A business may be able to replace a broken computer from its own funds. It may struggle to pay four months of wages and rent after a fire, or to defend a claim over advice that cost a client money. Start with the losses you could face, then separate statutory insurance, contract requirements and cover you choose to buy.
At a glance
- Compulsory cover depends on your employment status, employees, profession and, for some assets, the canton.
- An owner drawing a salary from their own LLC or company limited by shares is generally an employee for social insurance purposes. Different rules apply to a recognised self-employed person.
- Public and product liability, professional indemnity (professional liability) insurance, property insurance and business interruption address different losses.
- Compare the insured activities, triggers, exclusions, excess and limits before comparing premiums.
Three questions before requesting a quote
A single event can produce several claims. A fire may damage your stock, injure a visitor and close the premises. One policy may cover only one of those losses.
Who could suffer a loss? Consider employees, customers, neighbours, suppliers and the business itself. Injuring a visitor and losing your own equipment call for different cover.
What would you have to pay? Identify replacement costs, continuing payroll and rent, the cost of legal defence and a possible third-party claim. Include the time needed to resume trading.
How much could you absorb yourself? A higher excess may be affordable for small incidents. A long shutdown or a large liability claim calls for a different decision.
Which business insurance is compulsory in Switzerland?
Self-employed or employed by your own company?
The compensation office determines self-employed status from the actual working relationship. A recognised sole proprietor pays their own social contributions and is generally outside compulsory occupational pension and employee accident insurance for that activity. Voluntary cover may be available. A founder paid a salary by their own LLC or company limited by shares usually falls under the employee rules. Check Swiss social security contributions and the self-employment application process separately.
Accident insurance for employees
Employers generally insure employees against occupational accidents under the Accident Insurance Act (UVG/LAA). Non-occupational accidents are also covered from eight hours a week with the same employer. Below that threshold, commuting accidents count as occupational accidents for that employment. Review the person’s accident cover under compulsory health insurance where non-occupational cover is absent. Determine whether Suva or another authorised insurer is responsible.
Occupational pensions and sickness benefits
Subject to age, contract duration and other statutory conditions, employees earning more than CHF 22,680 a year with one employer reach the occupational pension entry threshold in 2026. A sole proprietor can consider voluntary provision. Check each employment relationship separately.
Employers have salary continuation obligations during illness. There is no blanket duty under the Code of Obligations for every employer to take out daily sickness allowance insurance. A collective agreement or contract may require it, as in the hospitality industry. Match the waiting period to the length of time the business could finance wages or a replacement.
Personal cover for the founder
When you take up residence in Switzerland, you generally have three months to enrol in compulsory health insurance under Article 3(1) of the Health Insurance Act. If you are self-employed and have no statutory accident cover under the UVG/LAA, keep accident cover in your basic health policy. It pays eligible treatment costs. To replace income if illness stops you working, arrange separate daily sickness allowance insurance and choose a waiting period your savings can cover.
Requirements specific to professions and assets
| Situation | What to check | Evidence to request |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyer entered in a cantonal register | Article 12(f) of the Lawyers Act requires professional indemnity appropriate to the risk, with at least CHF 1 million of cover a year, or equivalent security. | A certificate specifying the insured activity and annual limit. |
| Doctors, dentists, chiropractors, pharmacists and veterinarians practising under their own professional responsibility | Article 40(h) of the Medical Professions Act requires professional indemnity insurance suited to the nature and extent of the risks of the practice, unless the activity is governed by state liability law. An existing policy can meet the requirement. | Check that the policy covers the services you provide and the places where you practise. |
| Insurance intermediaries | Article 189 of the Insurance Supervision Ordinance sets a minimum annual indemnity limit of CHF 2 million, or an equivalent financial guarantee. The minimum rises to CHF 3 million for two to four employees who intermediate contracts, CHF 4 million for five to eight, and CHF 5 million above eight. | Check the headcount of people who intermediate contracts and the aggregate limit for all claims in one year. |
| Building contractor employing staff | Employee accident insurance is compulsory. A client may also require public liability cover under the contract. | Accident insurance certificate and wording on damage to property being worked on. |
Registered motor vehicles require liability cover. Building and natural hazard insurance rules vary by canton. In Vaud, declare business contents subject to compulsory fire and natural hazard insurance to ECA Vaud. This can include the tenant’s stock and machinery. Check with the landlord which items belong under the building policy.
For the building itself, 19 cantons use a cantonal buildings insurer, including Vaud, Neuchâtel and Fribourg. Geneva, Uri, Schwyz, Ticino, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Valais and Obwalden use private insurers. Fire and natural-hazard cover is voluntary in Geneva, Valais, Ticino and most of Appenzell Innerrhoden (Oberegg is an exception). In Uri, Schwyz and Obwalden it is compulsory, with a choice of private insurer. Check the mortgage contract as well as cantonal law.
A lease, loan or customer contract can require another policy or a specific limit. Record whether the requirement comes from a law, a professional regulator or a contract and keep the relevant evidence.
Public liability and professional indemnity
Public and product liability
Business liability can cover injury or physical damage caused to third parties by your operations, premises or products, subject to the policy. A visitor may trip over damaged flooring or a technician may break a customer’s property. Cover can include defending unfounded claims as well as meeting valid ones.
Ask specifically about property entrusted to you, rented equipment and the item you are repairing. Damaging the machine under repair may be treated differently from breaking a window elsewhere on the premises. Product liability does not automatically pay for recalling, withdrawing or replacing your own product.
