Translation Agency Tips: #21 Professional Indemnity (PII) Insurance – should you have it?

Should you have Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) as a translator?

Straight answer – yes!

But seriously, to expand further though, you are offering a professional service to businesses. Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) covers you if you are negligent or make a mistake which causes a client’s business to suffer financial loss. You’re no doubt a brilliant translator, but what if you have a bad day, or a very important number is mixed up in your translation? Nobody’s perfect, and factor in tight deadlines, clients phoning up demanding their work…
If you think it couldn’t happen to you, have a read here (Lonely Planet Founder Recalls Worst Publishing Mistakes).

It’s not just translators who should take out professional indemnity – consider accountants, IT consultants, business consultants, journalists, architects, financial advisors, engineers and many more.

Translators can be put off PII by the cost. How much?!! So my advice is you should shop around each year as the premiums can vary wildly. This does mean filling in forms, but you may save 100s of pounds.

There are a number of companies who do offer this specialist insurance. In no particular order:

The Oval Group
Vantage Insurance
S-Tech
 
ITI have a partner offering a discount if you are a member. We understand also that CIoL also have a partner offering discounts to their members.

Note that we are not recommending any of these companies in particular, and the last time we looked, they did offer PII.

If you have further suggestions, we’d love you to comment below and tell us.