Professional indemnity insurance (PI) is the cover that pays when a client — or another third party — says your advice, design, or delivery cost them money. Lawyers, and any damages or settlement the policy agrees to, sit here. It is not public liability (injury or property damage), and it is not employers’ liability (staff injury).
Meshed is an FCA-regulated UK broker (FRN 1033248). We place professional indemnity for UK professional services and tech firms — limited companies, partnerships, and sole traders — from a panel of insurers. Broker fee is a flat 10%, with no admin add-ons.
If you are a payments, EMI, or other regulated financial-services firm, start on Fintech Insurance UK. That page owns the specialist programme. Early-stage tech and SaaS that is not payments: Startup Insurance UK. This page is general UK PI.
Who this is for
UK limited companies, partnerships, and sole traders that sell advice, design, or delivery, including:
Management and business consultants
Accountants, bookkeepers, and tax practices
Architects, designers, and design practices
Tech and IT consultants, developers, and MSPs
Marketing, creative, and digital agencies
Project managers, recruiters, and other professional services firms whose clients ask for PI
We work with limited companies, partnerships, and sole traders.
PI is not a legal requirement for every UK business. Some professional bodies make it a condition of practice. Many clients make it a condition of contract, and will name a minimum limit. If a mistake in your work could cost a client money, you need it.
Who we have helped
We place professional indemnity for UK professional services and tech firms: consultancies that need a certificate to land a contract, practices renewing a professional-body minimum, and agencies whose clients specify a limit in the MSA.
What professional indemnity insurance covers
A PI policy is there when a client, or another third party, claims they lost money because of your professional work. That usually includes:
Negligence, errors, and omissions in advice or services
Defence costs, even where the claim is thin
Damages or a settlement, up to the limit
Breach of confidentiality
Defamation in the course of the work
Intellectual property or copyright claims arising from client work
Lost or damaged client documents
Exact wording varies by insurer and profession. We show you the gaps before you bind, not after a claim.
PI does not cover injury or property damage to the public. That is public liability. It does not cover employee injury. That is employers’ liability. It does not cover a cyber attack on your own systems. That is cyber. It does not protect directors personally for how they ran the company. That is D&O.
A PI policy also will not pick up work from before the retroactive date, circumstances you already knew about, or something you did on purpose.
Claims-made, in plain English
Professional indemnity is written on a claims-made basis. The policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made, not the one you held when you did the work.
Two dates matter:
The retroactive date. Work done before this date is outside the policy. Keep it as far back as your first day of practice if you can, and do not let it jump forward when you switch insurer.
The policy period. The claim, or the circumstance that will become a claim, has to be notified while the policy is live.
Cancel the policy when a project ends and a claim the next month is uninsured, even if the work was done last year. That is why you keep PI running for as long as you can be sued, and buy run-off when you stop trading or sell the firm. Some professional bodies say how many years of run-off you need. Check yours.
Public liability and employers’ liability work the other way. Those are claims-occurring: the insurer on risk when the incident happened still deals with it later. Do not mix the two up.
If a client, a solicitor, or a professional body writes to you about a complaint, tell us before you reply. Late notification is how otherwise decent PI policies fail.
Typical limits
There is no single right number. Size the limit to the largest loss a client could pin on you, then to whatever your contracts and professional body already require.
In the UK market you will usually see:
£250,000 to £1 million for smaller consultancies and agencies, unless a contract says more
£1 million as the default many enterprise MSAs ask for
£2 million or £5 million where the client, a public body, or a professional body sets a higher floor
Above £5 million for larger practices or high-value project work
Some regulators are more specific. ICAEW-regulated firms generally need qualifying PI of £2 million, with a lower formula for smaller fee income (two and a half times fees, subject to a £250,000 floor). Architects on the ARB register are expected to hold adequate PI under the Architects Code. RICS firms have their own minimum wording. We match the certificate to the rule that applies to you. Do not treat the minimum as enough if your largest project is bigger than that.
Any one claim can exhaust an aggregate limit. If you have more than one live matter, say so. We will tell you whether you need a higher aggregate or a per-claim basis.
What it costs
Premium follows risk. Insurers price profession, fee income, the size of the contracts you touch (not just your fee), claims history, limit, excess, and how you work with subcontractors.
A low-risk consultant and a structural designer with the same turnover will not pay the same. We will not publish a “from £X a month” number that only exists for the cheapest trade on a comparison site.
What you can control: signed terms, a complaints process, and a proposal that describes the work you actually do. Underwriters load the files that are vague.
How Meshed works
You tell us what you do: services, fee income, contracts, headcount, and current cover.
We review the documents and flag gaps in limits, exclusions, territory, retroactive date, and contractor wording.
We go to our panel and come back with options.
You bind. We stay on for mid-term changes and renewal.
Straightforward SME risks are often quoted in minutes. Specialist professions and non-standard wordings can take longer. We will say that up front.
FAQs
What is professional indemnity insurance?
Cover for when a client claims your professional work caused them a financial loss. It pays defence costs and any damages or settlement the policy agrees to, up to the limit.
Do I need professional indemnity insurance in the UK?
Not as a blanket legal duty. You need it if your professional body requires it, if a client contract requires it, or if a mistake in your work could cost someone money. For most consultants, accountants, architects, tech firms, and agencies, that is a yes.
How much cover do I need?
Enough for the largest realistic claim, and at least what your contracts and professional body specify. Many UK firms start at £1 million. Plenty of MSAs ask for £2 million or £5 million. We size it to those, not to a default.
What does claims-made mean?
The policy has to be live when the claim is made. Past work is only covered if it sits after the retroactive date. If you stop the policy, you need run-off for work you already did.
What is the difference between professional indemnity and public liability?
PI is about financial loss from your advice or services. Public liability is about injury or property damage. Most service firms need both.
Does PI cover a cyber attack?
Not as a substitute for cyber insurance. Some PI wordings pick up a sliver of third-party data risk. A ransomware event, incident response, and your own system outage sit on a cyber policy. We will say if the two should be placed together so one incident is not bounced between them.
I am a fintech. Is this the right page?
No. Use Fintech Insurance UK for payments, EMI, PSD2, and other regulated financial-services models.
Are you an insurer?
No. Meshed is a broker. Mesh'd Limited trading as Meshed is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 1033248.
How fast can we bind?
Clean renewals and standard SME PI can be same-week. New professional-body wordings, claims histories, or unusual contracts take longer.
Vincent Liu
Co-founder & CTO
