Addressing the rising cost of Professional Indemnity insurance

22/08/2019

RSUA members today met Peter Kelly and Leslie Dick from Marsh to gain insight into Professional Indemnity insurance and how architects can navigate the challenging PI market.

Marsh highlighted that premiums are rising across the board. Practices with no claims are seeing rises between 20-80% while practices with claims are witnessing increases in the region of 30-400%.  The key advice provided was to contact your broker early and submit a well-planned proposal explaining your risk mitigation.  RSUA has asked Marsh to provide some guidance on how to submit an ideal proposal.

A stark warning was given about the dangers of accepting PI insurance which excludes previous projects.

Members raised queries about run-off insurance. RSUA has requested Marsh to provide detail on the historical frequency of claims in each year of the typical run-off period.

To inform future activities, members are encouraged to report their experiences at renewal to RSUA and to report any instances of clients requesting PI cover which is disproportionate to the scale of the project.