Professional indemnity for self-employed professionals
Professional indemnity insurance covers loss that arises without anything being broken, and that makes cover over time more important than cover on paper.
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
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Pure financial loss is loss without damaged property and without an injured person. A calculation that is wrong, advice that costs a subsidy, a design that turns out not to be permitted, a report on which someone else based an investment. In all those cases nothing is broken, while your client is out of pocket. Public and employers' liability insurance leaves that item standing.
Virtually every professional indemnity policy works on a claims madebasis. What matters is the date on which the claim is made against you, not the date on which you made the mistake. That shifts attention to two provisions: retroactive cover, for mistakes from the period before the start date, and run-off cover, for claims that come in after the policy has ended.
What you agree by contract counts too. If you limit your liability in your general terms and conditions, that reduces the amount you can become liable for. If instead you accept more than the law requires of you, that excess remains uninsured. So when we take stock, we read your terms as well, not just your turnover figure.
What does professional indemnity for the self-employed cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The basics
Liability
AVB for property damage and injury, BAV for professional errors.
Damage to third parties
Employers' liability
Care, custody and control as an extension
Your business
Assets and continuity
Business contents, goods and lost turnover during downtime.
Business contents at replacement value as new
Goods at cost price
Business interruption or additional costs
If you employ people
Staff
Sickness absence, accidents and the traffic risk.
Continued pay for 104 weeks
Group personal accident
WEGAS for traffic risks
What is covered
Situation
AVB
BAV
Cyber
Injury to a visitor or customer
Yes
No
No
Damage to a client's property
Sometimes
No
No
Financial loss caused by an advisory or calculation error
No
Yes
No
Downtime after a ransomware attack
No
No
Yes
Data breach involving personal data
No
Sometimes
Yes
Damage to property in your care
No
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
No dent, but loss all the same
The distinction between property damage and financial loss determines which section you end up in. If your laptop falls on the customer's floor, that is property damage. If you then miscalculate in the quotation so that the customer budgets a project wrongly, that is financial loss. Anyone who both carries out work and advises needs both; see the basics of public and employers' liability.
The policy covers a period, not a mistake
Under claims made, the date of notification governs. If you move to another insurer, the new policy must offer retroactive cover for work in the past, otherwise a gap opens up precisely where your oldest files are. Ask for written confirmation of the retroactive date at every switch and keep it with your policy. This is the most common cause of uninsured claims.
Run-off cover on termination
If you stop trading, take up employment or retire, you remain answerable for earlier work for years. Without run-off cover there is then no longer a policy to absorb the claim. Arrange run-off cover on termination and not afterwards: insurers almost always offer it only at the end of the contract, not retrospectively.
What the insurer never pays
Excluded are intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code, fines and contractual sanctions, repaying or redoing your own work, and claims you already knew about when you took out the policy. Guarantees you have given yourself also fall outside: an insurer covers your liability in law, not a promise about the result.
What does your premium depend on?
The nature of your advisory work. Financial, technical, legal and organisational advice each have their own claims frequency and loss size.
Annual turnover. Turnover is the basis at virtually every insurer and is adjusted afterwards.
Sum insured. The sum per claim and the maximum per policy year are two separate choices, both of which count.
Retroactive and run-off cover. How far back the cover reaches and how long it continues after termination is a separate item in the premium.
Excess. The excess applies per claim and not per year. With several notifications you therefore pay it several times.
Area of operation and claims history. Work for clients outside Europe and earlier notifications weigh heavily in underwriting.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your activities, turnover and wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
What is the difference from public and employers' liability insurance (AVB)?
Public and employers' liability insurance covers injury and damage to property; professional indemnity insurance covers financial loss without anything being broken. If you work purely as an adviser, you mainly need the second. If you combine advice with hands-on work on site, you need both, because one unfortunate afternoon can touch both sections.
I am switching to another insurer. What happens to old mistakes?
They fall under the new policy only if it includes retroactive cover going back at least to the start date of your old policy. Without that, work from the past is uninsured as soon as the old policy ends. So always have the retroactive date put on the policy schedule and compare not only on premium but precisely on this point.
I am stopping next year. Should I keep the policy running?
You are better off arranging run-off cover. Liability for earlier work continues after your last invoice, while your policy stops and claims made looks at the date of notification. You buy run-off cover on termination, for an agreed period. If you do not, you carry claims about old work entirely yourself, including the costs of defence.
Are the costs of redoing my work covered?
No. Improving or redoing your own work is excluded, as is repaying your fee. What can be covered is the loss your client suffers on top of that, for example because he missed a deadline or had to incur extra costs. The distinction between those two items accounts for most of the discussion.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
