the issue with PII is that its one of those overheads that most of us will never need... Like a safety net for a wire walker.
the thing is though. If you do need it then it is as important as the hire wire walkers net.
A court may order that an error be corrected by putting a client back into the position that they would have been in had the issue not happened.
The issue could be something such as a mistake that meant that finance was allowed when it should not have been or perhaps not allowed when it should. In either instance the effect can be devestating for a business and your PII is the safety net to ensure that it doesn't cost you your house.
Most (it may be all) professional bodies require that you have PII in place before they will issue a practice certificate. The level of cover required varies by body from £50k minimum to £500k+.
Its a good idea to include a clause in your contract to restrict the amount of compensation payable to the amount of your insurance. This should be pointed out to the client and they should sign it seperately to acknowledge that it's effect has been explained to them.
The above said, the level of cover must still be at a level required by one's professional body or at a reasonable (£50k minimum for a bookkeeper, £100k minimum for the smallest accountants) level or the courts will judge the clause null and void.
Many members of this site use Arlington (see special offers link above), others who are members of ICB, IAB or AAT have special deals with Trafalgar insurance.
A good search for previous posts on this would be to copy the following in its entirety into a Google search :
Most PII discussions on here mention that provider so the search will return a wide array of threads.
Hope that helps,
Shaun.
p.s. You mention accountant / tax consultant. Have you got your practice certificate now Julie? Are you still with the ACCA? I remember back in 2012 we had a chat about the nightmare that is regulation 8 and you mentioned at the time that you were just sitting your final options paper so (quick counting on fingers) nowish would be about the time that your three years post qualification would be up and you get your very own practice certificate. If thats the case I think that the ACCA minimum PII is £250k cover, you cannot get one of their practicing certificates without it and you are not permitted to practice under anyone elses banner.
If you are ACCA qualified you "are" ACCA and nobody elses practice certificate or even practicing but under no other body counts. You can only ever have an ACCA practice certificate so long as you are a member and you cannot go beyond non supervised trial balance work without one.
Sure that you know all that already but I feel obliged to always mention it as we have had one or two posters on here who hadn't realised and as ACCA members we are committed to looking after our own so hope that you don't mind me just re-covering that old ground again
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
