Most professionals buy PI because a client contract asks for it, usually $1m to $2m. In some jobs a licence or registration body sets the minimum instead. Eight occupations need a broker to place the cover by hand.
This is general information from the PI Insurance site, not advice about your situation. Your contract and your regulator set your minimum. A broker confirms it.
Who sets your minimum
- Your clients, for most consulting, design and IT work. No law requires PI. Clients, government panels and recruiters write a limit into the contract and ask for a certificate of currency before you start.
- Your regulator or professional body, for registered work. Examples the site names:
- BAS agents and tax agents: the Tax Practitioners Board, by turnover.
- Accountants in public practice: their professional body.
- Mortgage and finance brokers: ASIC, for credit licensees.
- Allied health: their AHPRA board's registration standard.
- Architects, certifiers and some engineers and building designers: state boards and licences.
- NDIS providers: the NDIS practice standards.
- Take the higher of the two. Rules change, so check the current figure with the body itself.
The six groups, and the limits clients usually ask for
These are examples, not rules.
- Business and consulting: management, marketing, recruitment, HR, risk and compliance consultants; project managers; business analysts; trainers and coaches; graphic designers; copywriters; event planners; translators.
- Usually $1m to $2m.
- Government, enterprise and large corporate clients often ask for more, sometimes $5m or more.
- Labour hire and construction project management often need $5m or more.
- Construction, design and engineering: engineers, structural engineers, architects, building designers and drafters, building surveyors and certifiers, bushfire and planning consultants, quantity surveyors, interior designers, environmental consultants.
- $1m to $5m for small firms.
- Building and government work often asks for $5m to $10m, with a run-off period of six years or more.
- Certifiers: set by the state licence.
- Technology and IT: IT consultants, software developers and SaaS, cyber security consultants, web developers, managed service providers, data and AI consultants, cloud consultants, UX and UI designers, IT support.
- Usually $1m to $2m.
- Software and SaaS: $1m to $5m, with cyber cover.
- MSPs: $2m to $5m, usually with cyber cover.
- Cyber security consultants: $2m to $10m.
- Onsite IT support usually needs public liability too.
- Finance: bookkeepers and BAS agents, accountants and tax agents, mortgage and finance brokers.
- Set by the regulator or professional body. Many bookkeepers choose $1m.
- Property and real estate: real estate agents, property managers, strata managers, buyers agents, valuers.
- $1m to $2m for most agents and managers.
- Strata managers $2m to $10m, by number of lots. Valuers $2m to $5m.
- Health and care: allied health practitioners, NDIS providers.
- Allied health often $10m to $20m, often combined with public liability.
- NDIS providers $1m to $5m, plus public liability.
The eight occupations a broker arranges directly
Insurers look at this work closely, so there is no quick quote. A broker takes it to insurers by hand.
- Structural engineers
- Building surveyors and certifiers
- Bushfire and planning consultants
- Cyber security consultants
- Managed service providers (MSPs)
- Mortgage and finance brokers
- Strata managers
- Valuers
Anyone goes to a broker when
- turnover is over $2.5m;
- the limit wanted is over $10m;
- there is USA or Canada work;
- there are past claims or known circumstances;
- an insurer has declined them before;
- they do higher-risk work within their occupation.
None of these means a decline. It means the insurer wants more detail first.
What to do next
- Find the limit in your contract, and any minimum your regulator sets.
- Enquire with a broker, with a clear description of your work.