Professional Liability Insurance

Servca is a global specialist in PII insurance, also known as Professional Liability or Professional Indemnity insurance, with dedicated Lloyd’s facilities for E&O (Errors and Omissions) risks originating from Canada. 

As an independent Lloyd’s of London Broker, we have access to the whole market and over 60 Lloyd’s syndicates that underwrite Professional Liability risks globally, allowing us to syndicate complex, distressed individual risks, binders, and facilities for our Canadian partner brokers. 

As an industry specialist, we cover all professions and focus on trade groups often considered ‘non-standard’ or ‘distressed’ due to previous claims or any unusual exposures/limits that domestic insurers would not offer cover on.

For our Professional Liability and D&O facility, we operate on a minimum gross premium of 10,000 CAD or currency equivalent per risk.

We understand the complexities of non-standard and ‘distressed’ Liability risks. Arranging appropriate terms may not be available from domestic insurers and MGAs, which is why we can place risks into Lloyd’s market, where we often syndicate risks with multiple syndicates under our in-house Lloyd’s facilities, with bespoke policy wordings and clauses to meet your client’s requirements. 

As an independent Lloyd’s Broker, we are dedicated to supporting our Canadian partner brokers in placing all types of E&O risks, ensuring that you can win, renew and retain your client year after year. 

Risks we can help you with:

  • All types of non-standard, distressed (and standard) PII/Liability and D&O risks;
  • ALL trade groups catered for – from Financial Institutions to Nuclear Engineers;
  • Risks with USA exposure;
  • Risks with previous claims/conditions;
  • Professional Liability limits of up to CAD/USD 100m (or currency equivalent);
  • Excess Layer options for Liability risks seeking higher limits (for one-off projects)
  • Schemes, Facilities & Lloyd’s Cover-holder Sponsorship

Why work with Servca Canada?

  • We are liability experts; our team is led by a management team of over 50 years combined experience in the Lloyd’s & London Market;
  • We have market access to every single Professional Liability Insurance syndicate in Lloyd’s & London market;
  • We assess and highlight non-obvious exposures for you;
  • We advise on extensions of cover to limit other exposures e.g., Civil Liability, Breach of Duty, Contractual Liability, Cyber, Public Liability, Employers Liability and CGL;
  • We can provide risk management strategies for your clients;
  • We communicate with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week – irrespective of where you are in the world, offering market feedback to you and your clients.
  • We work on dedicated turnaround times, which are, on average, 24 hours.

Our Appetite

We can help provide Liability Insurance to a multitude of professional individuals and businesses. Our appetite for such risks includes: 

  • Accountants and Auditors
  • Lawyers and Solicitors
  • Architects and Engineers
  • Design and Construction
  • Cyber and Technology
  • Financial Institutions and FinTech Companies
  • Insurance Brokers and MGA’s
  • Digital Media and Printer Companies
  • Property and Surveyors
  • Medical Professionals
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • Healthcare Entities
  • Niche Industries and Companies
  • Professional Liability Insurance Clauses & Covers:
  • Civil Liability
  • Breach of Duty
  • Breach of Contractual Liability
  • Contractual Liability
  • Legal Costs
  • Understanding Liability Cover & ‘Claims Made’ Policy Wordings:

Civil Liability

Liability Insurance cover will generally offer a wider wording to cover ‘Civil Liability’.

Most liability policies now include libel and slander as an extension to the normal wording, to be upon a civil liability wording means that the insured is covered for breach of contract, libel and slander as standard. As the Civil Liability clause is so wide, typically insurers may include exclusion to exclude exposures that should be covered elsewhere. It is therefore imperative that you fully understand the risk and the policy wordings being offered to you. As specialists in liability insurance, we are able to offer assistance, advice and placement strategies to ensure that your client has the best level of protection at the most competitive premiums.  

Breach of Duty

The purpose of a basic liability policy is to indemnify the insured in the instance when a loss arises from any claim of ‘Breach of Duty’ during the policy period due to neglect, error or omission whilst carrying out their business activities.

Breach of Contractual Liability

This is often excluded from liability/E&O policies and covers losses such as liquidated damages (such as late delivery penalties) or accepting liability for unexpected economic (business interruption). Often, clauses such as these need to be requested due to the complexities.  

Contractual Liability

This is commonly found in Design & Construction professions, as the insurance would offer cover for any contractual exposure that arises through negligence during the contractual agreement.

Legal Costs

These are typically covered by most E&O policies, up to a certain limit and will cover the costs of investigation, defence and settlement of claims. These costs associated generally cover lawyers for investigation and defence; loss adjusters; expert witnesses.

Understanding Liability Cover & ‘Claims Made’ Policy Wordings: 

Most Liability cover, D&O, and Medical Malpractice are written on a ‘claims made’ basis, which means that the policy covers claims made (and reported to insurers) from when the incident supposedly occurred but using the current policy cover. (This is why the Insured needs to sign and agree on any claims declarations and in some instances where we are required to obtain Claim Summaries from previous insurers).

A claim is generally notifiable under a PII policy when the insured first becomes aware of a circumstance that could lead to a claim (be it a fault or non-fault); this could be anything ranging from a disagreement or dispute to the insured receiving a written statement of a claim.

When this situation occurs, the interpretation of when this situation occurs is the source of frequent policy disputes between the insurer and insured.

‘Claims Made’ policies are:

  • A claim might be made upon a current policy but in respect of a negligent act that might have historically occurred.
  • Protects the insured against the loss of value due to fluctuating inflation rates. Considering areas such as the construction industry, “latent defects” might lead to claims many years after an act of neglect.
  • It protects the insurer against the effects of legislative changes, claims made in line with newly acquired knowledge, or inflationary awards.
  • If the policy lapses for any reason, there is normally no cover after that for any claims that might arise, regardless of when the alleged neglect might have occurred.
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