Professional Indemnity Insurance – Is your business protected?
What is professional indemnity insurance?
Professional indemnity insurance, often referred to as PI, is a way for businesses to cover the cost of any compensation claims and legal expenses if they are sued for negligence or for making a mistake.
The scale of a compensation claim can vary dramatically depending on the circumstances, so it’s important to secure good professional indemnity cover levels so that your business can recover the costs of any legal work and compensation awards from claims, where these can be legally covered, that are successfully brought against it.
This will reduce the fi nancial consequences for your business and mean you can feel confident that even if something does go wrong, you won’t be out of pocket.
What sort of things are covered by professional indemnity insurance?
Professional indemnity insurance covers a host of situations.
It may cover something as straightforward as fi nancial loss, or more complex intangibles such as damage to reputation.
For a business that’s involved in events, such as photography (especially wedding photography) or catering, you may find that claims are related to things like emotional harm, disruption to the day or missing a deadline or opportunity, as well as additional costs.
It may be that a client simply isn’t satisfied with your work.
A good photographer will prepare for all eventualities, but sometimes circumstances or situations are simply beyond your control – and your work may be impacted.
Cover may be off ered for risks like:
- Broken contracts
- Giving poor advice
- Breach of confidentiality
- Breach of copyright
- Causing financial loss through negligence or lack of provision
- Damage as a result of incorrect advice
- Acts of defamation
- Client dissatisfaction
Is professional indemnity insurance mandatory under law?
There is no legal obligation to take out professional indemnity insurance, and not every business needs it. With that in mind, it’s still worth considering, depending on what you do for a living.
The best way to understand whether professional indemnity insurance will be useful is to think about whether your business failing to deliver would have a significant impact on your clients’ well-being (emotional or financial).
Depending on who your clients are, you may fi nd that up-to-date PI insurance is a part of your contract requirements.
How exactly does professional indemnity insurance work?
The best way to explain how PI insurance works is by focusing on a specifi c industry to look at examples.
Within sectors like photography and videography, there are many diff erent areas of practice. PI for photographers and videographers needs to cover specialist photographers working in areas like:
- Weddings and events
- Commercial and business
- Portraiture
- Food
- Fashion
- Sports
Each of these subsections of the industry will involve slightly diff erent risks, but there is some commonality.
Professional indemnity insurance for photographers and videographers will typically cover:
- The costs of re-shooting
- Emotional damage – such as an allegation that a wedding or other event has been ruined
- Damage to reputation
- Damage to public persona
How to find good professional indemnity insurance for photographers and videographers Professional indemnity insurance is a highly specialised field, so it’s important to approach a company that specialises in your industry.
At Aaduki, you’ll fi nd a team of experts who understand the needs and working practices of photographers and videographers. Alongside specialist professional indemnity insurance, we off er cover for all aspects of the photography industry, including equipment cover and public liability insurance.
Aaduki and Aaduki Multimedia Insurance and Partners& are trading styles of Partners& Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales. No. 00497227. Registered office: MRIB House, 25 Amersham Hill, High Wycombe HP13 6NU. +44 (0) 3300 940177.
Related reading:
- Photography Insurance Claims Service: Why It Matters When Things Go Wrong
- Specialising in Events: Why Public Liability Insurance is Essential for Event Photographers
- Do photographers need professional indemnity insurance?
