Three-way relationships · confidentiality ·. The limits of treatment
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a coach
A coach often has two parties at the table: the employer who pays and the employee being coached. Claims arise exactly where those interests collide.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een coach.
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.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Coaching has its own kind of loss. The most common complaint is not that something has been broken, but that something has been said or passed on that should not have been. A report back to the employer that the coachee does not recognise and that leads to a performance procedure or dismissal. Advice on fitness for work on which the employer bases a return-to-work programme, resulting in a wage sanction. A record of a conversation that ends up with the wrong person. Each time this is pure financial loss: financial detriment without injury or damaged property.
The triangle of employer, coach and coachee calls for arrangements made in advance. Set out in the quotation what you report back, to whom, and what stays confidential. Do the same towards the participant, at the start of the programme. Most disputes can be traced back to an unclear description of the engagement, and that is the first thing looked at when your liability is assessed: what could the client reasonably expect of you?
Finally, pay attention to the the limits of treatment. Coaching is an unregulated profession, but diagnosing or treating mental disorders is not. Insurers exclude therapeutic work if you are not qualified for it. If you notice that a coachee is in a clinical situation, refer them on and record it. Related specialisms are set out on the page about the career coach and the life coach.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four points that cause more discussion in coaching engagements than the hourly rate.
Reporting back to the client
What you report to an employer can have consequences for the coachee's employment. Agree in advance whether you report back only on the process or on content as well, and let the participant see the report before it goes out. A breach of confidentiality produces both a claim from the coachee and an allegation from the employer.
Do not promise a result
Wording such as guaranteed fit for work, guaranteed progression, or results or your money back turns your best-efforts undertaking into an obligation to achieve a result. Liability under a a guarantee or undertaking going beyond the professional standard is excluded on the policy. Describe your engagement in terms of effort, approach and the number of sessions.
Stay within your competence
Trauma, addiction and psychiatric symptoms belong with a therapist, not with a coach who lacks that training. If you carry on anyway, you risk not only a complaint but also reliance on the exclusion for therapeutic work. Record the referral in your file, including the date and the reason.
What falls outside the policy
Excluded are, among others: intent and wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code); fines and penalty payments, including those from the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority); injury during physical or outdoor activities, which on a public and employers' liability insurance belongs; and repaying your own fee.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for coaching practices
- Type of coaching: career, team or personal development are assessed differently
- Type of clients: employer engagements bring a third party into play
- Training and accreditation: a recognised coaching qualification or quality mark counts in underwriting
- Forms of work: training at other locations and physical exercises broaden the risk
- Sum insured and excess: the amount per claim weighs more heavily here than the annual maximum
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A record of a conversation reaches the coachee's manager and costs him his promotion | No | Yes |
| Your advice on fitness for work underlies a return-to-work programme that earns the employer a wage sanction | No | Yes |
| A coachee holds you liable for psychological symptoms after a confronting session | No | Provided that |
| You carry on coaching when the symptoms belonged with a therapist | No | No |
| You promised progression to a particular role in the quotation and it did not happen | No | No |
| A participant sprains an ankle during an outdoor exercise in your session | Yes | No |
As soon as you guarantee something a fellow professional cannot deliver, you move the discussion from your duty of care to an exclusion.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A coachee is holding me liable for psychological symptoms after a session.
That is a difficult claim, because causation is hard to prove and symptoms often have several causes. Report the claim to your insurer at once and provide your intake, the arrangements made and your notes. If the symptoms fell outside your expertise and you should have referred the client on, that is where the assessment will focus.
I work through an agency. Am I co-insured?
Usually not. Agencies insure themselves and their staff; self-employed professionals they engage rarely fall within that and are in fact often required to show their own policy. The cooperation agreement also often contains an indemnity clause. Liability you take on only by contract is not insured either; read that clause before you sign.
What if a complaint only comes after I have stopped?
Then the question is whether your policy still provides cover. Under a claims made policy the moment of notification is decisive, not the moment of the session. If you close your practice, agree a run-off period before you cancel. When switching insurer you arrange the mirror image: prior-acts cover for the work you had already done.
Do I need this if I only coach private clients?
The risk is then smaller, because there is no client organisation attaching financial consequences to your report. It has not disappeared: a private individual can also argue that your advice cost them a job or an income. Weigh the size of your practice, your working methods and what clients require. On business engagements a policy is almost always a condition of contract.
Read more
Within Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekeringthe main page
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering life coaching praktijk
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering life coach zzp
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering coachingbureau
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering loopbaanbegeleiding
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering loopbaancoach zzp
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voedingsadvies praktijk
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