Any recommendations, or more importantly non-recommendations.
Need £1M public liability and professional indemnity for business consultant type work.
Ltd co, or sole trader?
For Ltd co, you can generally get packaged insurances from providers like Hiscox (been pretty good for me).
Professional bodies often have tie-in arrangements.
Be careful about things like:
- what's covered. professional indemnity is the biggie, but generally you get employer liability, product liability, public liability together
- level of cover. £1m sounds a lot, but depending on your clients and industry you might find £2m is the standard, with some pushing for £5m / £10m.
Not sure how much of a recommendation it is but I've been with Hiscox and Caunce O'Hara. Never had to make a claim so no idea what they are like in that regard. Price seems OK. I have a slightly unusual job so I spent a bit of time discussing what was covered and they pretty much said yes to everything. Only thing that has been of actual use is showing certificates to clients before getting a job and they've been accepted without issue.
EDIT: just to add, as above client often want more than £1M cover. I have upped mine without it costing much more, but more frequently the client sends a list of insurance levels that I must have, I say I don't have it, I have this instead, they say that's fine.
NFU are sometimes good for sole trader insurance (industry dependent). As others have said £1m seems low in these times.
Sole trader at the moment. In between jobs and doing a bit of freelancing to help someone I know out. They are asking for £1M cover and given it may not continue for more than a couple of months, don’t need to go overboard or setup a Ltd co.
if it does turn into more, I’ll spend a bit more cash setting things up more formally.
- level of cover. £1m sounds a lot, but depending on your clients and industry you might find £2m is the standard, with some pushing for £5m / £10m.
I'd echo this - I've not had anyone who's required me to demonstrate I have insurance ask for as little as £1m for about 15-20 years.
Its a requirement that seems to to increase exponentially which is always a sure sign theres some reasoned thinking going on - think of a number and double it - was £1m then £2m then £5m - a council recently required me to have a £10m policy. Not have a £10m policy in order to work with them - have evidence of a a £10m policy just to submit a tender document in order to possibly work with them.... to make some art.
2nd for Simply Business. We've got 3m cover, plus tools cover and some other bits for about 250ish per year from memory.