FAQs
FAQS
Plus Indemnity is a leading provider of Professional Indemnity Insurance, dedicated to protecting professionals from potential financial losses resulting from professional errors or omissions. We understand the risks and uncertainties faced by businesses and professionals in today’s complex and ever-changing business landscape. With our extensive experience and expertise in the field of insurance, we offer tailor-made insurance solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients.
We are a Coverholder of Lloyd’s.
Plus Indemnity issue Professional Indemnity policies on behalf of Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s.
The optional Broadform Public and Products Liability cover is issued on behalf of Zurich Australian Insurance Limited (Zurich), ABN 13 000 296 640 – AFSL No. 232507.
Plus Indemnity is a Coverholder at Lloyd’s of London. The insurers are certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s.
Plus Indemnity has experienced Professional Indemnity underwriters and backed by the industry’s most respected professional risk underwriters.
Plus Indemnity has the ability to write over 400 Professions via the Plus Indemnity Portal which is available for use by our Affiliated Brokers. An appetite list is coming soon.
Plus Indemnity’s main contact is Steven Duckworth. You can contact Steven on:
- 0431 796 953
- stevend@plusindemnity.au
Persons and companies who provide advice or service of a specialised nature, whether for a fee or not, are required by law to provide that service or advice with due care and skill so as not to cause their client or a third party loss, damage or injury. If they do cause loss damage or injury then the aggrieved client or third party may make a claim to recover or be indemnified for that loss, damage or injury. Professional Indemnity insurance provides cover to pay any such claims on behalf of the insured. In addition, the insurance will provide cover for legal and other costs incurred in investigating and defending such claims.
A Claims Made policy is a form of insurance contract which only covers claims made against the insured during the policy period arising from facts that were first discovered by the insured in that policy period. The claim may arise from acts, errors or omissions at any time (subject to any retroactive cover limitations). If the insured first becomes aware during the policy period of facts that might give rise to a claim – then the insured may notify the insurer (pursuant to Section 40(3) of the insurance Contracts Act) and any claim which eventuates from the facts so notified will also be covered under the policy which is in force at the time of notification, notwithstanding that the claim was not made during the policy period.
Most insurance policies covering liability (whether a public liability policy or other form of liability policy) will provide cover for claims arising out of events occurring during the policy period.
A Claims Made policy is different in that the date of the event is not relevant (except if retroactive cover is limited) – what is important is when the insured first became aware of the claim or the facts which might give rise to the claim.
Claims Made policies will typically exclude cover for claims arising from ‘known claim circumstances’ as at the policy inception. If an insured does not notify a claim during the period of the policy in force at the date of the claim, then cover under that policy may be in question. Any subsequent policy will typically exclude cover for that claim.
A failure to disclose known claims to a new insurer is likely to have several consequences. Firstly cover under the expiring policy for that claim will not be triggered if that claim is not notified to the expiring insurer before policy expiry; secondly, an insured has a duty of disclosure to the new insurer. A breach of that duty of disclosure may have negative consequences for cover under the new policy. As a minimum that claim will be excluded from cover under the new policy by reason of the known claims and circumstances exclusion.
Your first contact should be with your insurance broker who arranged the Plus Indemnity policy for you. Your broker will then contact our claims specialist who will manage the claim on your behalf.
If you have any concerns or wish to make a complaint in relation to this policy, our services or your insurance claim, please let us know and we will attempt to resolve your concerns in accordance with our Internal Dispute Resolution procedure. Please contact Our Complaints Officer detailed below in the first instance:
Complaints officer
Plus Indemnity
Level 3, 84 William Street Melbourne 3000
PO Box 2 Collins Street West, Melbourne 8007
Email: admin@plusindemnity.au
Phone: 03 9939 9977
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and do our utmost to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction within 10 business days. If we cannot resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, we will escalate your matter to Lloyd’s Australia who will determine whether it will be reviewed by their office or the Lloyd’s UK Complaints team.
Telephone: (02) 8298 0783
Post: Suite 1603 Level 16, 1 Macquarie Place,
Sydney NSW 2000
A final decision will be provided to you within 30 calendar days of the date on which you first made the complaint unless certain exceptions apply.
