Why do Accountants need it?
If you want to avoid an unwanted liability on your balance sheet, you need to make sure you have the right insurance for your business. Being the numbers person that you are, we don’t need to convince you that getting multiple competitive quotes from leading insurers is the quickest and most cost-efficient way to secure the right cover for your accounting practice.
Did you Know?
CPA (Certified Practising Accountants) and ICAA (Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia) require a minimum of $2million in professional indemnity cover
Insurance for Accountants
Professional Indemnity
Even Excel gurus can make mistakes, and these errors or omissions could result in financial losses for your practice. Professional Indemnity insurance will protect your business from losses arising out of acts, errors and omissions from a wide variety of services, including:
Accounting and bookkeeping errors
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- Failure to fully comply with audit undertaking
- Incorrect tax advice / tax preparation
- Returns not lodged in time
- Negligence in rendering professional services
- Incorrect analysis and interpretation of the numerical data
Oh, and did you know it is an industry requirement that your level of Professional Indemnity protection complies with the standard outlined by your professional association. For instance, CPA Australia and Charted Accountants Australia mandates that members maintain a minimum level of Professional Indemnity cover.
And don’t forget our Price Promise that ensures you will always pay the lowest rate for your PI.
Public Liability
If you have an office where your clients visit you, or you are getting your dose of vitamin D by heading out to meet your clients at their home or office, then Public Liability insurance will protect you from financial losses arising from a claim of accidental damage or injury resulting from you going about your business.
Business Insurance
If any of the following circumstances relating to your business then you should consider Business Insurance to ensure you are adequately protected:
If you have an office are you covered for building and contents?
Do you rely on computing equipment/servers to get your work done? If they were to breakdown could you cover the cost of repairs, restoration of electronic data, and even any additional cost of completing your work?
Cyber Insurance
Consider the client data you are storing and if there was a breach of confidentiality by being hacked. For example, is the information sensitive enough that you would have clients in a rage outside your door and lodging claims against your business?
3 questions to ask yourself when buying insurance
- Does the cover comply with current legislation and professional association requirements – e.g. legal and defence cost coverage in addition to the policy limit. Whilst the TPB (Tax Practitioners Board) may only require you to hold $250k (depending on revenue) if you are part of CPA (Chartered Practicing Accountants) or ICAA (Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia) you require a minimum of $2million in cover.
- Is the policy inclusive of costs or exclusive of costs? With a ‘costs inclusive’ policy, legal costs and damages are insured as one sum insured – ‘costs exclusive’ means that the two are insured separately.
- Check that the policy covers all your areas of work. Some policies have restrictions and may not cover all your activities (if they are not standard). For example, investment advice or financial planning.