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solicitors indemnity insuranceThe solicitors professional indemnity insurance renewal season 2014 is now under way, the new proposal forms are now available for, what remains for most practices, the October 1st deadline.

After the near chaos of the 2013 season, the well documented problems associated with Balva and Berliner, the change of underwriting philosophy by some key players in the market and the panic that this caused for many firms, 136 went out of business as a result of not being able to obtain an appropriate professional indemnity insurance policy.

Many hope that this years season will be more stable and that rates my be reduced for many firms in a more relaxed market, these assumptions do not appear to have any great evidential basis.

It is true that underwriters will have an appetite for long-established, financially sound firms with a long and stable trading and claims history, this is always the case, but with the pressure on firms to secure insurance from rated insurers ever-increasing and the relative lack of underwriting capacity of seasoned insurers with that precious rating, there is certainly the opportunity for underwriters to cherry pick the risks that want to be involved in. Whilst the SRA have not acted to ensure that all participating insurers benefit from a stability rating this does not mean that the rating of insurance providers is not a significant issue for solicitors. We are aware of a number of bodies requiring solicitors to be insured by a “rated”insurer more information.

Unfortunately this leads to the same advice for all firms, you need to get into the market as soon as possible in order to improve your chances of securing the best terms for your firm.

Every year we provide the same advice to solicitors when they are considering how to obtain the best terms for their indemnity insurance. Do not deal with a range of different brokers in the hope that saturating the market will yield the best terms. It won’t, in fact it will seriously affect your chances of obtaining the best terms available to you.

How do I apply for solicitors professional indemnity insurance?

You can download or proposal form now and arrange for the proposal form to be completed and returned to us as soon as possible. Alternatively you can call us direct to discuss your requirements with a specialist broker who can talk you through the steps we will take to ensure that you receive the best terms available to us from our panel of participating insurers. Unlike other brokers active in the solicitors professional indemnity market we are not tied to one insurance company or scheme and we have facilities with a range of insurers to ensure that you are provided with the most competitive options.

You need to act as soon as possible in order to provide yourself the best opportunity of obtaining optimum terms for your solicitors indemnity insurance in 2014.