You may refer your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), if your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction within 30 calendar days of the date on which you first made the complaint or at any time. AFCA can be contacted as follows:
Telephone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Post: GPO Box 3 Melbourne VIC 3001
Website: www.afca.org.au
Your complaint must be referred to AFCA within 2 years of the final decision, unless AFCA considers special circumstances apply. If your complaint is not eligible for consideration by AFCA, you may be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (UK) or you can seek independent legal advice. You can also access any other external dispute resolution or other options that may be available to you. The Underwriters accepting this Insurance agree that: if a dispute arises under this Insurance, this Insurance will be subject to Australian law and practice and the Underwriters will submit to the jurisdiction of any competent Court in the Commonwealth of Australia; any summons notice or process to be served upon the Underwriters may be served upon:
Lloyd’s Underwriters’ General Representative in Australia
Suite 1603
Level 16
1 Macquarie Place
Sydney NSW 2000
who has authority to accept service on the Underwriters’ behalf; if a suit is instituted against any of the Underwriters, all Underwriters participating in this Insurance will abide by the final decision of such court or any competent Appellate Court.
In the event of a claim arising under this Insurance notice should be given as soon as possible to:
Plus Indemnity
Level 3, 84 William Street Melbourne 3000
PO Box 2 Collins Street West, Melbourne 8007
Email: danielt@plusindemnity.au and
claims@plusindemnity.au
A Professional Indemnity (PI) policy written on a Claims Made basis only covers claims first made during the policy period and claims arising from facts first discovered and notified during the policy period. Once a policy expires no new claims can be made on that policy notwithstanding that the work giving rise to the claim may have occurred during the policy period. Any claims made after the policy expiry will not be covered if a policy is not then current. Accordingly, if you don’t renew your policy you will not be covered if a claim then is made arising from work done in the past. This is particularly important to note if you are no longer in business, you may like to enquire about obtaining run-off cover.
A Civil Liability is a liability one party has to another party arising under the civil law as opposed to the criminal law or statutory law – although some statutes give rise to civil liability – particularly related to consumer protection. Typically civil liability results in claims for compensation.
Continuous cover is in effect a loyalty bonus – so that if an insured first becomes aware of facts that might give rise to a future claim in one policy period but fails to notify that to the insurer then so long as the insured renews cover with the same insurer (without any hiatus in cover) then (subject to the terms of the continuous cover clause in that policy wording) the insurer will not apply the known circumstances exclusion in the policy in which the claim was notified. The insured will be entitled to cover under the later policy subject to qualifications – such as the limit and scope of cover not being more than under the policy in force at the time the claim could have been originally notified – and possibly cover being potentially reduced due to any prejudice suffered by the insurer arising from the delayed notification.
If the excess is inclusive of costs – the excess will be required to be paid towards costs and expenses incurred in investigating and defending claims.
If the excess is costs exclusive the excess will only be required to be paid when a claim settlement payment is made.
If the limit is inclusive of costs then investigation and defence costs are not covered in addition to the policy limit.
A Costs Inclusive limit is therefore more restrictive than a costs exclusive policy limit.
The policy limit is typically an aggregate limit. The policy will typically have a limit any one claim (which is the policy limit) and any number of smaller claims can be covered up to the amount of the policy limit. The policy may be subject to a reinstatement or a higher aggregate limit – which may define how many policy limit amounts the policy will cover in the aggregate.
A reinstatement is a multiple of the policy limit (typically one) for unrelated claims. Subject to the policy wording, a reinstatement may be triggered after the first claim.
An aggregate limit is the limit in aggregate for all claims in the policy period. It may be equal to the policy limit (equivalent to no reinstatement) of more typically may be multiples of the policy limit – equivalent to number of reinstatements.
The policy will cover claims made arising from acts, errors or omissions which may have been made before the policy period. If there is no retroactive date then typically there is no limitation on retroactive cover. If a retroactive date is specified then claims will only be covered if they arise out of acts, errors or omissions after that specified retroactive date.
Only our affiliated brokers can be issued with a username and password to utilise the Plus Portal to obtain quotes for Professional Indemnity and Broadform Public & Products Liability.
If you are an affiliated broker requiring a login, please speak to your underwriting contact or email us at uw@plusindemnity.au
Don’t know about the Broker Portal? Please have a look at this document to see how it works:
Click the FORGOT PASSWORD link on the Login page to go to the ‘reset password’ page.
Enter the details (please enter your email) and click ‘submit’. An email containing a new temporary password will be provided. Login and create a new password.