Some good news for the legal sector as Pen Underwriting sorts out some extra capacity on Pro Indemnity cover. In today’s divide and rule, cancel culture, I’m offended social media world, it pays to have the right coverage in place when people or companies decide to go legal with their perceived grievance. Here’s the word;
Pen Underwriting has underscored its commitment to the UK solicitors’ professional indemnity (PI) market with the announcement of a new multi-year capacity deal that will enable it to write in excess of £100m over the next three years.
Backed by A-rated security and existing capacity partners, the new binder agreement will also take Pen beyond the 25-year milestone of continuous market commitment through to 2026. Pen’s long track record in supporting brokers and their law firm clients extends back to September 2000, when the profession first switched to the open market and the mutual Solicitors’ Indemnity Fund (SIF) stopped providing primary PI cover.
Pen will use the new capacity to continue providing primary cover of up to £3m across the full spectrum of its diverse underwriting footprint – providing protection to everyone from the sole practitioner right up to firms with 20 or more partners – for forthcoming 2023 renewals. Its broad underwriting appetite covers both high street firms undertaking a mix of work and specialist firms, focusing on a wide range of areas from personal injury and criminal law to family law and intellectual property.
Supported by the in-house expertise of solicitors’ PI claims specialists and its team of experienced, technical trading underwriters, Pen has proved itself a consistent underwriter in what at times has been a turbulent market.
Paul Crilly, Head of Solicitors’ PI at Pen Underwriting, said: “With the UK solicitors’ PI market having stabilised, the focus of brokers on quality of service, proposal turnaround time and ability to access complementary covers is greater than ever, and rightly so. We know how much brokers value our long-term commitment to providing protection to UK law firms but the speed, accessibility and willingness of our skilled underwriters to trade, as well as our claims specialists to respond, will always be the daily deliverables by which we judge ourselves.
“Recent research by the Law Society found that the average time it takes brokers from submitting a renewal proposal to receiving a quote is approximately one month, and that seven in 10 law firms (72%) still don’t have cyber cover in place. Our underwriters will always work closely with brokers to ensure we turnaround quotes as promptly as possible while ensuring they have the tools at their disposal to outline and convey the very real benefits of cyber insurance to their clients. Such low take-up levels demonstrate solicitors may well be leaving themselves exposed to this growing area of risk. That said, it’s important they can access specialist, standalone cyber insurance tailored to their needs to avoid gaps in coverage.”
Richard Webb, Managing Director of UK Financial Lines & Specialist Liability, commented: “Securing such a significant multi-year capacity deal is testament not only to the quality and technical capabilities of our specialists in solicitors’ PI but the wider Pen team in delivering all the data, distribution and actuarial expertise our capacity partners demand and value. And that means we can keep providing our brokers with the reassurance they look for in terms of long-term support for their clients, even in the most specialist and challenging markets.”
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