Insurance - what and how much ?

[radish2008]

Firstly, I get cover (actually with Hiscox) as part of my accountancy package, and the insurance bit costs £30 a month which gives me a ridiculous £5m of public liability and £5m of PI (plus £10m employers which is unnecessary as I am a sole director). Might be worth seeing if your accountants do anything similar.

I hope you're getting something else as that's about £85 worth of benefit for £360 a year. Are you missing the PI maybe ?

Also, my contract stipulates min limits on insurance - pretty standard in banks I think

[Edit] Ah my bad - didn't see the PI bit.

[mike67]

Firstly, I get cover (actually with Hiscox) as part of my accountancy package, and the insurance bit costs £30 a month which gives me a ridiculous £5m of public liability and £5m of PI (plus £10m employers which is unnecessary as I am a sole director). Might be worth seeing if your accountants do anything similar.

On the wider point of appropriate levels, IMHO you can go for pretty much any level you want as long as the client or agency is happy to accept it. It is pretty unlikely that you are going to cause a sufficiently monumental cock up to lead to a claim of even £100k in doing some contracting. Also you are protected personally by working through a limited company. If you withdraw profits on a regular basis through dividends so there isn't much left in the business, if all else fails and someone wants to sue you, the contract is with your company and it is not that hard to walk away if the amount is more than the insurance will cover. In practice, the client would probably want to take the easy path here and find out what your insurance limit is and accept that as settlement rather than making a massive claim against your company which would just lead to you liquidating it and setting up a new one to carry on working through.

Obviously you would not want to end up with a bad name through liquidating the company, but the chance that you would ever get there is pretty slim and tbh if you had caused a multi-million pound claim it is likely that your reputation would be pretty shot anyway.

So I'd say just go for a pretty low amount unless the client/agency insists on a particular figure.

[radish2008]

I'd get some proper advice but I think business insurance is a continuous thing - your PI will cover your previous work as well but I don't think it's something you can buy on a per project basis. I'd speak to QDOS and also Hiscox. Get a few quotes etc etc. Good luck.

[pr1]

Use QDOS. Highly recommended.

Is any insurance company really worth recommending unless you've had to claim?

(have you had a claim?)

[woodyuk]

All really helpful advice and will check out QDOS.

I am not really a web dev shop - it's more providing consultancy at the higher end.

Most of the time I go in, troubleshoot / fix / help and then leave. 10 days consultancy and maybe ongoing 1-2 days a month retainer.

It's the bringing in people part which I think makes it more complex, they are also consultants (with own companies) who specialise in certain aspects so for larger projects we come together to act more like a business for that project. I am not always the leader of the project depends who finds the work, but when I am that is when I need to have the insurance.

[BrilloPad]

Use QDOS. Highly recommended.

[radish2008]

Second the recommendation for QDOS for professional indemnity.

You'll find public and employers liability cheaper elsewhere. Definitely try Direct Line for Business. I have a combined employers and public liability policy with them plus home office contents and portable equipment cover for under £100 a year, although I won't be renewing when I move into my garden office as they don't cover timber buildings (I will be moving to Hiscox or NFU Mutual).

That's because the PI is the expensive bit.

This is my renewal breakdown from Hiscox.

Cover Limit Excess Annual Premium (exc IPT)
Professional indemnity £1,000,000 500.00 £341.63
Public and products liability £1,000,000 250.00 £43.75
Employers’ liability £5,000,000 0.00 £43.81
Commercial legal protection £100,000 0.00 £62.50
Crisis containment £25,000 0.00 £0.00

Just tried to get a quote fro PI from Axa and I haven't seen such a crap website in a long time. Will try Direct Line.

Direct Line £425 same level of cover

Hmmm,. QDOS cheaper - less tax investigation cover but I can live with that - will have to call though as policy start date must be within 30 days.

Final edit - Hiscox matched the price - well within a tenner and I get to keep the extra £50k of tax insurance I had so I stayed.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Second the recommendation for QDOS for professional indemnity.

You'll find public and employers liability cheaper elsewhere. Definitely try Direct Line for Business. I have a combined employers and public liability policy with them plus home office contents and portable equipment cover for under £100 a year, although I won't be renewing when I move into my garden office as they don't cover timber buildings (I will be moving to Hiscox or NFU Mutual).

[doconline]

Hi

I have just setup a new Ltd company for my contract / consulting work. I am a technical PM / Consultant. At the moment It's just me + wife as directors/owners. Sometimes I outsource work to other contractors/consultants (app / web devs, devops, creative people)

As I understand it I need

1. Public Liability - £10m
2. Employers Liability - £1m
3. Professional Indemnity - £500,000

I also added legal cover to this as well.

Costs we around £500 a year with hiscox.

I am an IT / Digital Web / mobile app / digital video consultancy. Any single project value is not going over £500k so far, although possible I could be part of a much larger project. Do I just need to insure my part?

Is this enough - or too much?

Thanks

Are you going to be doing regular contracts, i.e. set period of time on clients site like most contractors or are you working as a small web development agency, where most of your work will be done from your office and you will charge per project rather than per day? If you are a going the regular contract route I think your PI insurance is a bit low. The lowest I've had to have is £1m.

[SueEllen]

1. Have a look at QDOS for all of them. Pay attention to the excess and small print
2. Remove Public Liability and employers liability from your quotes with Hiscox and QDOS, and try other providers for those two only e.g. Direct Line to see if it works out cheaper.

[woodyuk]

Hi

I have just setup a new Ltd company for my contract / consulting work. I am a technical PM / Consultant. At the moment It's just me + wife as directors/owners. Sometimes I outsource work to other contractors/consultants (app / web devs, devops, creative people)

As I understand it I need

1. Public Liability - £10m
2. Employers Liability - £1m
3. Professional Indemnity - £500,000

I also added legal cover to this as well.

Costs we around £500 a year with hiscox.

I am an IT / Digital Web / mobile app / digital video consultancy. Any single project value is not going over £500k so far, although possible I could be part of a much larger project. Do I just need to insure my part?

Is this enough - or too much?

Thanks