Professional Indemnity Insurance - Best/Cheapest?

[AndStilliRise]

A friend of mine is new to contracting (software development) and needs some help sorting this out. Would anyone know which one is the best/cheapest one to use. The agency are asking for it.

Thank you in advance, I hope you all having a good morning.

[battered]

I use Caunce O'Hara. Good to deal with, I've never made a claim or spoken to anyone who has. Reckon on £250 a year, standard comtractor stuff. More if you are doing something clever that could bring the company down, I suppose.

[ecs]

I use Hiscox - they seem to be the cheapest and you can get it all sorted online.

[truck71]

ecs said:

I use Hiscox - they seem to be the cheapest and you can get it all sorted online.

Plus 1. They come with a good reputation which should you need to call on the policy will be worth an extra few quid on the premium.

[bigandclever]

Qdos for me.

[pincher]

Qdos here too.

[GlenMH]

Westminster Indemnity here.

[bucksmanuk]

Caunce O'hara for me too
although I'm paying over £600 p.a. as I usually have design sign off responsibilities ....

[MOBB]

Qdos were by far the most reasonable for me as a Contractor newbie

[Animal]

AndStilliRise said:

A friend of mine is new to contracting (software development) and needs some help sorting this out. Would anyone know which one is the best/cheapest one to use. The agency are asking for it.

Thank you in advance, I hope you all having a good morning.

Hi,

A couple of quick questions/things to look out for:
- Is all of your friend's work signed off by his employer/client?
- Has he just started trading? Some PI policies will have a retroactive date of the inception of the policy. A PI policy is like a motor policy in that it's 'claims made', i.e. the claim must be made during the policy period - you couldn't claim on last year's policy, for example. The retroactive date is the date before which your work wouldn't be covered. It's an historic cut-off date, and if it's the same date as the inception of the policy then none of your work undertaken prior to that date would be covered. Retroactive cover isn't always available, but it's something to bear in mind.

There's a lot more to it, and a good broker can be invaluable - there's nothing quite as expensive as a cheap policy that doesn't give you the cover you thought you were getting!