Thirty-three professions, one spine: professional indemnity. From solicitors (where PII is a regulatory condition of practising) to virtual assistants (where £60 a year buys peace of mind), this cluster is the home of advice-based risk – and of the sharpest divide on this site: regulated professions whose insurance is prescribed versus open professions whose insurance is prudent. Find your profession below; each guide has a matching quiz that routes you to providers for your circumstances.
The cluster at a glance
Five ideas that run through every profession here
1. Professional indemnity is claims-made – and that changes everything. The policy that pays is the one live when the claim arrives, not when the work was done. Three disciplines follow: keep cover continuous (gaps between contracts are gaps in protection for everything you've ever done); guard your retroactive date when switching insurers; and plan run-off before retirement or closure – wills claims arrive posthumously, tax claims at the next enquiry, transformation claims after go-live.
2. The regulated/unregulated divide decides how you buy. Solicitors, FCA intermediaries and body-licensed accountants have prescribed minimums, approved insurers and compliant wordings – specialist-broker territory where a generalist's error is a regulatory breach. Everyone else buys in the open market, where the online products (Markel from £5/month, Simply Business from £6.62/month, AXA from £66/year, Hiscox from £9.80/month) are genuinely good.
3. Read the insurance clause before you sign anything. In the unregulated professions, your clients' contracts are your de facto regulator: £1m is the standard ask, £2m–£5m in corporate and public-sector terms, and some contracts demand cover be maintained for years after the engagement. Check limits before pricing the work – and mirror them in your own liability caps.
4. Cyber is the underbought cover of every desk profession. Bookkeepers hold bank feeds; VAs hold credential sets; analysts hold client datasets; HR consultants hold special-category data; complaints handlers hold all of the above. For most professions in this cluster, the realistic bad day isn't a negligence claim – it's a compromised inbox. Price the cyber add-on every time.
5. Your policy schedule is what you're covered as. "Consultant" is a title; the schedule is a contract. Declare every service line (the VA doing bookkeeping-lite, the coach with therapeutic modalities, the PM on construction sites), because undeclared activities are the claims-denial pattern across this entire cluster.
Frequently asked questions
Is professional indemnity legally required?
Only for the regulated professions (solicitors by the SRA; FCA intermediaries by MIPRU). For body-licensed accountants and bookkeepers it's a membership condition. For everyone else it's contractual and prudential – but functionally unavoidable once clients of size appear.
What limit do I need?
The larger of: what your contracts specify, and what your worst engagement going wrong would cost. £1m is the open-market default; regulated professions have prescribed floors; management consultants and will writers should think £2m+.
PI or public liability – what's the difference?
PI covers your advice and work product causing financial loss; public liability covers physical injury and property damage. Desk professions need PI first; PL is the cheap bundle-in for client-site visits.
Can I pause cover between contracts?
You can – but shouldn't. Claims-made cover means pausing exposes all past work. Monthly-flexible providers (Superscript) exist precisely so cover flexes without lapsing.
Do I need employers' liability?
The moment anyone works for you – employees, and often regular associates or subcontractors under your direction – it's a legal requirement (£10m standard; fines up to £2,500/day).
Guides in this cluster: all 33 linked above. Related clusters: Security & protection · Health & fitness · Engineering & architecture, IT & digital, and Property & real estate coming next – several professions here border all three.
Accountants
For accountants, professional indemnity insurance isn't legally required – but if you're licensed by ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, ICAS or CIMA, it's a condition of practising, with formulas that dictate your minimum cover.
