Top professional indemnity and liability insurance compared

About Top professional indemnity and liability insurance compared

Professional indemnity insurance covers the legal cost of a claim that your advice, work or service caused a client harm, and many client contracts now ask for it in writing before work starts. It sits alongside public liability, which covers injury and property damage, and employers liability, which covers staff. This ranking covers 33 providers of professional indemnity and liability cover, spanning UK insurers, European and Asian underwriters, brokers and comparison sites, so the quotes sit in different currencies and under different rules. The main trade-off is the price of cover against the limit you buy and the excess you keep. Starting premiums across the category run from €0 to €319.60, with a median of €7.17, and the indemnity limit a provider offers ranges from €876,962.20 to €11,621,825.79. Buying a bigger limit is straightforward, but it raises the premium, and the excess decides how much of a claim you fund yourself.

How we picked

Scores here are built from weighted components: cost at 35%, the offer at 25% and trust at 40%, so trust counts for the most and price the least. Cost reflects published starting premiums alongside the excess, the offer looks at indemnity limits, business lines and how the account is set up, and trust leans on the kind of company behind the policy, whether that is an insurer, a broker or a comparison site, plus how it is supported. Data for each provider comes from its own published materials, so premiums, limits, business lines, support channels and entity type are read from the insurer or broker's own pages. Where a provider has a commercial relationship with us, it is listed first, and the rest follow on score. The category totals 33 brands, of which 11 are licensed providers.

Our top picks

1. 3. Income Insurance

   Income Insurance appears in this ranking as a Singapore insurer whose commercial book runs through professional indemnity as its core liability line, trading as Income Insurance Limited and founded in 1970. A starting premium of SGD 0.60 is the lowest of any insurer in this list, monthly payments are available, and the excess starts at SGD 250. Support runs on phone, email and help centre, so phone, email and a help centre. Its limit in this category is that professional indemnity is the only business line listed, so a business needing public liability alongside it must look elsewhere. Against APOLLO Insurance below, the comparison is direct: one is an Asian underwriter, the other a Canadian broker that also places property cover.

   • Premium from: SGD 0.60
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 4 more
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • A single insurer for the lot: auto, home and life and professional indemnity can sit with the same company, so personal and trade policies need not be split across providers.
   • Claim handling runs through phone, email and online form, so you can start a claim by whichever route suits the moment, from a form to a call.
   • Support is listed as phone, email and help centre, so a quote or renewal question has a phone line, an inbox and a help centre behind it.
   • The counterparty is named plainly: Income Insurance Limited, listed as insurer.
   • Seniors are a stated audience on seniors, so older customers form part of the intended customer base.

   Cons

   • The pet excess starts at SGD 250, so a routine claim still leaves that amount with you before the insurer pays anything.
   • The pet age range rules older animals out: the pet must be above a minimum age and below a maximum age at the policy start.
   • The pet cover limit moves through a fixed annual range under Happy Tails Pet Insurance rather than a single high ceiling, so a costly year at the vet can outrun the policy.
   • For a contents-only renters policy, Good Sam Insurance Agency lists auto, home and renters, and that line does not appear in auto, home and life.

2. L8. Lokky: best for Lokky

   Lokky is an independent Italian insurance intermediary offering customisable online professional liability policies for small businesses, professionals and freelancers.

3. IN9. Insify NL: best for Insify NL

   Online insurance provider where self-employed people and businesses can put together their own disability (AOV) or liability insurance, take it out online and cancel daily.

4. 10. Hiscox UK: best for Top pick

   Hiscox UK earns its place at the top of this ranking by pairing the joint highest indemnity limit in the list, £10,000,000, with a starting premium of £5.20, well under the category median of €7.17. It is an insurer rather than a middleman, writing under Hiscox Underwriting Ltd and headquartered in the UK, which means the contract sits with the company that carries the risk. It underwrites public liability, professional indemnity, employers liability and cyber, so a consultancy or sole trader can hold several policies with one underwriter. The sectors it names run from IT and consultancy work through the trades and retail, and it covers freelancers and sole traders. Monthly payments are available, and support runs on phone and help centre. Against LowestRates.ca, the difference is ownership of the risk and the limit on offer, not the monthly cost.

   • Provider type: Insurer
   • Cover types: Public-liability, Professional-indemnity, Employers-liability, and 1 more
   • Indemnity limit: £10,000,000

   Pros

   • Indemnity limits of £10,000,000 rank first of 11 brands on our data, well above the site median of €3,486,547.74.
   • Business lines cover public liability, professional indemnity, employers liability and cyber, so several core covers sit with one insurer.
   • Premium from £5.20 sits below the site median of €8.37, and Hiscox UK ranks 2 of 14 on entry price.
   • Monthly payments are available, so the premium can be spread rather than paid as one lump sum.
   • Cover runs from an insurer, Hiscox Underwriting Ltd, rather than through a broker or comparison site, and Hiscox UK ranks 2 of 14 on price.

   Cons

   • Support runs on phone and help centre only, so a help centre and phone line are the listed ways to reach the team.
   • Business cover is limited to public liability, professional indemnity and employers liability, with no property business line among the listed lines.
   • The entry premium is a starting figure, and business insurance premium from £5.20 sits under a category spread running to €3,431.08.
   • A Hiscox UK entity is an insurer, so cover sits with a single underwriter rather than a broker such as broker who can place it across the market.

What to look for

What the premium actually starts at

Published entry prices are the quickest way to separate providers, and they are a starting point rather than a quote. The median starting premium across this category is €7.17, with most providers falling between €5.08 and €16.23. Compare those figures against the excess you would carry, because a cheap policy with a high excess can cost more at the point a claim is made.

The limit and the excess

A higher indemnity limit covers a larger claim, and the median limit in this category is €5,810,912.89. Some providers publish an excess range, which is the part of a claim you pay yourself. uSwitch publishes an excess starting at £0 to £1,000 and Simply Business one from £100 to £2,500, so a low premium can still leave you with a share of the bill.

Who underwrites the policy

An insurer carries the risk on its own balance sheet, while a broker or comparison site puts several insurers in front of you. Insurers account for 54.5% of this category, brokers 36.4% and comparison sites 9.1%. Whichever route you take, read which legal entity you are contracting with before you sign.

The other cover on the same account

Placing professional indemnity next to related lines usually saves administration. Public liability appears on 84.8% of providers here, employers liability on 48.5% and cyber on 45.5%, so most of this list can cover a whole business from one provider.

Monthly payments and cash flow

Monthly payments are normal in this category, and 100% of the providers here offer them, with 100% of the category priced on a monthly model. Spreading the cost helps a new business hold cash, though a single annual payment is often cheaper for the same limit.

Reaching help after a claim

A claim is where the account details matter, and support varies across the list. A help centre is offered by 89.3% of providers in this ranking and phone support by 85.7%, with email on 53.6% and live chat on 14.3%. Check the channel list before you buy, not afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Top professional indemnity and liability insurance compared by country

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States

Insurance providers compared head to head

• AXA vs ERGO NEXT

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV