Three Tips to control the cost of your PI cover

The world’s leading insurance market, Lloyd’s, has recently undertaken a big review of professional indemnity (PI) cover across all industries.

As a result of this review, it has been identified that PI insurance has been particularly prone to incurring big losses and consequently some insurers have pulled out of the market whilst others are considering what they will do. We haven’t seen such a drastic change in the sector since 2008, when the property market was falling, and claims were increasing. Today, claim rates on PI cover for surveyors are actually falling, but the cost of cover is increasing as surveyors lose out as a result of an industry-wide shift in risk appetite amongst PI insurers.

As such, it’s becoming trickier for surveyors to secure PI premiums at good rates. So, how can you increase your chances of securing competitively priced cover?

At Arnold & Baldwin, we recently renewed our PI cover and we were able to do so at the same rate we had previously paid. So, here are some of our tips on what surveyors can do to control their PI costs.

1. Submit your proposal forms 13 weeks ahead of the renewal deadline. Don’t leave it until the last minute. Make sure that the insurer has plenty of time to review your proposal in full and leave enough time during the process to discuss detail.

2. Be clear to detail your fee income, business plan and strategy to manage internal risk

3. Your PI insurer will want information on all of these things in order to make an accurate risk assessment, so provide the information clearly and concisely. Provide a full presentation for your insurer. Don’t let them make their own assumptions about your business

If you are confident about the processes in your business, tell your PI insurer. Don’t leave it to chance that they will assume you follow best practice. Supplement your proposal with a full presentation that outlines exactly why your business poses a good PI risk.

Following these three tips won’t necessarily guarantee that you are able to secure a favourable price on your PI cover, but it will help to give your business a good chance of properly communicating its attributes and help you to make the best case to achieve the best rate.