Almost every professional indemnity (PI) policy in the UK market is written on a claims-made and reported basis. This is the single most important structural feature of PI cover, and the one most often misunderstood by professionals buying it for the first time.
A claims-made and reported policy responds to claims that are both made against the insured and reported to the insurer during the period of insurance. It is the date of the claim or notification that matters, not the date the underlying work was carried out. This is the opposite of a liability policy written on an "occurrence" basis, where the policy in force when the event happened responds even if the claim arrives years later.
The practical consequence is that the policy you hold today must respond to mistakes made years ago, provided the claim is first made now and you have held continuous cover in the meantime. A surveyor who valued a property in 2021 and is sued in 2026 looks to the 2026 policy, not the 2021 one.
Professional negligence often surfaces long after the work was done. A latent defect in a building design, an error in tax advice or a flawed valuation may not crystallise into a claim for several years. Insurers price occurrence cover with great difficulty because the "long tail" of unknown future claims is hard to reserve for. The claims-made model lets the insurer close its book at the end of each year and price the next year on current information.
Because each year's policy carries the whole back-history of the firm's work, the limit of indemnity and the retroactive date should be reviewed every renewal, not just the premium. Reducing a limit can leave historic exposures under-insured. Allowing the retroactive date to move forward, sometimes a condition imposed by a new insurer, can strip cover for past work entirely.
Different professions sit under different regulatory minimum wordings that build on this basis. Solicitors operate under the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions; architects under the ARB Code and RIBA guidance; accountants under ICAEW regulations. Apex works with professionals to read the trigger correctly against their regulatory regime. For sector-specific detail see the solicitors PI guide, the architects PI guide and the accountants PI guide.
Professionals new to PI cover often assume that the policy in place when they did the work is the one that pays. It is not. A retired consultant who lets cover lapse the day they stop practising has no policy in force to respond to a claim that arrives the following year, which is why run-off cover exists to extend the claims-made trigger beyond the trading life of the firm. Understanding that today's policy carries yesterday's exposure is the first step to buying the right limit and the right run-off arrangements.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number 724952. This entry is general information, not advice on any particular policy.