ACE Group has urged insurance buyers and risk managers at international professional services companies to consider all the relevant factors when designing multinational professional indemnity (PI) insurance solutions, in a new report.
Authored by ACE’s Suresh Krishnan, executive vice president of the global accounts division of ACE Overseas General, and Grant Cairns, regional financial lines manager for continental Europe, Eurasia and Africa in collaboration with the international law firm Kennedys, the report has shown that the number of jurisdictions where PI insurance is compulsory has been increasing.
At the same time, the range of professions required to have PI insurance is expanding, with several professions including accountants, architects, engineers, doctors, healthcare professionals, solicitors, barristers and insurance intermediaries now obliged to purchase PI cover.
“Astute risk and insurance managers at global professional services firms are rightly seeking to apply their experience gained in structuring multinational insurance solutions for traditional classes of business to PI insurance,” said Cairns.
According to ACE Group, these new legal requirements are exposing increasing numbers of international firms to the risk of professional negligence, misrepresentation, or breach of duty claims when operating both at home and abroad.
Krishnan added: “When purchasing specialty lines of insurance—and especially multinational PI insurance—choosing an insurance partner with a proven track record of multinational expertise and servicing capabilities is crucial to managing expectations of programme performance across international borders and understanding how the programme will respond whenever and wherever needed.”
