Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a career coach
Your advice concerns the biggest financial decision a person takes: stay, move or stop. If it turns out badly, the loss is an income.
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- AFM licence 12016589
- Personal 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 9–17
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The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert.nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
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- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
- Independent advice
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- Switching arranged
- Help with claims
In brief
What sets a career coach apart from other guides is the irreversibility of what the programme leads to. A client resigns, starts out on their own, buys an expensive course or accepts a role in another sector. If that goes wrong, the allegation is rarely that you were unkind, but that you painted a picture that was not accurate: a job market that was not there, a course with no value for the role you named, or advice that leaned too heavily on what the client wanted to hear. The detriment is then lost income and costs incurred, in other words pure financial loss.
The second risk peculiar to this profession lies in the instruments. Personality questionnaires, motivational models and ability tests are freely available, but interpreting them is a skill in itself and licence conditions often prescribe a level of training. If you base advice on a result you were not allowed to use or could not explain properly, your position is weak. Use a test as a tool alongside the conversation, set out its limitations in your report and draw no conclusions about suitability that the instrument cannot support.
Your conduct is assessed against Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code: what a reasonably competent and reasonably acting contractor would do in the same situation. So promise nothing about the outcome and describe the programme as an obligation to use best efforts. If you work on employer engagements and return-to-work programmes, also look at career guidance; if the emphasis is on personal development, the self-employed coach is a better fit.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
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Get coveredWhy arrange it through Finass Verzekert?
We look at the terms as well as the premium, and stay your point of contact when there is a claim.
Independent
We are not tied to one insurer and compare on the basis of an objective analysis of several companies.
One fixed adviser
You call or email someone who knows your file. No menu options, no changing call centres.
Switching without hassle
We cancel your old policy and align the start date, so you are never a day without cover.
Help with claims
We report the claim and monitor how it is handled. In urgent cases you can reach us on the emergency line.
What to look out for
Four points that determine whether a claim against a self-employed career coach stands up.
Support your picture of the job market
Statements about opportunities in a sector, about the value of a certificate or about an expected salary level are read by the client as facts. Refer to the source you rely on, note the date and add that it is an expectation. A well-supported piece of advice that turns out badly is not a professional error. A confident statement with no basis is.
Stay within the licence for your test materials
Many instruments carry a right of use tied to training and certification. State in your application which tests you administer. Interpretation tending towards psychodiagnostics falls outside what an insurer has accepted for a coach, and then the discussion is not about the mistake but about the description of your activities.
Subcontracting and the chain clause
If you run programmes under the banner of a firm, that firm carries liability towards the client and then seeks recovery from you. Those agreements often contain a indemnity with a wider reach than your policy covers. Liability arising solely from such a clause is excluded; have the wording matched to your cover before you sign.
What falls outside the policy
Excluded are, among others: repaying your own fee; intent and wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code); fines and penalty payments; and liability under a guarantee of results, such as a promise that the client will have another job within a number of months. Physical exercises leading to injury belong on a public and employers' liability insurance.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for an independent practice
- Type of clients: private clients weigh differently from employer engagements
- Use of test instruments: certification and the type of test are taken into account in underwriting
- Share of reintegration work: programmes with a statutory framework increase the exposure
- Sum insured per claim: set by a client's lost income, not by your rate
- Retroactive cover: determines whether programmes completed earlier are included on the new policy
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| On your advice a client buys an expensive course that turns out to have no value for the role you named | No | Yes |
| A client misses an application deadline because you never sent a reference letter you had promised | No | Yes |
| You base advice on suitability on a test you were not licensed to administer yourself | No | Provided that |
| Your report reaches the employer although the client had not given permission for that | No | Provided that |
| You spill coffee over your client's laptop during a meeting | Yes | No |
| The fee you refund to a client who says the programme did nothing for him | No | No |
Advice is an obligation to use best efforts. Only once you have promised something about the outcome does the assessment change.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
My client has resigned and is now out of work. Am I liable?
Not as a matter of course. The choice is the client's and you are free to explore scenarios. What matters is whether you named the risks and whether your picture of the job market was supported. Make a short record of such conversations, including the objections you raised yourself. Report a claim to your insurer and make no promise of compensation.
May I administer personality tests without being a psychologist?
That depends on the instrument. Publishers tie rights of use to training and certification, and for more demanding tests a background in psychology is required. In insurance terms, what counts above all is that your policy names the use of tests. Report in terms of preferences and points to note, not in terms of a diagnosis or a judgement on suitability.
Does a quality mark or professional registration count in underwriting?
Often, yes. Insurers look at training, experience, membership of a professional association and the existence of a code of conduct and complaints procedure. That does not automatically lead to different conditions, but it makes the assessment easier and it helps when a claim arises, because the standard you are measured against is then clearly set out.
What happens to current programmes if I change insurer?
Under a claims-made policy what counts is the moment the claim is notified. Without retroactive cover with the new insurer, a mistake from your earlier period falls between two stools. So ask for retroactive cover back to the commencement date of your first policy, and report known circumstances to your old insurer before that policy ends.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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