merge: the surviving firm typically inherits the run-off obligation of the predecessor.
Lever you control. Plan structural change with PI implications in mind. Pre-merger disclosure to your insurer is the right move; finding out at renewal that the successor practice rules created a doubled premium is the wrong way to discover it.
7. Excess level
Higher excess reduces premium. Under the MTC (clause 3) there is no monetary cap on the excess level, but the excess cannot apply to defence costs (clause 3.3) and cannot erode the limit of indemnity (clause 3.2).
Lever you control. Some firms with strong cash positions opt for materially higher excesses (£25k-£100k+) to manage premium. The trade-off: you absorb more of any single claim, but the cumulative annual saving can be significant if claims experience is favourable.
8. Cover limit above the MTC minimum
Most firms buy above the £2m / £3m minimum. The cost of additional layers is typically much cheaper per million than the primary layer.
Lever you control. The trade-off is discussed in detail in How much PI cover does my law firm actually need?. The marginal cost of an additional £2-5m of cover above the statutory floor is often surprisingly modest, particularly in the current soft market.
9. Risk management evidence
Firms with documented risk procedures attract better terms. This is not a tick-box exercise; insurers look for evidence in their underwriting process.
What insurers look for:
- Formal file-opening protocols with anti-fraud checks (particularly for conveyancing).
- Second-partner sign-off on high-value or high-risk matters.
- Documented complaint handling procedures.
- Active COLP / COFA engagement, with meeting minutes and risk register.
- Continuing professional development structures.
- Cyber security measures (routinely asked given the volume of phishing on conveyancing client funds).
- Specific risk mitigation around any historic claim categories.
- AI use: a new addition for 2025/26. Insurers now ask about how AI is used, in which areas of practice, the policies and procedures in place, and whether staff are trained. No notable AI claims activity yet, but the questions are being asked.
Lever you control. This is the single most under-invested area at most firms. Spending two hours at renewal compiling a one-page risk management summary materially improves how underwriters see the firm. Many firms do good risk management but fail to evidence it in a way that affects underwriting.
What insurer judgement actually weighs
Beyond the nine objective factors, underwriters apply judgement on:
- Quality and clarity of the submission. A clean, well-organised proposal with a clear scope-of-work breakdown, fee income split by category, and proactive disclosure of any material changes gets better terms than a rushed, incomplete one. In the current soft market, the majority of insurers accept short-form declarations for clean renewals.
- Time available to engage. Submissions received six weeks before renewal get more attention than those received six days out. Underwriters who have time to engage properly typically produce better terms.
- The broker's reputation with the underwriter. Brokers who consistently present clean, accurate submissions get better engagement than brokers who do not.
These are partly under your control (start the renewal process early; pick your broker carefully) and partly not (you cannot change your broker's relationship with an underwriter the day before renewal).
What the underwriting model does NOT weigh heavily
For completeness, factors that have less impact than firms sometimes assume:
- Marketing copy on the firm's website. Underwriters read the proposal, not the brochure.
- Office address. Geographic factors are modest unless there is a specific reason (multiple offices in different jurisdictions, for example).
- The firm's stated growth ambitions. Plans don't change the underwriting; demonstrated performance does.
- Awards and accreditations. Useful for marketing, modest impact on PI underwriting. CQS is essentially table stakes for conveyancing firms (lender panels generally require it) and the SRA has flagged that accreditation alone does not offset adverse claims history or work-mix concentration.
18-month policies
A 2025-26 market development worth flagging. Many insurers now offer 18-month policies as an alternative to the standard annual policy. Howden reports nearly 40% of its clients opted for 18-month terms at the 1 April 2025 renewal, up from 25% at 1 October 2024. The benefits: reduced renewal administration, locked-in pricing, and longer-term cost certainty. Worth discussing with your broker if your circumstances are stable.
The practical bottom line
If your premium is too high relative to peers and you want to improve it at the next renewal, the actionable levers are, in rough order of impact:
- Present claims history clearly with a narrative. Same data, better framing.
- Compile risk management evidence. A one-page summary of supervision, file-opening protocols, COLP/COFA activity, and AI governance.
- Accurate work-mix split. Make sure the rating-favourable categories are correctly captured.
- Excess increase. If cash position allows it, raising the excess can move premium meaningfully.
- Start the renewal process 90 days out. Gives the broker time to approach the full market.
The non-actionable levers (firm size, work mix structurally, claims history past) you cannot change. The actionable ones together can move the premium meaningfully in the soft market environment.
How Apex helps
Your named Apex broker reviews each of these factors with you at renewal and identifies the levers most worth pulling for your specific firm. We present claims history with a narrative, compile risk-management evidence in the way insurers respond to, and approach the market early enough to negotiate.
To start a renewal review, upload your current Statement of Fact and existing policy schedule to proposal.apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk/commercial. Your named broker will be in touch.