Solicitors Professional Indemnity Insurance Update 2019

Butler Evans and Owner/Director Paul Evans ACII have a long history of placing Solicitor’s Professional Indemnity on behalf of firms practicing in England & Wales, so it is with great pleasure that we can announce that following a year of negotiations and the by joining Willis Towers Watson networks, we can now access the whole market* of ‘A’ rated qualifying insurers for our customers.

Following the withdrawal of AON/Maven from the market for small firms the 2019 indemnity year now looks like seeing the first major rate increases in premium volumes in Solicitors Professional Indemnity for 10 years. It is important for firms without renewal quotes to act quickly and submit a proposal form to the market, Butler Evans can submit your proposal to the full market on your behalf. We will even assist you to contact direct to customer only Insurer Chancerypii.co.uk  

The development of a ‘sales’ culture in the Insurance Broking Profession undermines the objectives of  firms looking to put their Solicitors PI renewals up for review. Qualifying Insurers in the market work predominantly on a first come basis, a tactic adopted to reduce the workload involved in trying to quote multiple presentations from multiple brokers. The problem with this approach for the customer is that an insurer receiving a proposal form that gives a misleading impression of the risk may decline to quote and become ‘blocked’. We have seen the trend in the broker supply chain to become so focused on the ‘sale’ that brokers are rushing proposal documents into the market before they have read them properly in an attempt to secure their own position, to the detriment of their customers genuine attempts to secure the best terms available.

As a service led Solicitors Professional Indemnity broker we like to work for firms who understand our service and the need to be selective over the broker they appoint to review the Solicitors PI market. If we know that the firm will work exclusively with ourselves, then that gives us the ability to spend more time and effort to secure the best terms we can for the customer.

I appreciate that is a leap of faith for most firms who do not know us from ‘Adam’ and we can provide references from our existing customers to show how our service works. We also do not ask firms to move their existing renewal to us unless they have an issue with their existing broker, it is not a pressure sales service that we offer.

I also appreciate that the Law Society advice is to approach a number of brokers to access the market, but there again they cannot be seen to close any doors or favour any one broker or insurer for obvious reasons.

Going back to Butler Evans, the strengths of our service are founded in our attention to detail and an excellent understanding of the market appetite for unattractive risks like Conveyancing. We look over all presentations carefully and ask for additional pertinent information when required before asking for quotations from Insurers, that way we can ensure our customers receive the best terms available for their Solicitors PI renewal. We are also honest about which markets we will approach and if any Insurers hold a special scheme that may be blocked to us due to the number of partners or memberships of a firm.

For 2019 our broking team will be as follows:

Executive Director Professions:
Paul Evans ACII, Chartered Insurance Broker

Brokers:
Paul Lawrence (Leeds & London office)
Andrew Fraser (Leeds Office)
Simon Roguska (Nottingham Office)
Emma Smith (Nottingham Office)

Admin:
Julie Griffiths
Kathryn Lee
Karen Evans

Claims Advisors:
Paul Evans
Karen Cowie

Contacts:
Solicitors@butlerevans.co.uk
Admin@butlerevans.co.uk
Claims@Butlerevans.co.uk

Telephone:
Switchboard – 0845 431 0448
Leeds – 0113 322 0116

If you wish to submit a proposal form for a quotation please use our dedicated page here: Solicitors PI Quotation 

*please note that ‘whole of market’ excludes direct to customer insurer chancerypii.co.uk whose products are arranged by Miller Professional Risks which is part of the Willis Towers Watson group and excludes membership scheme only products.