If you have tried to buy professional indemnity insurance online and been told your trade is not on the list, you are not unusual. A number of UK professions sit outside the appetite of the direct-writer segment. That is not because the profession is uninsurable, and not because the insurer thinks the profession is high risk. It is because direct-writer product forms are built for volume, and regulated professions carry wording, limit and long-tail obligations that a volume product cannot carry as standard.
This page sets out which professions are currently outside the direct-writer route based on what the direct writers themselves publish, why the pattern looks the way it does, and what the specialist broker route provides for professions that do not fit the online quote-and-buy model. The information below is drawn from each insurer's own public pages; check the live pages linked at the end of this article for the current position because appetite shifts at the margin.
A direct writer is an insurer or panel operator that sells to the end customer without a broker sitting between the customer and the underwriter. The direct-writer segment sits predominantly in the small-business and freelance market. The operating model is volume-based: standardised product forms, online quote-and-buy journeys, minimal underwriter involvement per case, and pricing built around a broad book rather than individual risk.
The names that dominate the segment in the UK include Direct Line for Business, Aviva (business insurance division), Simply Business (a panel operator trading through Xbridge Limited, owned by The Travelers Companies) and Superscript. Some of these are pure direct writers; some are technically brokers acting in a panel-operator capacity. In practical customer terms they behave the same way — a website, a quote, a card payment, cover in force in minutes.
The specialist broker route sits alongside the direct-writer segment. A specialist broker has appetite lists across multiple insurers, understands regulator wordings, and can place professions that fall outside the direct-writer product forms.
Read the sections below in order. Start with the direct-writer summaries, which set out each insurer's currently published position on regulated professions. Then read the four structural reasons that shape the pattern, which explain why the exclusions look the way they do. Finally, read the alternatives section, which sets out the routes that remain open for professions that fall outside the direct-writer segment.
Direct Line for Business publishes a Finance and Legal Services page that states the insurer is currently unable to offer professional indemnity insurance for finance and legal professionals. The page explains that some specialist trades need cover from an industry-specific provider. In practice this places the following professions outside the direct-writer's stated appetite:
Direct Line for Business notes that the position may change over time as it develops the policies it offers. For its tradesperson insurance product, professional indemnity is offered for electricians only. Other trades can start a quote to see whether professional indemnity is available for their specific trade.
Aviva's position for small-business professional indemnity differs from the other names in this article. Aviva stopped writing professional indemnity for small and medium-sized enterprises in April 2013. Aviva's continuing professional indemnity appetite sits in the corporate segment, typically for firms with fees above £10 million a year, placed through the broker channel rather than direct.
For small business customers who go to Aviva's website looking for professional indemnity, Aviva redirects to PIB Insurance Brokers rather than offering a direct quote-and-buy journey. In other words, Aviva is not a direct writer for small-business PI. The professions excluded from Aviva as a direct route are therefore all small-business professions, not a specific list — the whole segment sits outside its direct appetite.
For information purposes, Aviva's broker-channel appetite covers a wide range of professions including solicitors, accountants, surveyors, estate agents, IT services, design and build industries, architects and consulting engineers. That route runs through a broker, not through Aviva's website.
Simply Business is a panel operator trading through Xbridge Limited, which is FCA-authorised. Simply Business's professional indemnity page states that the product is available to a range of professions including solicitors, accountants and architects, with cover limits typically between £50,000 and £5 million. In the sense used elsewhere on this page, therefore, Simply Business does not maintain a headline profession-exclusion list of the same shape as Direct Line for Business.
The practical questions for a regulated firm considering Simply Business are two: whether the wording available through the panel meets the specific regulator's requirements (SRA Minimum Terms, ICAEW PII Regulations, RICS Approved Wording, ARB Standard 8, ACCA PII Regulations, FCA MIPRU 3), and whether the cover limit needed is inside the maximum offered on the panel. Firms with SRA minimum terms requirements, or firms needing limits above £5 million any-one-claim, need to check the panel wording against the regulator's minimum specification before relying on it.
Superscript is a managing general agent that operates a direct-to-customer platform. Superscript's public materials state that it covers more than 1,000 business types. Regulated professions including accountants and solicitors appear within its stated appetite. As with Simply Business, the questions for a regulated firm are the wording match against the specific regulator's requirements and the limit availability against the compulsory minimum.
Where a direct writer does maintain a profession exclusion list — Direct Line for Business's finance and legal exclusion being the clearest example — the pattern is not random. Excluded professions almost always sit inside one or more of the four reasons below.
Certain professions must hold professional indemnity that meets a specific regulator-approved wording. The Solicitors Regulation Authority's Minimum Terms and Conditions apply to firms in England and Wales; ICAEW's Professional Indemnity Insurance Regulations apply to chartered accountants; ACCA has its own PII Regulations; the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes an Approved Wording; the Architects Registration Board's Standard 8 sets out the requirement for architects. Direct-writer product forms are standardised general commercial wordings and do not carry these clauses as issued. Amending a direct-writer form to meet an SRA Minimum Terms specification is not a case-by-case underwriting decision — the form itself would need reissuing.
