Professional Freelancer

Professional Indemnity Insurance, sometimes-referred to as Professional Liability insurance can protect you if you have, or you are accused of providing poor service, sketchy advice or dodgy design. It can cover legal costs (which, believe us, can run into the tens of thousands) as well as damages awarded against you.

While Professional Indemnity insurance is not a legal requirement for most professions, our freelancers and contractors tell us that more and more of their clients are requiring them to hold it under contract. Without Professional Indemnity insurance, you could be exposing yourself to eye-watering legal bills and compensation payments. Not to mention all of that wasted time that could be better spent doing what you do best.

Freelancers and contractors who give advice or provide a service require Professional Indemnity insurance. We’ve put together a list of things that might make your decision a little bit easier:

Do you provide advice or consultancy? Yes? Your clients could make a claim against you if the advice you have provided has caused them financial loss. Even if you have given them the correct advice, but they say you haven’t, who will cover the legal costs?

Do you handle other people’s information or intellectual property? You could face a costly claim if you inadvertently breach your client’s legal rights or perhaps disclose information that you shouldn’t.

Your contract makes you have it. Do your clients make you sign a contract when they instruct you? Have you checked those t’s and c’s? Our freelancers and contractors tell us that many of their contracts require them to hold Professional Indemnity insurance.

Are you an expert, a demon at design calculations and plans? What happens if you make a mistake, or are accused of making one? Legal bills and compensation claims can run into seriously scary numbers!

Are you a member of a professional body? Often those bodies require their members to hold Professional Indemnity insurance. Have you checked yours?

Professional Indemnity insurance or professional liability insurance can cover the legal costs and expenses that you incur defending yourself against allegations of bad service, poor design or wrong advice. The policy can operate even if you have done nothing wrong, but you need to clear that good name you’ve spent years building.

Here at ipro, we offer limits of between £100K and £5m. It really is up to you how much you want to buy, but we’ve put together a few points that will help you make up your mind

1. Think about the work you do and what could happen. If your client is not happy with your work they may simply try and claim back the money they have paid. However, what happens if there has been a knock on effect? – If your mistake or delay has cost your client money and has delayed a wider project, compensation claims and legal bills can far exceed the amount you have been paid.
2. What if you inadvertently breach your client’s intellectual property? You could be in for a huge bill.
3. Does your contract specify you must hold a certain amount?
4. Are you a member of a professional body? Do they require a minimum level of cover?

ipro Professional Indemnity insurance costs from just over £5 per month. Our policy, unlike many others has what is known in the insurance game as ‘full retroactive cover’. This means it can provide protection for issues arising from work you’ve done in the past, that are not yet known, even if you didn’t have insurance in place at the time. Great, eh? You can be covered within minutes, and you can even pay by interest free instalments.

Apologies. We’re about to get all boring and legal for a minute. Under the Employers’ Liability Act 1969, limited companies with employees are obliged to have Employers’ Liability insurance. It protects a company’s employees if they are injured or fall ill as a result of the work that they do. It can cover both compensation claims that they may be entitled to as well as your legal fees in defending it.

Employers’ liability insurance is not only a legal requirement for a limited company with any employees but also can protect you, and your business against those massive compensation claims you read about for accidents and injuries that happen to employees at work.

If you are a limited company and employ anyone. then Employers’ Liability insurance is a legal requirement. There are serious fines and consequences for employers that do not have it in place.

Even if you don’t directly employ anyone but use other contractors you should consider this cover to be extra safe. There have been legal cases where courts have ruled that by the legal definition what you may have thought of as a contractor is actually an employee.

Employers’ Liability insurance can provide cover for any employees (including yourself) if injury or illness occurs as a result of your work.

Our Employers’ Liability section includes cover of up to £10m which is an industry standard.

Our Employers’ Liability section provides £10m worth or cover for under £5 per month. What’s more, you can get protected in minutes and even pay by interest free instalments.

This covers your kit, so, any latops, computers, tablets, smart phones, cameras etc owned by your business. If you have an office, then any furniture owned by the business too.

Have you ever had that OMG moment when you realise you’ve left your laptop or smart phone in that nice café on the corner and you’ve got a client calling you in five minutes? Well, we hope that the nice gentleman sitting next to you handed it in for safe keeping. But, what if he didn’t? Business Equipment insurance is there to protect your equipment and provide the means to replace it, if it is lost or stolen.

Laptops and smart phones can be scarily expensive, but as a freelancer or contractor you’ll know that they are crucial to running your business. Don’t risk the upset of having to pull together some of that hard earned cash to replace them if they are lost or stolen. Add Business Equipment insurance to your ipro policy and give yourself one less thing to think about.

Our Business Equipment section provides cover for theft, loss, physical destruction or accidental damage within your selected territorial limits. Remember; if you are planning to work from a Caribbean beach (and we’re super jealous if you are) then make sure you select our worldwide cover option.

You need to add up the cost of all your business equipment, so things such as computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc – and if your business has an office, then furniture as well.

Your ipro policy can cover up to £15,000 worth of kit. Prices start from just £7 per month for up to £5000 worth of cover. Cover can be obtained within minutes and premiums can be payable by interest free instalments. Cool eh?