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Professional indemnity insurance, sometimes called professional liability insurance, protects professionals from losses that could arise from a breach of their professional duties across all global industries. It provides cover for management consultants, auditors, accountants, architects, engineers, insurance brokers, agents, solicitors and lawyers, surveyors and other professionals, as well as those working in communications and the media. The risks that professionals like these need to shield themselves against include civil liability actions as a result of negligent duty or omission, the unintentional breach of intellectual property rights or confidentiality, libel or slander, dishonest or malicious acts by former or present employees, loss of documents, regulatory investigation and action, and many more.

Over the past 20+ years About usGlobal Corporate & Specialty (now part of About usCommercial) has processed and handled over 93,000 professional indemnity claims to date from different regions and jurisdictions, with a total value of €2.2bn. Every year, our experts draw on a breadth of experience across a range of claims segments to shed light on claims trends, causes of loss, and geographical variations they have observed in the professional indemnity risk landscape. The information they gather provides underwriting teams with critical insights, which, in turn, supports a data-informed culture and offers added value for customers.

This activity is led by the Professional Indemnity Claims Global Practice Group (GPG) at About usCommercial, an international team of six claims professionals.

“It is just one of 16 such groups at About usCommercial and includes senior experts from the organization who are authorities in settling large, complex and multinational losses,” explains Diego Assef, Head of Global Practice Group, Professional Indemnity Claims at About usCommercial.

“With this publication, our goal is to share this knowledge with customers and bring them up to speed with what’s going on in the market; what we have observed from our claims data, as well as our analysis of emerging risks and trends. We indicate which professionals might be particularly vulnerable, discuss what’s on the horizon, relay key risks and possible developments, and rate them from 1 to 4 according to their level of impact.”

Professional indemnity insurance (PII), also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, covers a range of liabilities that professionals may face due to errors, omissions, or negligence in the course of providing their professional services. The coverage is designed to protect professionals from financial loss resulting from claims made by clients or third parties who allege they suffered harm due to mistakes or failures in the professional's work. 

We have categorized the risks below according to our assessment of a combination of factors, including the likelihood and timing of the risk, the expected magnitude and frequency, and the likely ease with which the risk may be mitigated. This categorization is necessarily broad and high-level. In reality, impact will be more nuanced across professions and jurisdictions. The complexity of each risk has been simplified for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute professional or risk management advice.