Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Professional indemnity definition

What does Professional indemnity mean? Professional indemnity describes the insurance legal practices and other professionals maintain to cover civil liability to clients and third parties for negligence, breach of duty and related claims, usually including defence costs. In legal services it is a descriptive term rather than a statutory definition; its scope is set by regulators’ rules and the policy wording. Across the UK and Ireland, solicitors’ firms and many other regulated legal services providers are required to maintain professional indemnity insurance (PII), but the mechanism and minimum terms differ. In England and Wales, the SRA’s Indemnity Insurance Rules and Minimum Terms and Conditions require authorised firms...

Securing solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance: broker questions, insurer meetings, aggregation risks, and the risk-management and financial evidence underwriters expect (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Practice Compliance expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note outlines how to engage effectively with your professional indemnity insurance (PII) brokers and underwriters, covering:

questions to ask your broker
meeting insurers
what insurers like to see in firms they are insuring
other steps you can take to impress insurers

The material here informs rather than exhausts the topic; you may wish to ask your broker or insurer about their preferred approach. Approaches can differ between providers.

Questions to ask your broker

The questions you ought to put to your PII broker include:

insurers’ financial strength—rating and capitalisation
benchmarking
aggregation
meeting with insurers

Insurers’ financial strength: rating and capitalisation

One of the clearest markers of financial robustness is a positive rating from an independent agency. The SRA list of participating insurers provides rating details; use these when comparing PII quotations. Your broker will also hold information on insurers and their ratings. Although slightly dated, the Law Society’s Guide to insurers’ financial security still contains material on insurers and ratings. You should also ask your broker how much capital an insurer currently holds. This context should inform your assessment of PII proposals and pricing...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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