Risk Presentation

A professional indemnity underwriter is a real person not a machine powered by AI, or at least not yet. This means at the quotation stage your risk information will be reviewed by someone with a knowledge of your industry. Therefore, creating the right impression of your business can be more important than you may realise.

Underwriting a corporate professional indemnity risk is not an exact science and in any given day an underwriter may be asked to consider anything from a small accountancy firm to a large international architectural practice as well as many other professions. So their job requires a blend of intuition, skill and a good knowledge of the specific risk exposures faced by many different professions from taxation problems to building design issues.

An underwriter may use a variety of information sources to help them to assess a risk and help form their view on the quality of a firm. The proposal form is the formal presentation of your business to an underwriter and so any spelling mistakes, questions not fully answered or illegible handwriting all make a firm appear lacking in attention to detail and ultimately a less attractive risk.

In addition to the proposal form the underwriter will usually check a firm's website to verify the activity information matches the proposal form, or even do a deeper dive into a risk as part of their due diligence process which can include ;

• Looking for news or press coverage
• Online reviews
• Credit score
• Companies House
• Regulatory register page (where applicable)

You could be the most professional and lowest risk firm around, but if you don't present yourself in the right way to your PI Insurer your premium might not fully reflect it.

As professional indemnity specialists, we understand how an underwriter reviews a risk and what they are looking for. We can work with firms on their risk profile to ensure they pay the best premium for their business, translating our knowledge and expertise into a premium saving.

 

This guidance note is intended for information purposes only. It is not and does not purport to be legal advice or specific insurance advice. Whilst all care has been taken to ensure its accuracy at the time of writing it is not to be regarded as a substitute for specific advice. If you require specific advice, please contact your brokers or call us on 0345 251 4000. This guidance note shall not be reproduced in any form without our prior permission. © All copyright is owned by Professional Indemnity Insurance Brokers Ltd.