Professional indemnity insurance for life coaches and mentors
The expectation of success is entirely on you and if it doesn’t materialise, your clients may blame you. Professional indemnity insurance for life coaches is a useful protection of your livelihood.
Our guide to life coaches liability insurance
Why do you need life coaching insurance?
Your clients come to you to help them make positive changes to their lives and career. In some ways they put their life in your hands and follow your advice faithfully.
However, assisting with your clients’ life ambitions can sometimes lead to disputes. Clients don’t always recognise the part they have to play in changing their path and they can decide that if their life has taken a turn for the worse it's all your fault as a result of the advice and guidance you provided.
A client pursuing their claim against you represents a problem. In fact a number of problems: legal, financial and reputational.
If your client has hired a solicitor, you’ll need to reciprocate unless you’re skilled in all matters legal. That brings us to the second issue - money. Solicitor fees start at about a couple hundred plus VAT per hour and you’ll probably need more than 60 minutes for the issue to be properly addressed.
In the meantime your reputation might be at risk. Angry clients are looking for ways to vent and might be posting negative reviews about you, jeopardising the future of your business. You’ll need Immediate and effective damage control assistance to stop them in their tracks before the situation gets out of hand. Could you do it without help?
What insurance do life coaches need?
Professional indemnity insurance is key insurance for life coaching business as it protects life/career/executive coaches and mentors against professional mistake, accusations of negligence, breach of confidentiality and more.
The cost of insurance for life coaches is very reasonable compared to the possible costs of the scenario described in the paragraph above. Good PI insurance provides a peace of mind that if something goes wrong, you’ll get the right assistance to help you deal with the problem professionally and financially.
As a life coach or mentor you probably see many of your client face to face at various locations. Accidents happens and they can lead to injuries or property damage. Public liability insurance is designed to shield you from claims from of this nature and pay compensation if you become liable. Once again the cost is quite negligible in the face of the average public liability claim.
Other insurance needs depend on your personal circumstances but most professional these days own some business electronic equipment such as laptops used to communicate, make notes or hold client data.
If you’re working from home, check your home insurance as not all home covers extend to home run businesses and might not protect you for the work you do. This goes for your business equipment you carry around while out seeing your clients or travelling on business.
How does insurance for life coaches protects you?
Thankfully an unhappy client taking a legal action against a life coach is extremely rare in the UK but you still don’t want to play the odds.
Suited professional indemnity and public liability insurance is backed up by an excellent insurer and a legal team provided by a specialised law firm should you encounter a situation with your client or a member of the public.
In addition Suited PI cover includes a legal extension - Business Legal Protect - that gives you legal assistance in the form of several dedicated telephone helplines to discuss tax, business and also personal matters. The cover also pays for any legal, tax or PR assistance if you face an HMRC enquiry, commercial dispute such as an unpaid invoice by your client or a threat to your business reputation.
Common Questions
Do you need to be insured as a life coach?
It’s not a legal requirement but it is a sensible investment into the protection of your life coaching business.
Do life coaches need to be qualified?
If you wish to arrange insurance with Suited, you need to hold suitable professional qualifications.
What is the difference between professional indemnity and public liability cover?
PI insurance protects you against financial claims as a result of professional mistakes while public liability defends you if you have accidentally caused an injury or property damage.
Do I need to submit my qualifications to get life coach insurance?
Suited only requires you to be qualified but you do not have to provide evidence.
Can I cancel my insurance anytime?
Yes, Suited insurance works on pay as you go basis.
I have overseas clients, will my work abroad be insured?
Suited professional indemnity is worldwide but any any contract with or a dispute in the US/Canadian jurisdiction will not be covered.
Covers we offer
Suited small business owner and freelancer insurance starts with professional indemnity. It’s our core cover. With that you can also get public liability and a couple of other helpful insurance add-ons for a solid protection of your business.
Recent articles
What does ‘hibernate’ mean in professional indemnity insurance?
Imagine you’ve just delivered the last piece of work for your client and plan to take some time off, perhaps for good. Cancelling your professional indemnity cover is an option but not a very good one. The work you did in the past may still catch up with you in the future and since professional indemnity insurance (PI) works on a ‘claims made basis’, you won’t be able to access its benefits unless you have an active PI cover in place.
What is a retroactive date in professional indemnity insurance?
A retroactive date is a line in the sand which determines a specific point in the past from which your insurers have agreed to insure your business. You are effectively allowed by some insurers to backdate your professional indemnity (PI) cover so that your business is protected against possible claims as a result of your past work.
Is professional indemnity insurance the same as public liability insurance?
In short, no. It isn’t. Professional indemnity and public liability insurance are both legal covers, meaning you’re protecting yourself and your business against legal threats from clients and third parties. However, there are subtle differences and whether you need one, the other or both does depend on your business activities.
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