The news comes amid growing concern in the profession about soaring PI premiums for adviser firms and lack of PI availability due to the impact of rising FSCS levies and pension transfer business.
Many advisers have complained about lack of PI availability and the Personal Finance Society has called for FCA intervention.
Managing general agent (MGA) Inperio will launch the PI insurance product for advisers after signing a new 3 Year agreement with European underwriter Accredited Insurance (AIEL). The deal will also help Inperio it expand its existing Solicitor Professional Indemnity product.
Canary Wharf-based Inperio says the facility should help increase the overall availability of Professional Indemnity Insurance capacity in the UK market.
Inperio CEO Simon Lovat told Financial Planning Today: “The IFA Professional Indemnity sector is a brand new sector for Inperio. We have watched the space for sometime being a large provider of Professional Indemnity for Solicitors. It was clear to us the sector was underserved and our experience of complex Professional Indemnity risks meant we felt we could add value to IFAs by providing Professional Indemnity to them.
"The IFA market is significantly underserved by Insurers, and for many IFAs they now struggle to obtain FCA-compliant policies. We think we can change that – we have hired Tim Little who was the former head of Financial Lines at Generali to lead out approach, and we intend to go back to basics, underwriting every risk, speaking to every prospect and making sure we can provide the right solution."
Mr Lovat said Inperio would consider "every type of firm" from small independents to larger networks. Price will be important, he said, but would not be the only factor in its offering which was designed to boost coverage.
Colin Johnson, CEO of AIEL’s Programme Division, said: “We are really excited to continue to support Inperio, and offering this much needed product to independent financial advisers. The signing of this 3 year Partnership continues to reflect the strength of our partnership which combines Inperio’s expert underwriting and knowledge of the market with Accredited’s strong balance sheet, high quality capacity and a culture of acting swiftly to meet customers’ ever-changing requirements and market dynamics”.
“This opportunity to provide policies to IFAs offers a seamless development to the work Simon and his team already do with us and we look forward to helping more solicitors and IFAs with their insurance needs over the next three years.’’
Inperio (London) Limited is a privately held specialist MGA established in 2014 which provides underwriting mainly to the legal profession. Its professional indemnity products are backed by Accredited Insurance (Europe) Limited which specialises in insurance for the SME sector of the market.