Accountants PI: ICAEW Revises Professional Indemnity Minimum Terms

Accountants that are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales are obliged to have professional indemnity insurance written on specific minimum terms.  Each year the ICAEW revises its minimum wording and this year's revisions contain some significant changes.

The ICAEW's new minimum terms will apply from 1 September 2010.  Participating insurers are obliged to write policies for ICAEW members either using the minimum wording itself or otherwise on equivalent terms.  Either way, the changes to the minimum terms are relevant for ICAEW members and their insurers alike.

The most significant change to the wording this year is that prompt notification of claims will no longer be a condition precedent to insurers' liability under the policy.  Historically, the notification provisions in the minimum wording were stipulated as conditions precedent, allowing insurers to refuse an indemnity where a firm unreasonably delayed in notifying a claim.