Duty of care
Category: Liability and professional risk · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-22 · ~3 min read
Category: Liability and professional risk
Also known as: professional duty of care, reasonable skill and care, broker duty of care
Related concepts: breach of duty of care, assumption of responsibility, insurance broker duty of care
Why this entry is narrow
Duty of care is a large idea in the general law of negligence. This entry deals only with the two places it does practical work in insurance. The first is the professional’s duty to the client, which is the source of the claims a professional indemnity policy is bought to meet. The second is the broker’s duty to the insured, which is what a policyholder relies on when cover turns out to be wrong. Everything else about the law of negligence is outside the scope of this entry.
The professional’s duty
A professional providing services owes a duty to exercise reasonable skill and care, arising concurrently in contract and in tort. Where services are supplied in the course of a business and the contract is silent, section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 implies a term to that effect — see SGSA 1982 section 13. The standard is that of a reasonably competent member of the relevant profession, judged by reference to the practice accepted as proper at the time, not with hindsight. Duty can also arise outside any contract where responsibility has been assumed towards a third party who relies on the work: see assumption of responsibility.
Why the standard matters to the policy
Professional indemnity cover is built around this standard. Insuring clauses are typically expressed as covering civil liability, or liability arising from a negligent act, error or omission, committed in the conduct of the insured’s professional business. A liability that arises without any failure of skill and care — because the contract promised a result rather than a standard of conduct — is a different animal, and it is normally excluded. That is the subject of the fitness for purpose exclusion. The practical effect is that a contractual clause converting a duty of care into a guarantee can move a liability outside the cover the firm has bought, without anyone touching the policy.
Duty, breach, causation, scope
Establishing duty is only the first step, and in most disputes it is not the contested one. Breach asks whether the conduct fell below the standard. Causation asks whether the breach made a difference. Scope of duty asks whether the loss claimed is of a kind the duty was intended to protect against — the distinction between giving advice and merely giving information, discussed in advice versus information. Coverage arguments often track these stages, because a policy responds to liability, and liability requires all of them.
Contract and tort together
Because the duty usually arises both in contract and in tort, a claimant may have a choice of routes, and the choice affects limitation. That is why the same set of facts can produce claims that are time-barred on one analysis and live on another, and it is one reason circumstances should be notified when they arise rather than when a claim is finally formulated. See tort versus contract claims and concurrent duty in contract and tort.
The broker’s duty
An insurance broker owes its client a duty to exercise reasonable skill and care in arranging cover. In practice that has been held to extend to understanding the client’s business well enough to identify the cover it needs, to explaining material terms and the consequences of failing to comply with them, to advising on the duty of fair presentation and what has to be disclosed, and to placing cover with reasonable promptness and with security that is reasonably appropriate. A broker that gets this wrong faces a professional negligence claim of exactly the kind its own professional indemnity policy exists to meet. See insurance broker duty of care and the duty to explain policy terms.
What a commercial buyer should take from this
Three things. Check what your client contracts say about the standard you owe, because a duty of care and a guaranteed outcome are insured very differently. Check that your policy’s description of your professional services matches what you actually do, because the duty has to arise in an insured activity. And keep a record of the advice you gave and the basis for it, because a duty of care claim is decided on what was reasonable at the time, and the contemporaneous file is the evidence of that.
Frequently asked questions
What standard does a professional have to meet?
Reasonable skill and care — the standard of a reasonably competent member of that profession at the time, judged without hindsight. It is not a guarantee that the outcome will be satisfactory.
Does professional indemnity insurance cover breach of a duty of care?
That is precisely what it is designed for. Cover is usually written around civil liability, or around a negligent act, error or omission in the conduct of the insured professional business.
Does my broker owe me a duty of care?
Yes. A broker owes its client a duty to exercise reasonable skill and care in understanding the risk, advising on disclosure, explaining material terms and arranging appropriate cover.
Related entries
- Breach of duty of care
- SGSA 1982 section 13
- Assumption of responsibility
- Advice versus information
- Insurance broker duty of care
- Fitness for purpose exclusion
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Position stated as at August 2026. Last reviewed 2026-08-22. Next review: 2027-02-22. It is general insurance information, not legal advice, and not regulated advice on a specific policy.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.