Professional and legal liability insurance

Professional and legal liability insurance is a type of cover for charities, non-profit or not-for-profit organisations and sits within our management liability portfolio.

It covers the organisation, rather than its individual leaders, in the event of claims of or investigations into alleged wrongdoing. These include but are not limited to regulatory investigations, HMRC inspections, or allegations from another charity.  

A not-for-profit organisation or a private company is technically called an ‘entity’. So, this cover is also referred to as entity liability insurance or entity defence insurance.  

To get a quote, contact us on 0808 2736 570
Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm.  

You may feel you need professional and legal liability insurance if you run a not-for-profit organisation and believe it would struggle to meet the costs of defending or settling claims made against it.  

• Examples of potential claims and investigations:
• Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection
• Charity Commission investigation into breaches of trust
• HMRC investigation into taxation guideline breaches.

It also includes some employee dishonesty cover. Professional and legal liability insurance isn’t a legal requirement in the UK. However, you may find the cover provides added peace of mind.   

The amount of cover you’ll need depends on what you do and the type of risks you could face.

The size of your charity, non-profit or not-for-profit organisation can be significant, too. For example, a large charity with an international presence may face higher-value claims or investigations. In this instance, setting higher indemnity limits could be reassuring.

At Hiscox, we can cover your organisation for from £100,000 to £10 million.  

It can help cover your organisation (entity) for claims and/or investigations arising from:

• Breaches of duty, trust, negligence or warranty of authority  
• Breaches of corporate manslaughter and/or health and safety laws  
• Failure to comply with tax guidelines.  

We will also pay for:

• Investigations under corporate manslaughter law and/or health and safety law  
• Costs to reduce the likelihood or consequence of an investigation, including those undertaken by the Charity Commission
• Costs of making a compulsory notification to an official body    
• Financial losses over employee dishonesty (other than directors, partners or officers).    

Please refer to the policy documents for the full details of inclusions and exclusions of this cover. Policy documents are available when purchasing online. You can also contact our customer services team for more information. 

It does not cover claims, losses or investigations arising from:

• Dishonest or fraudulent acts against or suffered by you where the act was committed or condoned by any senior leaders of the organisation  
• Defamation  
• Requirements to clean up pollution  
• Situations that occur following your acquisitions, merger or take-over  
• Wrongful employment termination, breach of employment contract or mistreatment of employees, current or former  
• Bodily injury or property damage, other than in relation to a breach of corporate manslaughter law and/or health and safety law.

Please refer to the policy documents for the full details of inclusions and exclusions of this cover. Policy documents are available when purchasing online. You can also contact our customer services team for more information.