Professional indemnity insurance for accountants

How much does accountants’ PI insurance cost in 2026?

Professional indemnity (PI) insurance for a UK accountant typically costs £200–£800 a year for a sole practitioner in 2026. At the cheapest end of the market, Simply Business reports that 10% of accountants paid £89.60 or less a year for up to £1 million of cover between October 2025 and March 2026, and NimbleFins puts basic quotes for low-risk accounting work at around £118–£134 a year. Costs climb quickly with fee income and cover limits: a practice billing £200,000 a year should budget £600–£1,000, and multi-partner ICAEW-regulated firms holding the institute’s £2 million minimum commonly pay £1,200–£4,000.

A useful rule of thumb from broker data: expect PI to cost roughly 0.5–1% of your annual fee income. Quotes for the same accountant can vary several-fold between insurers, so comparing the market matters more here than in almost any other business line.

This page is our accountant-specific deep dive. For premiums across every profession — consultants, architects, IT contractors and more — see the pillar guide: Professional indemnity insurance cost UK 2026.

What it covers — and what your professional body demands

Professional indemnity insurance pays compensation and legal defence costs when a client claims your professional work caused them a financial loss. For accountants the classic triggers are:

• Tax-return errors — a wrong figure or missed relief that leads to HMRC penalties and interest for the client.
• Missed deadlines — late filings that trigger fines the client seeks to recover from you.
• Negligent advice — incorrect guidance on VAT, payroll, corporate structure or capital allowances.
• Audit and accounts failures — misstatements relied on by lenders or investors.
• Breach of confidentiality or loss of documents — including defence costs where dishonesty of an employee is alleged.

Cover is effectively compulsory. ICAEW requires practising firms to hold a minimum limit of indemnity of £2 million with a participating insurer — raised from £1.5 million under regulations fully in force since 1 September 2025 — while firms with gross fee income under £800,000 must hold at least 2.5 times their total income, with a £250,000 floor. ACCA requires firms with total income under £600,000 to hold the greater of 2.5 times relevant income or £100,000. AAT and CIMA licensed members in practice must also hold PI cover as a condition of their licence.

Beyond fee income and cover limit, insurers price on your work mix (audit, insolvency and tax-planning schemes cost far more to insure than bookkeeping and self-assessment), claims history (a single notified claim can raise your renewal by 20–50%), client profile (large corporate clients mean larger potential losses), and your excess. To cut the premium without going under-insured: pick a limit that matches your body’s formula rather than a round number, take a modest voluntary excess, keep engagement letters tight with liability caps where permitted, and get comparative quotes every renewal — the same practice can see quotes vary several-fold between insurers.