How exali's Professional Indemnity Adapts to Your Business
How do I make sure my insurance coverage is always up to date? Does my insurance coverage change if I add a new activity to my professional profile? These or other similar questions we receive frequently, especially from new clients or interested parties, when it comes to taking out a Professional Indemnity policy. The good news: You (almost) don’t have to do anything. This article tells you what blanket coverage for your profession is and why it always keeps your Professional Indemnity Insurance up to date.
What Does Professional Indemnity Insurance Cover?
Let’s say you took out Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali ten years ago when you started your own freelance business as a graphic designer. A few years later your started your own advertising agency and half a year ago you also started working as a freelance photographer. In this case, you would still be insured after 15 years with the Professional Indemnity Insurance you took out at the start. This is because Professional Indemnity Insurance via exali includes blanket coverage for your profession.
Blanket Coverage for Your Profession
This term refers to an insurance model that offers lots of advantages. Under this model, all the activities that generally fall within your professional profile are automatically insured without having to be listed (unless they are expressly excluded). This means that if you expand your business over time and add new activities, you don’t have to report this change or expand your insurance coverage - you’re always well protected.
But what if you expand your business with activities from other sectors? For example, let’s take a programmer who started as a freelancer in 2010. In 2015 she founded her own company and it has now become a full-service agency that offers web design, social media and SEO in addition to software solutions. All of these activities would also continue to be insured under the Professional Indemnity Insurance taken out in 2010. Why? Because the blanket coverage for your profession also guarantees insurance coverage for overlapping professional areas.
So you can also expand your business to include other sectors. It also covers activities in the media (e.g. graphic design or online marketing) or consulting (e.g. training courses or strategy consulting) sectors for freelancers in the IT sector.
Catalogue Coverage: The Opposite of Blanket Coverage of Your Profession
In contrast to blanket coverage of your profession, catalogue coverage lists the insured risks and activities individually and conclusively in the insurance conditions (like in a catalogue). Only what is explicitly listed is insured. The insurance solutions offered via exali do not follow this model.
Blanket Coverage for Your Profession and Newly Created Professions
Hard to imagine today, but professions in social media or search engine optimisation (SEO) first emerged in the early 2010s. In the next ten to 20 years, completely new professional profiles that don’t even exist today will probably also emerge. But what does that mean for your insurance coverage? Don’t worry, your Professional Indemnity Insurance will automatically adjust to cover new areas as innovations and new specialties emerge. For example, if you started an advertising agency in 2009 and have specialised more and more in the field of SEO over the past five years, your insurance coverage would not change at all. Your coverage would continue to apply as you and your business grow.
Are you preparing to start your own business or have you recently become self-employed and are considering whether and when it makes sense to take out Professional Indemnity Insurance? You can get the answers you’re looking for in this article: Professional Indemnity Insurance: When is the Best Time to Think About Coverage?
Professional Indemnity Insurance: What Is the Approach to New Risks?
It’s not only professional profiles that are are changing - the possible risks are changing too. So we continue to expand our insurance conditions for you and ensure that risks that arise over time are covered without additional charges.
Risk Example Drones
A good example of automatically insured risks is the use of drones. In 2015, (almost) nobody was using drones, which is why they were not listed in the insurance conditions for Professional Indemnity Insurance via exali in Germany at the time. Things are different now: All of our Professional Indemnity Insurances - no matter in which country you take it out - cover the use, maintenance and possession of model aircraft and flying drones up to five kilograms for professional purposes.
The reason for this is the fact that freelancers and agencies in the field of film and advertising are increasingly using drones to film, for instance at events or advertising videos. The fact that things can quickly go wrong is shown, for example, by this real exali damage egvent, where a media agency used a drone to film an advertising video. Unfortunately, it crash landed on a car on display at the neighbouring car dealership. You can read about the whole event here: Drone Crashes over a Car Dealership
Risk Example General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The GDPR has applied in all EU countries since 2018 and has also left a mark on our insurance conditions. We’ve adjusted our insurance conditions again and again, so claims for damages due to fines for data protection violations as well as first-party fines are insured.
Protection Against the Consequences of Cybercrime with the FPC Add-On
It is very important to us that you can optimally adapt your Professional Indemnity to your business risks. Since these risks can change, our insurance has a modular structure - this means that you can also book the optional add-on First-Party Cyber and Data Risks Insurance, or FPC for short, in addition to the basic coverage. This protects your business against the incalculable risks arising from hacker attacks, cyber extortion (ransomware), DDOS attacks, phishing or other cybercrime.
Among other things, the covers hacker damage or ransomware attacks on your own IT systems. In the event of a claim, the insurer assumes the costs and/or additional costs for restoring or repairing your IT systems and avoiding or shortening a business interruption. In addition, the costs for PR and crisis management, as well as specialised lawyers and computer forensics specialists are also covered.
Innovation Clause: Always Up to Date
The so-called “innovation clause”, which is included in the insurance conditions for Professional Indemnity Insurance via exali, ensures that if a damage event occurs you always benefit from the latest generation of premiums, which include improvements without additional costs. In short, you never have to worry that the improvements in your insurance coverage will be “passed on to you” or that you will miss something. We automatically ensure that your business always has the best possible protection and that there are no insurance gaps.
Direct Customer Contact for Better Insurance Protection
Our exali insurance experts work continuously to optimise your insurance coverage. It also helps that we don’t use call centres - We have our own customer care team. Our employees are personally there for potential and existing costomers and have a direct line to the concerns, wishes and daily business of the insured. So, we know what moves you and what benefits should be covered with good Professional Indemnity Insurance. This information allows us to continue to develop insurance coverage for freelancers, the self-employed and companies.
Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali: Always Well Insured
If you opt for Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali, you do not have to constantly worry about adjusting your insurance cover - we take care of that for you! You only have to make sure that your sum insured is correct and whether our optional add-on makes sense for your business. You can adjust both at any time or during the annual enquiry about your insurance cover (annual report).
We cannot do this for you, as we do not know your individual risk and projects. However, our customer service representatives will also be happy to help you choose the right sum insured and will take a look at your business situation and your risks together with you. Do you have questions about our insurance solutions or the right insurance coverage for your business? Then you can reach our customer advisors from Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (CET) on +49 (0) 821 80 99 46-0. You can also use the contact form to send us an inquiry.
Online Editor
Daniela has been working in the areas of (online) editing, social media and online marketing since 2008. At exali, she is particularly concerned with the following topics: Risks through digital platforms and social media, cyber dangers for freelancers and IT risk coverage.
In addition to her work as an online editor at exali, she works as a freelance editor and therefore knows the challenges of self-employment from her own experience.
