When your core offering is giving professional and technical advice to clients you could be open to allegations of negligence. Management Consultants’ insurance is a sensible way to guard against potentially costly claims.
Professional indemnity insurance can cover the legal costs, expenses and compensation that stems from claims of negligence by a client. Regardless of your experience, reputation and diligence, if a client believes that your actions and recommendations have caused them financial loss that can lead to a claim.
Being a consultant poses a number of risks. Here are some potential reasons you could have action taken against you:
– The obvious scenario will see you give poor advice that adversely impacts on your client. Your services are expected to be first class. If the standards drop and financial harm occurs because of what you say or do, a client might claim against you.
– Using images or content from a website without specific permission as part of your consultation. It could be innocent, but if the claimant believes you have made financial gain from their material they could want compensation.
– If you either knowingly or inadvertently share private or sensitive information about a client it is highly likely that they will seek redress.
A comprehensive professional indemnity insurance policy arranged by John Heath Insurance can protect you against the costs of defending and having to settle such claims.
Professional Indemnity To Secure Business
Taking appropriate professional indemnity cover isn’t just about helping to manage costs should a claim be made against you. For contracts with many larger organisations, especially local authorities and government agencies, carrying sufficient levels of business insurance are a prerequisite to securing work.
Even when a tender process has not stipulated PI, the fact that you can provide evidence of your desire to operate professionally, fully covered, is likely to be a factor in the decision-making process to award contracts.
For membership of professional bodies, it is almost always mandatory that you are covered. For the Institute of Consultants, for example, their membership form requires a declaration that asks the applicant to confirm that they will have professional indemnity cover while they are practising as a Business Consultant.
Taking out the right insurance cover for your consultancy makes sense. Without it, you could be forced to handle time-consuming court cases and have to pay high fees in order to continue trading. Professional Indemnity Insurance takes away that kind of stress.
If you require any more information about Professional Indemnity, or you would like advice about taking out insurance for your business, you can get a quote online.
Alternatively, call the John Heath team.