Accountants and Auditors
Any individual, company, organisation or entity providing a professional service is exposed to litigation if a third party suffers a loss as a result of negligence. Professional services can be broadly defined as those requiring special skills including but not limited to advice, design, consulting services.
Often referred to as PI insurance, professional indemnity provides protection to ensure the financial wellbeing, safety and even survival of the insured business in the aftermath of negligence and damages claims brought by third parties.
The Financial Industries sector specific to the commercial PI product offering is comprised of accountants and auditors. Whilst accountants and auditors are both financial professionals their roles differ.
Accountants are primarily responsible for recording, analyzing, and interpreting financial data and Auditors are generally independent professionals who examine a company's financial statements and records to ensure they are accurate and comply with relevant laws and regulations.
We can offer the following sections under our PI offering for Accountants and Auditors:
Extensions of Cover
- Claims Preparation costs
- Court Attendance Costs
- Defamation
- Defence Costs To Appear Before A Regulatory / Statutory Body
- Fee Recovery
- Fidelity Guarantee
- Joint Venture Or Consortium Agreements
- Liability Following Employee Dishonesty
- Loss Of Documents
- Misappropriation Of Trust Funds
- Sub Contracted Duties
Again, it's really important that as the insurance broker, you understand your client's business so the correct extensions can be added to the insurance program.
Why place your PI cover with SHA?
Solutions
Unique, bespoke solutions created for unique professional exposuresLongevity
PI claims can take years to manifest and then even longer to be resolved. SHA has over 35 years of experience in handling long tail claims effectively.Strength
SHA is a division of Santam, southern Africa's largest short term insurer.Professional Indemnity FAQs
What are professional services?
In the PI wordings, Professional services are broadly defined as the activities and duties which would fall within the normal scope of duties performed by a professionally qualified person properly registered in terms of the current applicable Act/s that govern/s such profession and field of business, as stated in the Schedule.
Who needs professional indemnity insurance?
- Anyone or any company that provides a professional service, knowledge or gives advice may have a need for PI cover.
- General professional services firms require this cover, examples of these are:
- Legal environment (attorneys/advocates/legal services)
- Built environment (consulting engineers, architects, QS, LS, project managers, developers, contractors)
- Financial environment. (accountants, auditors, actuaries, brokers, financial institutions etc.)
- IT firms, multimedia companies, travel agents, management consultants, valuators, loss adjusters etc
- and many others
Where do claims come from?
Claims generally come from any of the following:
- third parties with whom the client enters into a contract.
- third parties where injury or damage has been caused by the insured’s negligence during the course of professional duties.
- depending on the insured’s type of operation, claims can actually come from anywhere in the world.
What are the key exclusions?
Exclusions do vary by profession. We have several bespoke wordings available at SHA but generally the following exclusions are common:
- Fraud & dishonesty
- Fines & penalties
- Asbestosis
- Nuclear
- Pollution
- War & terrorism
