PI insurance guide Ireland

Professional Indemnity insurance?! Is it all just PI in the sky?!

 

What is Professional Indemnity insurance?

Professional Indemnity Insurance or PI insurance covers you or your company if you are sued for negligent advice or services in which your client suffers a financial loss.

The cover includes the legal costs and expenses incurred in your defence, as well as any damages or costs that may be awarded.

 

Do I need PI insurance?

Everyone makes mistakes and it only takes a loss of concentration for something important to be missed. These basic errors can lead to a large compensation case that could bankrupt a business.

Whilst PI insurance is not a legal requirement, for many professions, such as chartered accountants and surveyors, architects and financial advisors, it’s a mandatory requirement of their regulatory or professional body. Without PI insurance, such professions cannot operate.

Increasingly, clients are insisting that they won’t enter into a contract without PI cover. It maintains the client’s confidence that they are dealing with a professional, trustworthy company.

Any person or company that is offering advice or expertise is open to expensive legal costs and compensation claims if they are deemed negligent. We all endeavour to do the best possible job, however, sometimes mistakes can happen. PI insurance safeguards against these mistakes costing you your business.

 

You are required to have PI insurance if you:

  • Construct designs for your clients such as an architect, engineer
  • Provide professional advice or services to your clients such as an accountant, financial advisor
  • Are required to by your professional/regulatory body

 

Examples of when PI insurance is needed

Website Designer

If a client is unhappy with the result of an agreed brief or design. If you are a website designer and the client feels that the website created doesn’t meet their needs or is not fit for purpose.

 

Chartered Surveyor

A client may feel aggrieved if the property they bought has a structural defect and will have to spend money rectifying it. They will want to sue the chartered surveyor who advised them on the property.

 

Architect

An architect makes an error in the design for construction of an extension. This results in a flawed extension and the client suing the architect to rectify the extension.

 

Accountant

If you as an accountant have made errors in calculations or offered misleading advice to a client resulting in the client suffering a financial loss. The client then sues the accountant for a reduction in income.

 

IT Consultant

As an IT consultant, you lose a client’s important data. PI insurance would cover the cost to replace the data.

 

How much does Professional Indemnity Insurance cost?

It varies depending on the profession and requirements. As the demand for PI insurance has increased in recent years, the cost has come down for many professions.

Professional indemnity insurance can protect you or your company if you are in the business of offering your advice, expertise, skills or knowledge. You’ll sleep sounder knowing that if a PI claim does arise, you will be financially covered. You can then get on with what you do best!

 

Online Professional Indemnity Insurance Quote

Call PJ Fitzgerald Insurance Brokers on 021 477 2332 or click on the button below to get an online PI insurance quote.