You're doing your PI renewal wrong

You're doing it wrong. Stop doing it like that. Put some more effort in. Advisers have heard many statements of this kind from the FCA in 2020, mainly regarding defined benefit (DB) pension transfers. But on this occasion, the person calling for an improvement is an adviser themselves. In this episode of the NMA podcast, Financial Relationships' managing partner Alex Morris joins magazine editor Ollie Smith to describe how he does his professional indemnity (PI) insurance renewals, and how conversations with brokers and insurers themselves have shaped his view of what advisers need to do better. There is no doubting that it is harder than ever to get cover at a reasonable price, but if Morris is to be believed there are a fair few things IFAs are still getting wrong when they renew. For starters, they are not devoting enough time to a process that he compares to a mortgage application in its length and complexity. For that, IFAs must give up a working week of their time, he says. Secondly, even if they are of a high quality, advisers' renewal applications are typically filed too late to attract the attention of over-worked underwriters, who put bad paperwork immediately to the bottom of the pile. Finally, IFAs are apparently not demonstrating thoughtful enough business planning to the people reading their forms. Get all this right, Morris says, and there is no reason why good firms should see the sorts of premium increases they have.