Professional risk is very broad area, sharing one common insurance theme at the heart of all professional service firms (PSFs): Professional Indemnity Insurance. Where traditional manufacturing and goods businesses rely on Product Liability, the service sector relies on Professional Indemnity cover.
Managing premium costs is largely a process of wide market access, the degree of self-insurance through excess levels a business is willing to bear, claims experience and any involvement in more esoteric risk areas. PSFs with a claims history will need help to control premiums.
A key service to seek out is a contract review service, particularly relevant to the Tech, Construction and Outsource Services sectors. Contract management help with Indemnity, Limitation, Warranty and Insurance clauses in supply contracts is a crucial part of risk mitigation and balance sheet protection for any firm.
Paul Dickson
Regardless, whether Accountants, Architects, Lawyers, Engineers, Software Developers, Website Designers, Consulting Firms, Research and Testing, Outsource Service Management, or Insurance Broking, the main insurable risk is PI.
Information
Professional Indemnity
Defamation
Unpaid Bills
All Civil Liability
Negligence Only
Assigned Risk Pools
Contract Reviews
It is important to understand the extent to which liabilities entered into in commercial contracts are protected by insurance.
A key part of an insurance broker’s service is looking at insurance and indemnity clauses in contracts and providing informed comment.
Any commercially aware insurance broker will work with you to look at your contractual exposures
Paul Dickson
Innovation use a template approach to examine contract clauses, enabling the insured and uninsured exposures to be understood. This approach works just as well in both simple contracts like leases and more complex agreements like software supply or construction work
Considerations
- Leases
- Software contracts
- Service supply contracts
- Construction contracts
Risk Mitigation
Risk solutions are not all about insurance or loss control – indeed the vital “DNA” of the business may be acceptance of an unmitigated and uninsured risk.
Other risks can be easily controlled with a little work and assistance – thus reducing insurance cost, or avoiding the need for insurance at all.
Insurance is just a means of transferring unmitigated risk to another party. To keep insurance cost controlled mitigation opportunities should always be examined first.
Howard Pearson
There are a host of mitigation experts out there from cyber risk to fire engineering and we have created a network of these to bring the best to bear on your behalf. The more generic – like Health and Safety – can often be provided at a “no or low” cost due to insurers buying power.
Considerations:
- Health and Safety
- Fire Engineering
- Physical Security
- Cyber Risk Assessment
- Contract Reviews
- Continuity Plans
- Disaster Plans
- Supply Chain audits
- Pandemic Recovery plans
