Professional Indemnity Insurance in Australia
Professional Indemnity
Professional Indemnity insurance protects you from legal action taken against you, if someone suffers a financial loss following your professional advice or as a result of receiving your service.
This is particularly important for people who own their own businesses, whether large or small. Especially so if your business causes you to frequently provide the same sort of advice or services. Indemnity Insurance will cover you in the case if someone can prove that they have lost out financially or professionally. That can be as a direct result or a consequence of your actions.
Professionals that need to consider Professional Indemnity Insurance are those such as consultants, contractors and businesses that provide advice. Examples of this sort of business are: accountants and financial planners, security advisors, architects and psychiatrists. There are many more and you need to think about whether you are one of them.
Variation in Professional Indemnity Clauses
Individual insurers have widely varying cover limits and variations in what they will allow you to claim under Professional Indemnity. For example, are there territorial limits? Some companies won’t cover those of you that have many US/Canadian clients due to their highly litigious culture.
It is possible to negotiate over to start on a date in the past. It is also possible to arrange run-off cover. This is when you sell your business but decisions and advice from when you were active could still be targeted.
Some insurers automatically include Automatic Reinstatements of cover if someone makes a claim and you suffer a loss. Others don’t. Knowing the difference means paying for a policy that will restore your original limits or being left exposed.
As you can see, Professional Indemnity Insurance can be complicated and open to interpretation. When you call Sure Insure, you can be confident you are in the hands of the experts.
Interpretation of Liability
Insuring against this can be especially important if a client chooses to deliberately misconstrue your honest professional advice. When somebody loses out or suffers, they have a tendency to look for someone to blame other than themselves. You don’t want that person to be you!
Protecting your valuable reputation and assets against loss is essential. However, this is a very technical area and open wide to interpretation. When you are faced with an indemnity claim it is important to immediately contact your broker. DO NOT assume responsibility or attempt a settlement without contacting your broker. You need to do this before you speak to or contact the person who is suing you for damages.
Why use a Broker for Indemnity Cover?
Professional Indemnity Insurance needs to have careful wording. Cover needs tailoring to your specific activities. Duty of Care and Breach of Duty are things that can be very vague and open to interpretation by lawyers. For that, you are best to speak to a broker like Sure Insure to make sure you are properly protected. We make sure to cover all your activities and identify areas where you could be exposing yourself to expensive risks.
Covering yourself against accusations of errors or omissions in your advice and services protects both your business and your assets. You can also make sure that your reputation is protected when employees go off track. It’s not practical to supervise workers every day, but liability suits can run into millions of dollars.
Sure Insure Brokers are experts at knowing the inclusions and exclusions of every policy on the market. We can help you pick and choose Professional Indemnity cover that is perfect for you.