Professional indemnity insurance
An error in advice, design or digital services can cause a client a financial loss without anyone being injured or property being damaged. Describe exactly what you deliver. Designing a system, installing it, hosting the data and guaranteeing uptime are different exposures. Ask whether pure financial loss is covered.
Contractual penalties, a promised result and the cost of redoing your own work can fall outside the policy. Check the wording against your client contracts before accepting commitments.
Insuring your property and business interruption
Business contents and equipment
List equipment, stock, furniture and goods belonging to others. Include items on sites, in vehicles, at warehouses and at employees’ homes. Check whether the policy pays replacement cost or current value, and whether a category has a sublimit. A seasonal stock peak can exceed its annual average by a wide margin. Underinsurance can reduce the payment after a claim.
Business interruption insurance
Business interruption cover responds to the financial consequences of a covered event, often insured physical damage. Check the trigger, waiting period, extra expenses and maximum indemnity period. A supplier failure, IT outage, compulsory closure or pandemic may be treated differently from a fire at your premises.
If CHF 18,000 of monthly costs would continue during a four-month closure, the business needs to finance CHF 72,000 before relocation and restart costs. Use that figure to test the policy definition of loss. Public short-time working compensation has separate eligibility rules.
Cyber insurance and legal expenses
Cyber insurance
A cyber policy may pay for technical assistance, restoration, notification after a data breach, third-party claims or interruption. Ask what happens after invoice fraud, a compromised email account, employee error or an outage at your IT provider. Check the insurer’s requirements for backups, updates, access controls and multi-factor authentication.
Business legal expenses insurance
Legal expenses cover pays for specified advice or disputes. Check insured areas of law, waiting periods, existing disputes and financial limits. The insurer does not necessarily pay every lawyer’s invoice or judgment. Other exposures may call for transport, machinery, construction, trade credit or directors’ liability cover.
Match cover to the activity
| Business | Main exposure | Question for the insurer |
|---|---|---|
| Self-employed consultant | Inability to work or negligent advice | Are my actual services and pure financial losses covered? |
| Building contractor with employees | Accidents, tools and damage at the customer’s site | Does cover extend to the object being worked on and equipment on site? |
| Restaurant | Staff, products, equipment and closure | Which events trigger interruption cover and for how long? |
| Online retailer | Stock, goods in transit, products and cyber risk | Who insures the goods at each stage and in each country? |
| IT provider | Service errors, data and outages | Does cover extend to contractual commitments and third-party supplier failures? |
Two companies in the same trade can need different limits because of their customers, contracts, staffing and cash reserves.
How to compare premiums and policy wording
What does professional indemnity insurance cost in Switzerland?
Ask each insurer to quote for the same activities, turnover, territories, subcontracting, staff, claims history, excess and limit per claim. A lower premium may exclude your largest engagement. Compare annual aggregate limits, sublimits and exclusions. For claims-made policies, check the retroactive date and arrangements for claims made after the business stops trading.
If a broker arranges cover, ask which insurers were approached and how the broker is paid. Give a direct insurer the same specification so that the offers can be compared.
Store policies and emergency contact details together. Review the programme when you hire, move, export, offer a new service or substantially increase stock.
Which losses should the business retain?
Meet the statutory and contractual requirements first. Then decide how much of a small loss the business could absorb and which events would threaten its ability to operate. An affordable excess can make sense if the policy still covers the losses you could not fund. A clear inventory of assets, activities and contractual commitments gives an adviser the information needed for that discussion.
Frequently asked questions
Is professional indemnity compulsory for every Swiss business?
No. It depends on the regulated profession and applicable rules. A client, landlord or lender may separately require cover under a contract.
Can an LLC go without insurance because its members have limited liability?
Limited liability separates the company’s assets from those of its members. It does not fund a loss, remove statutory insurance duties or cancel a personal guarantee.
Must part-time employees have accident insurance?
Employees generally need occupational accident cover. Non-occupational accident cover also applies if they work at least eight hours a week for the same employer.
Does business interruption cover every closure?
No. Payment depends on the insured cause, the loss defined in the policy and the indemnity period.
Can cyber insurance replace backups?
No. An insurer may rely on the safeguards declared in the application. Backups and recovery procedures remain necessary.
How can I reduce premiums without losing important cover?
Remove overlapping cover, compare exclusions and choose an excess the business can pay. Retain the protection needed for losses the business could not absorb.
How much is professional indemnity for a self-employed person?
Premiums depend on the profession, turnover, limit, excess, claims history and cover for earlier work. Ask for quotations covering the same services, exclusions and retroactive period.
Sources and further reading
- Swiss SME Portal – Occupational and non-occupational accident insurance
- Swiss SME Portal – Inability to work and sick leave
- OASI/DI Information Centre – Contributions for self-employed people
- Swiss Medical Professions Act – Article 40 (German, French or Italian only)
- ECA Vaud – Fire and natural-hazard insurance for business contents (French)
- Federal Office of Public Health – Compulsory health insurance for residents
- Swiss Insurance Supervision Ordinance – Article 189 on professional indemnity (French)
Romain Prieur is a Swiss Certified Public Accountant and the founder of Entreprendre.ch. He has more than ten years of experience in audit and business advisory in Switzerland and advises entrepreneurs on company formation, accounting and tax.
