Insurance for professional services firms
Accountants, consultants, architects, engineers, recruiters and advisors of every kind sell judgement. When a client says the advice was wrong, the cost of defending it arrives before anyone decides whether it was.
Your advice, your directors and your client data
Professional Indemnity
Cover for claims that your advice, design or service caused a client financial loss, including the legal costs of defending a claim that has no merit.
Professional Indemnity coverManagement Liability
Directors' and officers' liability, employment practices claims and statutory fines, in one policy written for private companies and partnerships.
Management Liability coverCyber Insurance
Client files, email compromise and ransomware. A cyber policy pays for the response as well as the loss, with a specialist team on call from the first hour.
Cyber coverProfessional indemnity is written on dates, and the dates matter
Most gaps in professional cover come from a change: a new insurer, a new service line, a partner leaving.
Retroactive dates
Professional indemnity responds to claims made during the policy period, for work done since the retroactive date. Change insurers carelessly and years of past work can fall outside cover.
Contract limits
Clients and government panels set minimum limits, and some require cover to continue for years after the engagement ends. The policy has to be built to meet each one.
Run-off cover
When a partner retires or the firm is sold, claims can still arrive for work done years earlier. Run-off cover keeps those claims insured after the business stops trading.
A lodgement date that passed
An illustrative example of how Ardent can make the difference in a time of need.
A filing deadline was missed and the client lost a right they could not get back. The claim followed within months and included the client's own legal costs.
We notified as soon as the firm became aware, which is what the policy requires, and briefed the insurer with the file chronology rather than leaving it to be reconstructed later.
The claim was accepted and settled. The firm carried its excess and nothing more, and the notification did not prejudice the following year's cover.
Responds under Professional Indemnity
This is an illustrative example. Every claim is assessed by the insurer on its own facts and under the terms of the policy.
What insurers expect to see
Professional indemnity is rated on what you do and how much of it. We go through the activities and fee income with you each year so nothing you now offer sits outside the policy.
- Retroactive date carried forward from every previous policy
- Limits and the reinstatement clause match your largest client contract and any professional body requirement
- Every service you offer described in the activities declared to the insurer, including new lines
- Fee income declared at the current level, with the largest projects noted
- Contractors and subconsultants insured in their own right or covered under yours
- Cyber cover sized to the client data you hold
Our Professional Services experts
QPIB · Dip. Fin. Serv. (Ins Broking) · ANZIIF (Snr Assoc) CIP
Mining, aviation, construction, retail and property
Steve has 40 years in insurance, most of it in construction and civil engineering, with underground mining, aviation, national retail and property development alongside. He is one of Ardent's founders, works from inside a client's business and keeps those relationships for the long term.
QPIB · Dip. Fin. Serv. (Ins Broking) · ANZIIF (Snr Assoc) CIP
The jewellery trade, childcare and commercial risks
Sarah co-founded Ardent and has more than 30 years in insurance in the UK and Australia, across commercial, property and casualty, professional risks and claims, with a focus on the jewellery trade and childcare. She works with each client to solve problems, plan ahead and see a claim through smoothly.
QPIB · Dip. Fin. Serv. (Ins Broking) · Dip. Integrated Risk Management · ANZIIF (Snr Assoc) CIP
Risk management and program design
Stephen co-founded Ardent and has 17 years in insurance, with clients from sole traders to multinational corporates. He works through the risks a business faces and helps decide what to avoid, reduce, retain or insure, balancing cover against cost. He has served on the committee of NIBA's NSW Mentoring Program.
What a client says about Ardent
A thorough and extremely proficient team, compared to any past experiences, for our company PI and PL insurances. A pleasure to deal with.
With Ardent, I have full confidence in our insurance-cover, which has been challenging in the past, given our niche requirements.