While it’s fair to say that arranging professional insurance is not always necessarily quite as fast and straightforward as arranging something like a car cover quote, it need not be problematic or expensive. Certain types of professions have to abide by industry rules and regulations, and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy requires that members have got professional indemnity insurance. A CIPFA insurance quote can be obtained from a wide number of specialist insurance providers who can make life easier when it comes to this specialist kind of cover.
Indemnity insurance is seen as important not just by accountants, but by a wide number of professional advisory services. If something goes wrong and a client loses money because of a consultant’s mistake, they may be minded to take legal action. Worse still, an external adviser like an accountant may be blamed for a problem, and wrongly face a claim for compensation. Even these unfounded accusations will have to be formally defended if they are filed through the court process.
Indemnity insurance will pay for the cost of defending a legal action which is launched against an accountancy individual or company. In short it pays for solicitor’s fees and will even cover the cost of any compensation which might be awarded in favour of an applicant. Indemnity insurance is also seen by certain clients as essential, as some types of firm or local authority may not be prepared to deal with an adviser like an accountant unless they have their own indemnity insurance in place.
Indemnity insurance will normally pay out if the legal case launched against the policyholder relates to an accusation they have made a mistake, error, omission or act of negligence in their business. Other circumstances which are nearly always covered as part of a deal include allegations that someone has breached confidentiality or copyright, or that they have perhaps lost an important client’s data or documents.
All policies have cover limit, which is essentially a top amount past which an insurance company will not pay out any further for legal protection or compensation. Bodies like the CIPFA have their own requirements about what the minimum level should be, although some firms may want a higher level of protection than the minimum which is laid down by industry rules.
A CIPFA insurance quote will be related to the policy limit and to the firm or accountant in question, as all insurance in this sector is based on calculating risk, just as cover in the car insurance industry is, for example.
Cover professionals like brokers can be one of the best ways of getting a CIPFA insurance quote, as they may have access to deals and details which do not normally come up from general public enquiries. They can also advise an applicant on the potential need and cost of additional options like public liability insurance and employers liability cover.