As an accountant, you’re responsible for advising your clients on some pretty important matters, so if you make an error or provide incorrect advice, the financial loss to your clients could be significant, which puts you at risk of having legal action taken against you. Having the right insurance in place may help reduce the impact to your own finances.

Professional Indemnity Insurance applies to claims where clients allege your advice or service caused them financial loss. Public Liability on the other hand covers you for claims where a client or members of the public alleges they suffered an injury or property damage as a result of your business activities.

Your high-value client base, the commercially sensitive information you hold about them and the raft of cloud based and online technologies you use all make you susceptible to cyber crime. For cyber criminals, attacking your system wouldn't require much effort on their part, but the ramifications for you (and your clients) could be far-reaching. Cyber Insurance can therefore help safeguard your business's viability if you do fall victim to an attack, and help make sure you're not left with substantial out of pocket costs to rectify your IT systems and get your business back up and running.

Professional Indemnity insurance policies arranged by Aon are ‘Claims made and notified’ policies. This means that the policy only provides cover for claims made against you whilst the policy is in force (subject to policy terms and conditions). If the policy lapses, is not renewed or is cancelled, there is no cover available under the policy for claims made against you after that time.

If you plan to retire or leave the professional, you may need to arrange Run-Off cover. Run-off cover provides cover for claims made against you after your current Professional Indemnity policy expires. Run-off cover is NOT automatically provided; you must apply for run-off cover AND be accepted by your insurer in order to have run-off cover apply. If your policy is lapsed, not renewed or cancelled, and you have not applied for run-off cover, you may be uninsured for any claims made against you after your current policy expires, lapses or is cancelled.

For example if a client makes a claim against you in relation to an act, error or omission committed in past work, the policy you have in place at the time of the claim will respond, not the policy in place at the time the work was performed.

If you operate your practice from home, Professional Indemnity is still relevant as the risk of clients alleging professional negligence on your part is still applicable. It's likely at some point, you will meet with clients in person, whether that's at their home, or out in public, so Public & Products Liability is also very relevant for you. Business Insurance can also help cover the cost of your office equipment such as mobile phone or laptop if they're stolen or damaged.

You will find details of how to make a claim in the policy wording you receive from us. However, we also appreciate that having to make a claim can be a stressful time which is why as your advocate we are always on hand to help with any questions. Please do not hesitate to call us on 1800 020 339 or email [email protected]

It is important to keep your policy up to date with the changing shape of your business but also to keep your business and personal information up to date in the event of a claim. Should your business circumstances have changed, for example you have moved into a new premises or you have changed the services that you offer and you are not sure if your existing insurance covers it anymore then you can always call one of our experienced friendly brokers to discuss on 1800 020 339 during business hours.

Your renewal offer, schedule and tax invoice will be emailed to you approximately 30 days before your renewal date. Please ensure you review the details of our offer carefully (remember pricing and coverage levels may have changed so it is important to review). If you are happy with the offer and wish to accept, simply make payment by the date specified on the tax invoice.

Please contact our team and one of our brokers can help make sure you receive your required documentation.

Our opening hours are 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday (AET, except public holidays). If you need to contact us out of hours you can email us at [email protected] and we will pick up your query on the next business day.

Yes you can, monthly payments can be arranged through a premium funding agreement with Hunter Premium Funding2 to help you spread the costs of your insurance across the year. Please note that the total overall cost is higher if you pay monthly. Contact us on 1800 020 339 or by email on [email protected].