Accounting Practice PI and Cyber Cover Placed Together

An Australian accounting practice came to Tank Insurance needing Professional Indemnity insurance for accountants. The firm handled tax compliance, BAS preparation, bookkeeping and ASIC compliance, with some offshore bookkeeping and accounting support reviewed locally in Australia.

The requested PI limit was $2 million. That limit needed to reflect the professional advice exposure, the client financial data being handled, and the firm's obligations as an accounting practice. The practice also had an expiring policy with a previous premium of around $1,500, so price still mattered.

During the placement, a linked Cyber insurance need was identified. That mattered because PI and Cyber respond to different parts of an accounting firm's risk. PI is built around professional advice and service errors. Cyber is built around data, privacy, business interruption and cyber incident response.

We treated the placement as a combined professional risk programme rather than a single-policy quote exercise.

For the PI component, we compared multiple insurers with accountant appetite, including mainstream professional indemnity markets and specialist underwriting agencies. The submission needed to make the actual work clear: tax compliance, BAS, bookkeeping, ASIC compliance and offshore support that was reviewed in Australia.

The PI market returned a wide spread of terms from many insurers, including Vero, Keystone and Zurich to name a few. That range made it possible to compare more than headline price - we could assess appetite, service scope and the practical fit for the accounting practice.

For the Cyber component, we separated the data and privacy exposure from the advice exposure. Accounting firms often hold sensitive client financial information, tax records and identity details. A cyber incident may not be a professional advice error, but it can still create serious cost, notification and disruption issues.

The challenge was not simply finding a PI quote. The challenge was making sure the insurance programme reflected how the practice actually operated.

Accounting firms can look straightforward from the outside, but underwriting can change once the insurer sees the service mix, offshore support, professional body requirements, client financial data and cyber exposure. A cheap PI quote alone does not necessarily solve the full risk.

We arranged the Professional Indemnity placement with Hutch at around $1,300 gross premium for the $2 million PI requirement, then linked the Cyber placement with Coalition at around $350.

The result was a more complete programme for the accounting practice: PI for the professional services exposure, and Cyber for the client data and incident response exposure that sits alongside it. The PI outcome also came in below the previous premium noted during the enquiry.

This is a useful example for accounting practices that assume PI alone is enough. For firms handling tax, BAS, bookkeeping and client financial records, Cyber insurance is often a separate conversation worth having at the same time as PI.