Reply to: PCG membership - still as important ?

[malvolio]

Thud...

When, exactly, does your PI liability expire for a piece of work, do you think?

[walkerrobin]

Hey Hex, I needed to have £1m of PI for a new contract. Don't know if that meant shared or individual or what.

I needed it sorting so I went with Hiscox who aren't much more expensive, but do an interest free monthly direct debit so it can be cancelled at any time if you change contract and find you don't need PI or at least £1M of PI....

[Hex]

..... only after completing their online quote form for PCG members the quote came through at well over £400........

Did you ask for 1m cover specifically. If you just take the defaults then you get 1M cover shared through the PCG on top of what you have asked for specifically. I just went for the defaults and I get a much lower personal PI cover (100K from what I remember) but 1M shared through the PCG.

[ASB]

couldn't you close the company accounts and let them take the assets left in rather than pay the insurance premium?

There are a couple of possible problems with that. One is the value of the retained assets, this is all the shareholders funds. Trying to pay them out in these circusmstance will be a problem. The other is that PI cases are often targetted at the individuals concerened.

Still, it's simply a risk. Myco never held any PI insurance of any description. Cases are very rare.

[kramer]

couldn't you close the company accounts and let them take the assets left in rather than pay the insurance premium?

[ratewhore]

As well as all the other reasons for joining the PCG, within a month I had bagged a small piece of work (5K) through their forum.

So for me it was very worthwhile...

[walkerrobin]

..... only after completing their online quote form for PCG members the quote came through at well over £400........

[walkerrobin]

LOL Praise indeed.

For info the cheapest quote I've had for PI cover of £1m off a £100k turnover is £364.

So, PCG membership pays for itself v quickly in this case!

[Bagpuss]

Group hug

[malvolio]

Thanks LG, the cheque is in the post...

[The Lone Gunman]

For those of you who have not been around for very long:

Malvolio posts regularly on this board on all kinds of contracting issues, mostly in the serious threads.
He is normally right and does not give spurious advice.
I have only ever taken issue with him on matters of interpretation, not of fact.

I trust his advice.

[malvolio]

Would I say it if it weren't? Typical one-man business for standard levels of cover and risk is around £220 pa through the PCG discount. If your turnover is less than £100k I think (from memory) the rate is around £175.

Similar cover sourced as an individual is close to £450 - so there's your basic membership covered before you start...

[walkerrobin]

And through the PCG you can get PI/ELI/PLI through Randall Dorling - £1m for £200 pa, half the commercial cost, and if your contract says you need to have it, then you need to have it.

Is the £200 true for someone with a turnover just under 100k? I need PI insurance and £200 for £1m cover is cheap.

[malvolio]

Accountants - no, I use SJD. Can't be bothered with all that detail and trying to keep up with the tax changes every 6 months.

Look, PCG is not a company, it's more like a Trade Union for freelancers. Through them you can get significant discounts on insurances and contract reviews, but they don't do it themselves. Someone worked out a while back that the £200-ish annual fee gets you an immediate £1100 of benefits as part of the standard deal (they also pointed out that an IR35 investigation will cost you around £10k-£15k if you are not insured BTW).

Do your contract review through Bauer and Cotterell as everyone keeps saying - and get a discount as a PCG member. You could post it on their forums and you will get a pretty good idea of how good it is but that won't help you renegotiate it.

And through the PCG you can get PI/ELI/PLI through Randall Dorling - £1m for £200 pa, half the commercial cost, and if your contract says you need to have it, then you need to have it.

[css_jay99]

sorry for the 20/20 questions :-


Would they review my contract to check my IR35 status ?

Of what use is indemnity Insurance ? when clients are more likely to terminate your contract rather than suing you.

Are there any other company as PCG out there just as good and probably offering Accounting services as well. ?


malvolio , I know you do your accounts/bookeeping yourself, do you enlist the services of accountants at all ?

cheers

css_jay99