Tenet has announced today that PII premiums are set to rocket and that it is offering advisers who have a Statement of Professional Standing a 50 per cent reduction in their professional indemnity insurance excess on claims relating to advice.
Keith Richards, group distribution and development director, said that this is possible due to Tenet’s Guernsey-based subsidiary Paragon Insurance.
He dismissed the trend in the PI market of exclusions and the increasing use of higher excesses being regarded as the norm, highlighting that increases in premiums can often be minimised by accepting a higher excess.
The danger, he continued, is that some insurers may be applying higher excess or exclusions without the adviser noticing, leaving adviser firms significantly at risk in the event of a claim.
Mr Richards feels that this is an approach that the regulator could have usefully employed six years ago when the RDR was first being discussed and recommended as part of the consultation process.
He said: “The advisory sector has generally been open-minded to evolution for some time and we believe that had the FSA offered a dividend reflected in regulatory levies for higher qualifications, advisers would have been given some additional tangible incentive to begin juggling the balance between day-to-day business and studying for higher qualifications sooner rather than later.
“PII premiums are set to harden, fuelled by increasing claims across the market and in the main initiated by ‘ambulance chasers’ and the general claims culture which has developed within the UK over the years with media reports of mis-selling and compensation.
“If not prepared, the financial exposure a company faces in the event of a claim can be catastrophic and has been impacting an increasing number of firms over the past couple of years. We would therefore recommend that advisers pay particular attention to excesses and exclusions at renewal in addition to pricing.”
