Forensic Structural Work. Two Declines. Full Suite Placed.

A structural engineer with over 25 years of experience - including more than 10 years at a major engineering consultancy before going independent - approached us for a full insurance programme. Based in Queensland, the practice operates as a sole trader with occasional subcontracting of drafting services.

The scope is a mix of residential and low-rise commercial structural design and detailing, with a meaningful component of forensic engineering: assessing impact damage, hail damage, fire damage, building movement investigations, and storm damage assessments. The engineer produces forensic reports and investigative assessments as a core part of the business.

That forensic and rectification work - not the standard design work - is what made this a more complex placement than it might first appear.

We took the PI and PL to five underwriters across the specialist engineering market. Each received a full submission including the engineer's experience profile, the project mix, and a clear description of the forensic and rectification scope alongside the standard structural design work.

For cyber, we approached five insurers, selecting options that offered a $1 million limit with a social engineering extension - the right fit for a sole trader who invoices, receives plans digitally, and communicates with builders and clients via email.

Forensic structural engineering sits in a different risk class to standard structural design. When an engineer designs a new beam or foundation, they control the inputs and assumptions. When they assess why an existing structure failed - after impact, fire, or weather damage - they're forming professional opinions about events that already happened, often in a legal or insurance context. Those opinions can be disputed. Some underwriters price that exposure differently, or decline it outright.

Two insurers declined without quoting - one on occupation classification, one because their rate card couldn't accommodate the risk. The remaining three markets - Chase, About, and Ocean Underwriting - all came back with terms. The spread across those three quotes was around $1,100 for identical cover, with Ocean Underwriting the most competitive on the PI and PL combined.

On cyber, one insurer quoted a lower premium but could only offer a $500,000 limit - insufficient for what was needed. The remaining four insurers could all provide $1 million, with Coalition coming in as the most competitive at around $1,600 including the social engineering extension.

Social engineering cover was a specific priority. For a sole trader who receives large project invoices, communicates with builders and clients over email, and doesn't have an accounts team checking payment instructions, the risk of being tricked into transferring funds to a fraudulent account is real and uninsured without that extension.