Some regulators set a compulsory minimum limit that sits at or above the ceiling of a direct-writer product. The SRA Minimum Terms require £2 million any-one-claim for most firms and £3 million any-one-claim for firms structured as LLPs or limited companies. MIPRU 3 sets statutory minimum limits for FCA-authorised firms including insurance intermediaries. Where a direct-writer product's maximum limit sits below the compulsory minimum, the profession is structurally outside the product's reach.
Regulated-profession claims tend to cluster. A single defective conveyancing precedent can generate claims across an entire estate of transactions. A single flawed accounting position can generate claims across a client base. A single incorrect structural calculation can generate claims across a portfolio of properties. This severity-and-aggregation profile sits outside the loss expectations built into direct-writer pricing, which is calibrated to a distributed, individually contained small-claims book.
Some professions carry statutory exposure that extends well beyond the standard six-year contract limitation period. The Building Safety Act 2022 section 135 extended the Defective Premises Act limitation retrospectively to 30 years for claims accrued before the commencement date and prospectively to 15 years going forward. Architects, engineers and surveyors involved in higher-risk residential building work carry a materially longer tail than a standard commercial risk. Direct-writer product forms are calibrated to claims closing within a standard time horizon; long-tail statutory exposure sits outside that calibration.
Being outside a direct writer's appetite is not a judgement on the profession. It is a structural feature of the product form. In particular:
A specialist broker with sector appetite lists across multiple insurers is the primary route for regulated professions. The broker presents the risk to insurers whose product forms carry the required regulator wording, negotiates the terms, and documents the placement. Apex Insurance Brokers Limited operates in this space for the professions set out below.
Some professions have scheme arrangements that a specific broker holds with a specific insurer or group of insurers, typically endorsed by the professional body. RIBA-endorsed schemes exist for architects. ICAEW-endorsed arrangements exist for chartered accountants. These schemes sit alongside the open market rather than replacing it.
Solicitors in Scotland hold professional indemnity through the Law Society of Scotland Master Policy, brokered by Lockton and underwritten by a panel of insurers. Solicitors in Northern Ireland hold cover through the Law Society of Northern Ireland's arrangements. These are compulsory scheme covers, not open-market placements.
Larger regulated firms — typically those with fees above £10 million — sometimes place professional indemnity directly with a chosen underwriter through the firm's own broker. This is not a direct-writer route in the sense used elsewhere in this article; the placement runs through a broker but the underwriter is a specific choice rather than the outcome of a market exercise.
Every profession that appears on a direct writer's exclusion list sits inside one or more of the four structural reasons above: a regulator wording requirement, a compulsory limit exceeding the direct-writer cap, an aggregation and severity profile outside the direct-writer risk appetite, or a long-tail statutory exposure that extends past the direct-writer calibration.
The pattern is broadly stable across direct writers. A profession excluded from one direct writer is usually outside the appetite of most direct writers, because the same structural reasons apply across the segment. Insurer-specific appetite shifts happen at the margin — a direct writer may add a trade to its available list, or remove one, as its book and its reinsurance treaty change — but the shape of the exclusion pattern reflects the shape of the product form.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is an FCA-authorised general insurance intermediary with a professions focus. The firm is directed by Matthew Bartlett, holding SMF3, SMF16 and SMF17 approvals. Apex places professional indemnity for solicitors, accountants, surveyors, architects, financial advisers, IT consultants, management consultants and engineers with insurers whose product forms carry the required regulator wordings. Placement runs on the open market rather than through a single scheme or panel, which allows terms and limits to be matched to the firm's specific circumstances.
If your profession is regulated by a body that specifies a professional indemnity wording — SRA, ICAEW, ACCA, RICS, ARB, FCA under MIPRU 3 — you should assume that mainstream direct-writer product forms do not carry that wording as standard. Check the direct writer's own published position and the wording against your regulator's minimum specification before relying on the cover.
The reasons are structural rather than commercial. Regulator wording requirements, compulsory limits exceeding the product cap, aggregation and severity profiles outside the direct-writer risk appetite, and long-tail statutory exposure — one or more of these applies to almost every excluded profession.
No. Every profession outside the direct-writer segment has professional indemnity available through the specialist broker route, placed with FCA-authorised insurers whose product forms carry the required regulator wording. The specialist broker route is the mainstream route for regulated-profession PI.
The pattern is broadly stable because the underlying reasons are structural. Direct Line for Business publishes an explicit finance-and-legal exclusion. Aviva has withdrawn from direct SME professional indemnity altogether and redirects small-business customers to a broker. Simply Business and Superscript operate panel or MGA models with wider stated appetite; whether the wording available through those routes meets a specific regulator's minimum specification is a separate question that firms should check case by case.
Pricing on the specialist broker route reflects the specific underwriting of the specific risk with insurers who carry regulator-compliant wordings. Direct comparison with a hypothetical direct-writer quote is not meaningful because the direct-writer product form does not carry the required clauses. The relevant question is whether the terms placed meet the regulator's minimum specification at a price appropriate to the firm's fee income, work profile and claims history.
Where a profession sits on the appetite list of one direct writer but not another, the difference typically reflects book composition, reinsurance treaty terms and management appetite rather than a difference in the underlying risk. If your profession is regulated, the more important question is whether the specific wording on offer meets your regulator's minimum specification, not whether a specific direct writer accepts you.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number 724952.