Premium rises set for indemnity coverBy Sue AllenBrokers and insurers are predicting premium rises after a survey showed that 73% of solicitors saved money by going to the open market for their professional indemnity cover last year.According to independent research commissioned by brokers Alexander Forbes, of those firms which made a saving, 28% reduced their premiums by 40% or more by comparison with amounts paid to the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF); 58% of those firms paid 15-40% less.

Only 17% of the firms surveyed paid more with the SIF.Slightly more than 90% of firms said they had no problem obtaining cover on the open market and 63% were confident that they had the best deal available - 93% had shopped around first.The survey revealed that nearly 32% of respondents have made a claim against their new insurance, with most happy with the way they were handled.Alexander Forbes director Trevor Moss said the research showed the move to the open market was a 'huge success'.Almost half of the firms said they would prefer to have different renewal dates rather than all firms scrambling to renew their cover at the same time.Peter Farthing, chairman of the Law Society's indemnity insurance committee, said: 'I am very pleased to see the general level of satisfaction with the new system.

We keep all aspects of it under review, including the single renewal date.

At the moment, we think the difficulties in having different renewal dates would outweigh any advantages.

But practitioners should consider and review their insurance requirements well in advance of the renewal date of 1 September.'But one broker, who declined to be named, predicted rises of up to 20% for some premiums.

'Some insurers have had more notifications than they envisaged which could lead to premium rises from some providers,' he warned.His view was shared by a spokesman for another leading insurer who also predicted rises.

'The overall premium take last year was 148 million as opposed to the SIF, which raised 250 million.

I don't know about what other insurers will do with their prices, but overall premium levels don't look sustainable and it's likely some will go up,' he said.Four out of five respondents to the survey said higher premiums would cause them to change their insurer.Taylor Nelson Sofres contacted a cross-section of 300 firms for Alexander Forbes, with a 20% response rate.