If you are in the business of selling your knowledge or skills, you may want to consider taking out professional indemnity insurance.

What you will be covered for

This protects your business against compensation sought by a client if you have made mistakes or are found to have been negligent in some or all of the services that you provide for them. Professional indemnity insurance will also cover any legal costs.

Most professionals carry professional indemnity cover. If you are a lawyer, accountant or financial adviser, then you must have professional indemnity insurance. Professionals such as architects, consultants, advertising and PR agencies, and designers often opt for such cover as well.

Ensure you are properly covered

One important aspect to bear in mind when considering professional indemnity insurance is that, because there can often be a long delay between an event and a subsequent claim, you need to be covered both at the time of the event and when the claim is made.

This means that if you plan to cancel your policy when you close your business or retire you may need to arrange "run off" cover for a period of time afterwards.

Also, if you plan to change insurers, you will either need to arrange run-off cover or get agreement from your new insurer to accept new claims for prior incidents.

Keep everything well documented

One way to minimise such claims is to make sure projects are well documented. Ensure that you set out specific responsibilities in your contracts with clients beforehand and deal with complaints promptly.

As this is a specialist area of insurance you should take advice from a suitably experienced insurance broker. For help on arranging Professional Indemnity Cover contact SMEInsurance.ie

Learn more from our Professional Indemnity FAQs

These are just a few points about Professional Indemnity insurance. We have prepared a comprehensive Frequency Asked Questions section, which you can access from here.

Professional Indemnity is a vital cover in the current market and you deserve professional advice

We have attempted to answer the most common questions but if you need to know more contact SMEINsursnce today!