Tailor-made professional liability insurance for your business

Professional liability insurance for self-employed persons, entrepreneurs and freelancers has a special priority for the optimal protection of one's own business: In every professional field, mistakes can happen that quickly result in high claims for damages. This is where professional liability insurance comes in and protects you in the event of financial damage as well as consequential damage to assets caused by previous personal injury or damage to property.

The risks to which a company is exposed are always different and should therefore be assessed individually before taking out your insurance. insureQ helps you as an entrepreneur, self-employed person or freelancer to find individually tailored insurance cover in just a few steps.

Liability insurance for professionals - 100 % tailored to your business

General statements about which insurance cover is best suited for your company cannot be made without considering the risk factors. insureQ therefore goes further than price comparison portals and focuses on individual advice for your company. We don't just show you the offers of different insurers, but suggest your tailor-made professional liability insurance directly.

To do this, we collect the most important information we need about your activity in just a few steps. Our insureQ algorithm then evaluates this information and immediately presents you with a tailor-made offer. We take special care to avoid unnecessary extras and offer you exactly the professional liability insurance you actually need. In a following step, you can further configure your insurance cover or, if you wish, get personal advice from our insurance experts.

Professional liability insurance is recommended for entrepreneurs, self-employed persons and freelancers from almost every industry - risks for mistakes and financial damages resulting in high claims for damages exist in almost every professional group.

Particularly for employees from treating (e.g. doctors, non-medical practitioners) or consulting professions (e.g. tax consultants, auditors, lawyers), professional liability insurance is elementary, as these areas of activity are often associated with a comparatively large liability risk.

Is liability insurance for professionals mandatory?

Some professions are legally obliged to take out professional indemnity insurance and are only granted their professional licence upon presentation of proof of insurance. These include, among others:

• lawyers and notaries

• tax consultants

• auditors

• doctors

• insurance intermediaries

• real estate credit brokers

• architects (depending on the respective federal state)

In other areas, such as management consultancy or IT service providers, professional liability insurance is not mandatory, but is often desired or explicitly required when awarding contracts.

Professional liability covers claims for damages made by third parties against you, your employees or your company. The claims covered fall into two different categories:

• direct financial losses (so-called pure or genuine financial losses)

• consequential financial losses due to personal injury and property damage

In the event of a claim, professional liability insurance also checks whether the damage claimed is legal and, in case of doubt, bears the costs of fighting the claim (= passive legal protection).

What damages should my individual professional liability cover?

Depending on the company, industry and professional field, there is a different risk for certain types of damage. In order to be optimally protected in the event of claims for damages, it is therefore worthwhile to take out an individually configured professional liability insurance policy that is specifically tailored to your circumstances. This also includes the selection of the appropriate sum insured, which should always be far above what you would consider to be the "worst case". In particular, claims for damages following personal injury can quickly run into the 7-figure range.

At insureQ you can easily find out which damages are realistic in your industry and which insurance measures you can perhaps do without: Simply enter the key data of your activity and we will put together the professional liability insurance that protects you most cost-effectively.

What is the difference to public liability insurance?

When comparing different insurance offers, in addition to professional liability insurance, public liability insurance is often mentioned. The difference between the two insurance models is not always immediately obvious, especially for beginners, but it is elementary for the appropriate protection:

• Professional liability insurance (also called pecuniary loss liability) covers only financial losses and consequential damage to property.

• Public liability insurance, on the other hand, covers personal injury and property damage as well as consequential damage to assets. Often, environmental damage is also included in the insurance cover.

The latter is therefore recommended above all for craft enterprises, which are generally exposed to an increased risk of personal injury and property damage. Doctors, lawyers and consultants, who are exposed to a much higher risk of financial damage due to their field of activity, should instead insure themselves through professional liability or pecuniary loss liability. If you are not sure which insurance you actually need, insureQ can easily put together the right cover for you.

Professional liability: Who is covered?

Professional liability insurance usually covers all employees of a company. This applies not only to permanent employees, but also to interns and working students. Auxiliary staff, such as cleaners, are also usually included in the insurance cover. However, if your company often works with external partners and service providers, you should make sure that the professional liability insurance also covers them.

Prices for professional liability vary as much as the insured companies themselves. Due to the large differences between a provider's contracted benefits, it is correspondingly difficult to draw a price comparison between the individual offers. Insurers calculate the estimated prices based on different factors (e.g. number of employees, coverage amount) and the individually calculated risk, which is why a personalised consultation in advance is an important step to find the best price/performance ratio.

With insureQ, you receive this advice 100 % digitally and with just a few clicks: In a few simple steps, the most important key data of a company are determined in order to immediately create your suitable offer. We take special care not to include any unnecessary extras - you only pay for the protection you actually need. Through our immediate price calculation, you also know immediately what the costs for professional liability would be.

Can I reduce my costs by paying an excess?

With an excess, you agree to cover the costs of damages up to a certain amount yourself. Damages that exceed your coverage will continue to be paid by your professional liability insurance.

The extent to which this option makes sense for you depends, among other things, on how often your business is affected by damage. If this is the exception rather than the rule, the excess can reduce insurance costs in the long term. On the other hand, regular excess payments quickly exceed the costs of a higher premium.