Income Protection For Architects
Most of an architect's work is drawing, writing and meeting, and that is where the health risks mostly are too.
But the job also involves being on site during construction, inspecting work that is half finished, which is a genuinely different physical environment from an office and one that nobody allows for when thinking about cover.
And for anybody in their own practice, there is a financial obligation attached to stopping that most other self-employed people do not have.
The short answer
Architects are usually thought of as desk-based, and two things make income protection less straightforward than that suggests. Site inspections mean ladders, scaffold and partly built buildings. And a sole practice that stops trading still needs professional indemnity run-off cover for years afterwards, which is a cost that does not stop when the income does. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if illness or injury stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Mental health problems and burnout, which are the commonest cause of long absence in professional practice
- Musculoskeletal problems from sustained desk and screen work: neck, shoulders, wrists and back
- Falls on site from ladders, scaffold and unfinished stairs during inspections
- Strike and trip injuries on live construction sites
- Vision problems, where detailed drawing work is the job
- Any condition affecting concentration or judgement, which is what clients are actually buying
- Hearing difficulty, which matters more than expected in site meetings and client work
Sick pay, if you get any
Employed architects at practices usually have a contractual sick pay period, which varies a great deal between a large practice and a three-person studio. Sole practitioners and directors of small practices have nothing beyond what they arrange, and their income depends on stage payments tied to project progress that stops when they do.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation is worth having because the valuable part of this work is judgement rather than physical capacity. Somebody who cannot concentrate reliably is employable in many roles and cannot run a project, and an any occupation policy would treat that as fit for work.
Run-Off Cover Is The Obligation Nobody Mentions
This is the part of a sole practice that makes a long absence different from lost income, and it catches people out.
Professional indemnity cover works on a claims-made basis, so it is the policy in force when a claim is MADE that responds, not the one in force when the work was done. If you stop practising, you still need cover in place for claims that arrive later, which is what run-off cover is, and it is typically needed for years rather than months.
So an architect who becomes unable to work does not simply lose their income. They acquire a continuing premium to pay out of it. Income protection can be sized with that in mind rather than against personal income alone, and the specifics of run-off are a matter for your PI broker and your professional body rather than for us.
The Site Visits Are Real Physical Exposure
An insurer pricing an architect as a clerical risk is pricing the drawing and not the inspecting, and the honest thing is to describe both.
Contract administration means visiting buildings under construction: climbing scaffold, using ladders, walking unfinished floors and stairs, on sites where other trades are working around you. It is occasional rather than daily, and it is where the sudden injuries in this profession happen.
Say what proportion of your time is on site. It is a short answer and it is the difference between a policy priced on a description that matches your work and one priced on an assumption about your job title. Acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision either way.
If you stop
Projects run to planning dates, building control sign-offs and contractor programmes, none of which pause. A practice with one architect means clients either wait, which they rarely can, or appoint somebody else, and taking over a part-designed project is something most architects are reluctant to do because they inherit responsibility for decisions they did not make.
What A Household Is Left With In This Profession
Employed architects at larger practices often have death in service, sometimes a good multiple, and it ends if they leave to set up alone, which many do.
A sole practice has no death in service and, importantly, limited realisable value: the practice is the architect's registration, reputation and relationships.
There is also the run-off point again. A family winding up a practice has that obligation to deal with, which is an argument for the sum assured being worked out rather than estimated.
A Lump Sum When Judgement Is Affected
The events that end architectural careers early are usually neurological or cardiac: a stroke, or anything affecting cognition, concentration or stamina.
Somebody in that position may be able to work in some capacity and not to carry professional responsibility for buildings, which is a permanent change rather than an absence.
A lump sum funds that transition, and pays on diagnosis rather than after a deferred period. It can also deal with the run-off premium, which arrives whether or not anybody is earning.
If You Run The Practice
A small practice has costs that continue through an absence: office rent, software licences, professional indemnity, registration and any employed staff.
Software is a larger line than people outside the profession expect, and it is usually subscription-based, so it stops being useful and does not stop being charged.
Cover can be sized to include those continuing costs as well as personal income. Where you trade through a limited company, executive income protection lets the company hold and pay for it, and relevant life cover does the same for the life element.
Common questions
Can an architect get income protection?+
Yes, and it is worth describing the work properly rather than accepting a clerical classification. Site inspections mean ladders, scaffold and unfinished buildings, and saying what proportion of your time is on site gets a policy priced on your actual work.
What is run-off cover and why does it matter here?+
Professional indemnity works on a claims-made basis, so if you stop practising you still need cover for claims that arrive later, typically for years. An architect who cannot work therefore acquires a continuing premium to pay out of a stopped income.
Should my cover include practice costs?+
Worth considering if you are a sole practitioner or small practice. Office rent, software subscriptions, professional indemnity and registration all continue, and software is a bigger line than people outside the profession expect.
I am paid in salary and dividends. How is my income assessed?+
Say both, and be ready to evidence them. How a director's remuneration is treated varies, so agreeing the figure at the outset is better than having it examined at claim stage.
Is mental health really the main risk in this profession?+
It is the commonest cause of long absence in professional practice generally, and deadlines, client pressure and responsibility for buildings are a real combination. If you have had treatment or time off, declare it properly rather than leaving it out.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
If you run the business as well: there is cover a company can hold and pay for rather than you funding it from taxed income, and cover that buys out an owner's share if one of you dies. Which applies depends on how you are set up, and it is worth five minutes.