Professional Indemnity Insurance After a Claim | Declined or Non-Renewed? | Miller & Partner
Professional Indemnity Insurance After a Claim
Been declined, non-renewed, or hit with a punitive loading after a PI claim or a notified circumstance? A claim in your history doesn't make you uninsurable — it makes you wrong for the standard market. We place difficult professional indemnity risks through Lloyd's and specialist MGAs.
Professional indemnity is unusually unforgiving after a claim. Because PI is written on a claims-made basis, a single notification can follow you for years — and online quote engines and direct insurers decline or load heavily the moment a past claim or circumstance is disclosed. The result is that a perfectly competent professional gets shut out, or quoted a premium that makes trading unviable. A specialist broker works differently: we take your claim, the circumstances, and the remedial steps to underwriters who price each risk individually. Below is why you were declined, what we can still arrange, and how we get you covered.
Why a PI Claim Gets You Declined or Loaded
Knowing the precise reason matters, because it determines which market we approach and how we present the risk. PI cover is most commonly refused or loaded after:
- A previous PI claim — a settled claim against your advice or work flags you as outside an automated insurer's appetite.
- A notified circumstance — even a notification that never became a claim must be disclosed and frequently triggers a decline or loading.
- An open or unresolved claim — automated underwriting almost always declines while a matter is live.
- A high-risk discipline — construction and design-and-build, surveying, financial advice, and IT projects are hardened markets where one claim has a big effect.
- Claims frequency or quantum — multiple notifications, or a single large loss, narrowing the markets willing to quote.
- A gap in cover — letting PI lapse after a claim creates an uninsured period that complicates any new placement.
- Run-off needed — closing a business or ceasing an activity that still needs claims-made cover for past work.
What We Can Still Arrange
Through the Lloyd's market and specialist PI MGAs, we can typically arrange cover even where you've been declined elsewhere, including:
- Professional indemnity with prior claims or notifications — placed with underwriters who assess the history rather than auto-declining it.
- Cover for hardened disciplines — construction PI, design-and-build, surveyors, financial and IT consultants.
- Retroactive cover — maintaining protection for past work where continuity allows.
- Run-off cover — for ceased activities or closed businesses that still need claims-made protection.
- Combined cover — PI alongside public liability and other commercial covers in one placement.
- Adequate limits for contracts — meeting the PI limits your clients or framework agreements require.
We arrange cover for consultants, contractors, architects and engineers, surveyors, IT and tech firms, and professional service businesses — including those carrying a prior claim or notification.
Professions We Place
Whatever the claim or discipline, a PI history is something we work with rather than around:
| Profession | The common decline trigger |
|---|---|
| Construction / design-and-build | A defect or design claim in a hardened PI market |
| Architects & engineers | A design or specification claim, or a notified circumstance |
| Surveyors | A valuation or survey claim — a heavily-scrutinised class |
| IT & tech consultants | A project overrun or failure-to-deliver claim |
| Financial & professional advisers | An advice claim in a tightly-underwritten sector |
| Management & other consultants | A notification disclosed at renewal |
How It Works
Tell us what happened
Send us the claim or notification, your discipline, the cover limit you need, and any steps taken since. The fuller the picture, the better the terms.
We approach the right market
We take your case to Lloyd's underwriters and specialist PI MGAs who price on the facts — not an automated tick-box.
You get a real quote
We come back with terms you can buy, confirm the limits and retroactive date, and handle the placement end to end.
Why a Broker Beats the Comparison Route After a Claim
Comparison sites and direct insurers run on automated underwriting. The moment a claim or notification is disclosed, the system declines or applies a punitive loading — there's no human to weigh the cause of the claim, the remedial steps you've taken, or your years of clean work before it. That's why a competent professional gets bounced by every route they try.
A specialist broker changes the route entirely. We present your case to underwriters who understand claims-made PI, can take account of the circumstances and any corrective action, and have the authority to offer terms an automated system never would — including the retroactive date and limits your contracts demand. If you'd like the background on how PI works, see our professional indemnity cover page.
Frequently Asked Questions
In most cases, yes. A decline or non-renewal after a PI claim usually means you fell outside a standard insurer's automated appetite — not that you're uninsurable. Specialist underwriters in the Lloyd's market and through PI MGAs assess each case individually and can often offer terms where an automated system refused. Full disclosure of the claim or notification and the circumstances behind it, presented correctly, is the key.
Yes. Because PI is written on a claims-made basis, any circumstance you've become aware of that could give rise to a claim must be disclosed — even if it never developed into one. Failing to declare it is misrepresentation and can void the policy. Declaring it properly lets us approach underwriters who price notified circumstances fairly rather than declining automatically.
A claim affects the premium and sometimes the excess and limits available, rated on the specifics — the discipline, the cause and size of the claim, whether it's resolved, and any corrective steps. The increase is rarely as severe as a punitive renewal from an insurer that no longer wants the risk, and a specialist placement is almost always more competitive. We'll explain how your history affects the terms before you commit.
The retroactive date is the point from which your PI policy will cover past work. Because PI is claims-made, you need the retroactive date to reach back far enough to cover the work you've already done. After a claim or a gap in cover, protecting that retroactive date is critical — a new policy with a recent retroactive date could leave earlier work uninsured. We make sure the placement preserves the cover you need for past work.
Often, yes — through run-off cover. Because claims can be made years after the work was done, ceasing to trade doesn't end your exposure. Run-off PI keeps you protected for past work after the business closes, and is frequently needed where there's already a claim history. We can arrange run-off cover through specialist markets.
Details of the claim or notification, your profession and the services you provide, the cover limit and retroactive date you need, your fee income, and any decline you've already had. With those, we can approach the right market and come back with terms.
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