Run-off cover is the professional indemnity insurance a firm buys to protect itself once it has stopped trading. Claims can arrive years — sometimes decades — after the work was delivered, and the policy that must respond is the one in force when the claim is notified, not the one that covered the year of the work. Without run-off, a retiring principal or a firm that has closed its doors is personally exposed to any allegation that later surfaces.
This entry sets out how run-off works for the professions Apex serves, the regulator-mandated minimums, how the Building Safety Act 2022 has extended the horizon for architects, and how a broker should plan the tail three to five years before a firm winds up.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority Indemnity Insurance Rules 2020 require solicitors' firms in England and Wales to arrange six years of run-off from the SRA's Minimum Terms and Conditions insurers at cessation. The ICAEW Professional Indemnity Insurance Regulations 2020 impose the same six-year minimum on chartered accountants. The Architects Registration Board's Code of Conduct, Standard 8, requires architects to keep adequate and appropriate insurance in place, which in practice reads as six to fifteen years of run-off depending on the past book — and, since 2022, longer where higher-risk building work sits in the archive.
Six years reflects the primary limitation period under the Limitation Act 1980 for actions in contract and tort. It has never been a ceiling on exposure — the latent damage extension and the fifteen-year long-stop already stretched the horizon — and for architects the Building Safety Act 2022 has stretched it further still.
Section 135 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Defective Premises Act 1972 to extend the limitation period for a claim relating to a dwelling to fifteen years prospectively and, critically, thirty years retrospectively for work completed before the Act came into force. For architects whose past book includes higher-risk buildings — residential blocks over eighteen metres or seven storeys — a claim in 2055 for work completed in 2025 is now within the statutory window. Related discussion is covered in the limitation and BSA entry.
Market pricing for run-off is typically one times the last active annual premium for the full tail, whether bought as a single payment at cessation or spread across an annually renewed structure. A firm paying £20,000 a year at cessation should expect a run-off quote in that region for the whole term — but insurers vary, and the softer the market at the moment of purchase the better the deal.
Two structural decisions matter. First, primary and excess layers are separate contracts. If a firm has a £5m primary tower and a £5m excess layer, the excess run-off has to be arranged with the excess carrier as its own placement. Second, run-off can be bought at cessation as a single fixed-term policy, or held as an annually renewed contract. At-cessation is the cleaner structure — the premium is fixed, the cover is committed — but it locks the retiree to a single insurer. Annually renewed run-off keeps flexibility, at the cost of exposure if the market hardens or the insurer withdraws.
The tail is only as good as the insurer standing behind it. An A-rated insurer at inception can be a very different proposition in year twelve. Where run-off is bought at cessation, financial strength and historic commitment to the UK PI market are as important as the price.
The following is a worked example only, drawn to illustrate the planning shape. Actual solutions depend on the firm's book, its insurers, and the market at the time of purchase.
A three-partner architectural practice plans to retire in 2028. In 2025 the broker opens the run-off conversation. The practice carries £5m primary and £5m excess. Its historic book includes twenty-five residential blocks built between 2015 and 2025, several of which are higher-risk buildings within scope of the Building Safety Act 2022. The retrospective thirty-year lookback under section 135 means claims are potentially cognisable until 2055 for work completed in 2025.
At cessation in 2028 the broker arranges fifteen years of run-off on the primary layer and fifteen years on the excess — fifteen being the common market maximum — taking cover through to 2043. For the residual 2043 to 2055 window, alternative structures are documented in advance: a directors and officers policy covering the principal designer role, or a special-purpose vehicle to hold the residual exposure. Related structural options are set out in the excess-of-loss run-off entry.
Three to five years before intended cessation is the right moment to start the conversation. It gives time to renew into insurers likely to offer strong run-off terms, to close out any circumstances notified in the last active year, and to price the tail into the retirement financial plan. Left to the final renewal, the choice narrows and the price hardens.
Apex advises retiring principals across architects, solicitors, accountants, independent financial advisers and surveyors. Fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015 continues to bind the firm at the point of run-off purchase — every material fact, every notified circumstance, every known exposure sits on the proposal.
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.