Business Insurance Specialists Pty Ltd is a leading provider of insurance solutions to Accountancy firms for both Professional indemnity insurance and Cyber insurance.
Accountancy firms are required to maintain Professional Indemnity insurance which provides protection for negligent acts, errors or omissions.
Professional Liability exposure can arise from the myriad of activities undertaken by Accounting firms and will vary depending on the nature and types of these services. These services include:
- Audit;
- General accounting services;
- Insolvency work;
- Management consultancy
- Taxation advice;
- Directorship services;
- Mergers and Acquisitions;
- Business share valuation
The types of claims that may occur to accountants include:
- Breach of professional duty of care including negligent acts, advice, errors or omissions;
- Wrongful/erroneous advice and work;
- Breach of contract;
- Fraud;
- Errors in financial reporting, statements of clients;
- Conflict of interest;
- Not paying attention to details;
- Loss of documents or data entrusted to the insured;
- Unintentional breach of confidence, confidential duty or misuse of information;
- Unintentional breaches of the Trade Practices Act;
- Breaches of Data Protection / Privacy legislation.
As an insurance broker focused on providing quality insurance products to Accounting Firms, we appreciate the accounting insurance requirements that the major bodies place on firms under the professional standards scheme. Our Professional Indemnity insurance providers meet the full requirements of the following associations.
- CPA Australia
- The Tax Institute
- Chartered Accountants Australia & NZ
- Tax & Super Australia
Seven-point risk checklist for Accountancy practices
To assist management in reducing risk, we provide a seven-point checklist of risks to review with your designated compliance or risk manager.
- Details of important document and data backup procedures and arrangements. Details of Contingency planning including a proper backup system, redundancy and mirroring as well as security procedures and arrangements will be required
- How quickly could replacement office space be located bearing in mind location, customer base and staff travel times
- Do you subcontract any work to third party service providers? If so, what activities are subcontracted and what is the reputation and loss histories of such contractors. Do they have professional indemnity insurance
- Has your practice merged or purchased others, have HR contracts been reviewed, insurance coverage provided
- Do you have a documented Risk Management Program? Is the program monitored?
- Are records maintained of:
- how access to confidential material kept on the computer is restricted
- controls for the safe handling, storage and distribution of information and
- electronic security measures.
Cyber Risk
Our experiences indicate that Cyber risk is a real risk for accounting professionals. As this is a newer type of product to the market, this coverage can be misunderstood and over simplified.
Due to the nature of your business, and value of the information you hold, the cyber risk for accounting practices is considerable.
Business Insurance Specialists can provide solutions through quality Cyber insurance products whilst discussing the pros and cons of these various products and their different benefits in the market.
A brief history of Accounting
Luca Pacioli published in 1494 the classic text “Review of Arithmetic, Geometry, Ratio and Proportion” which included a chapter on Double Entry bookkeeping. Luca Pacioli is commonly known as the Father of Accounting for this work.
Luca was very good friends with Leonard da Vinci, to the point they played chess together. Luca was an accountant, teacher and mathematician who wrote several books. His writings also provided guidance on ethics, character, the virtue of working hard, and having focus in life. He was known as a man of integrity.
Related professions
Bookkeeping
Bookkeepers are often the gatekeepers for the accountant, and greatly assist in preparing accounts. Though not compulsory to have Professional Indemnity insurance, we strongly recommend this be taken.
To assist, we have specifically provided a summary of price and insurance for Bookkeepers.
BAS Agents
As a registered BAS Agent, your insurance requirements are provided by the Tax Practitioners Board and you are required to have Professional Indemnity insurance.
To assist, we provide a table with pricing and summary of insurance for BAS Agents.
Tax Agents
As with BAS Agents, Tax Agents are required by the Tax Practioners board to have Professional Indemnity insurance.
To assist, for further information on insurance go to Tax Agents.
For an obligation free quote, please click below or contact Business Insurance Specialists today if you would like more information.