Insurance for start-ups: 8 tips for failure protection

Founders don't have Money To give away. This is what you need to build yours Company. But many new entrepreneurs waste money by getting the wrong insurance or too much insurance.

Which insurance companies need founders?

entrepreneur actually have no money to give away. But many entrepreneurs squander it by getting too much insurance or the wrong insurance - only to find, at worst, that when it matters most they are underinsured.

But what if an entrepreneur is overinsured? And what happens if, in the worst case, he finds out in an emergency that he is even underinsured. The important can be separated from the casual without any problems. It is therefore worthwhile to compare carefully and to obtain offers that are specially tailored to the company. Only in this way can founders separate the wheat from the chaff.

8 important insurances at a glance

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What are the most important insurances at a glance?

1. Health insurance

Health insurance is mandatory. However, the self-employed have Choice between statutory and private health insurance. The contribution rate for statutory health insurance is around €500 per month. However, founders can lower the rate to around €180 if you are penniless and demonstrably less than €3562,50 per month to earn. And those who are only self-employed part-time (note: no more than 18 hours a week!) and are raising children full-time or are looking for an apprenticeship or apprenticeship Further Training makes, gets away with about 120 €.

As a rule, however, the statutory health insurance is for Women and families cheaper. Because even if the private health insurance companies offer low contribution rates, especially for younger and male members: That can change later if the tariff group is closed or the contributions do not remain stable. And only those who then become insured employees again before the age of 55 can return to the statutory health insurance fund.

2. Retirement provision

The state pension insurance is only compulsory for some founders: self-employed in teaching, healing and nursing professions, craftsmen who require a license and entrepreneurs who earn more than five-sixths of their income from just one customers must pay 19,9% ​​of your income into the statutory pension insurance if your profit exceeds €4800 per year and you do not employ any employees who are subject to social security contributions.

Everyone else can take out insurance voluntarily and choose their contributions freely. In the first five years after founding, there is also the opportunity to acquire a claim to Riester funding through compulsory insurance. However, private pension provision is usually more lucrative. Private pension insurance promises security, but only yield meager returns and cost high fees. Experts therefore recommend investing in funds, preferably in fee-saving fund savings plans, but not entirely without them, of course Risks.

3. Disability insurance

The occupational disability insurance makes sense. This is because the state disability pension, which is due when a person subject to pension insurance can no longer work before reaching retirement age, hardly covers this risk.

The critical point in private disability insurance can be found under the Term “abstract reference”. If that's in the contract, check them Insurance, whether the entrepreneur could not still carry out a related activity in the event of an occupational disability - regardless of whether there are any jobs at all. Fortunately, this clause is rarely found in contract texts.

4. Alternatives to occupational disability insurance

Often the insurances also exclude pre-existing illnesses from the insurance. Anyone who does not get a good job disability has other possibilities: Dread Disease Insurances against individual serious illnesses, a basic health insurance or a private disability insurance.

On the other hand, private accident insurance only pays for accidents - worldwide and at low premiums - but, statistically speaking, illnesses occur much more often than accidents. The professional association, in which the self-employed can also voluntarily insure themselves (caution: in some there is compulsory insurance!) Also pays for occupational diseases, but their catalog is very limited.

5. unemployment insurance

What is still relatively new is that self-employed people can now voluntarily take out relatively cheap insurance against unemployment, provided that they were also part of the state unemployment insurance scheme before the company was founded. Private unemployment insurance, on the other hand, is usually not worthwhile.

6. Liability insurance

Liability insurance is also important: The company liability insurance covers damage that happens to others in the course of business operations - for example if someone is injured on the company premises. For real financial losses – an order is not completed on time and the Customer has financial losses – is there pecuniary loss liability?

In addition to property damage and personal injury caused by defective products, product liability also covers financial losses. In certain professions, e.g. lawyers or financial advisors, professional liability is even mandatory. And sometimes professional and private liability insurance can be combined cheaply.

7. Legal expenses insurance

Legal protection insurance is relatively unnecessary. It does not assume any claims for damages or preventive legal advice.

For this, expensive and unnecessary services usually have to be paid for. A cheap one Alternatives for self-employed may be legal advice and protection through a professional association.

8. Business interruption insurance

Operating cost, business interruption or bad debt insurance is only worthwhile for larger companies. It can make sense to hedge corporate investments.

Expensive special insurance, for example against glass breakage, storms or fire, is usually not profitable. Rather, one should take out comprehensive insurance for the most likely risks.

How do you get good advice?

At the big one selection However, the question now arises for insurance companies: Where can you get good advice that is as independent as possible? Ideally with a truly independent one Adviser, to whom you have to pay a fee in an emergency. Of course, insurance brokers also try to give their customers objective and good advice. And of course they are mostly self-employed and not employed by the insurance companies. If that were not the case, the customers would probably not come back. One of our readers writes:

Dear Sir or Madam, I have been an insurance broker for 20 years. The statements in the article “Direct hit” on the individual insurance lines and types of contract are correct and well-founded. So the Article valuable help for all start-ups Orientation However, a statement in the last paragraph is wrong! You write: "If you are looking for help: insurance consultants cost money, but are independent compared to insurance brokers." The impression is given here that insurance brokers, in contrast to insurance consultants, are not independent in their selection and Suggestions of insurers and insurance solutions. The reader is forced to think that there is a risk with an insurance broker that the customer will be pulled over the well-known “ledge”. Inaccuracy or ignorance? Both would be fatal for the reader and for real insurance brokers! Therefore allow this addition: The advice of a real insurance broker is independent! The task is to secure the actual insurance needs of the client appropriately and as cheaply as possible. The written insurance brokerage contract documents this. The Supreme Court administrator's judgment, which was already pronounced in the mid-80s, is the guideline for every proper insurance broker. According to this, the insurance broker, as the client's guardian, is exclusively committed to the interests of his client, the client. By law and in practice, the broker is on the side of the client (§ 93 HGB ff), not on the side of the insurer. For clarity, reliability and Trust additionally ensures the obligation to provide information in accordance with the Insurance Mediation Act, which has been in force since May of this year. After that, the insurance broker has the interested party with the first one Contact e.g. to inform about his legal position. The Information is to be documented. All this results in the independence of the real broker. If the client fears a conflict of interest with the broker from the nature of the remuneration, since the broker is usually remunerated for his work by a brokerage fee from the insurer, an appropriate fee can alternatively be agreed. Really fair and client-oriented insurance brokers such as FinanzInformationsZentrum GmbH in Essen discuss this openly with the client during the needs analysis. Inaccuracy or ignorance? In terms of good reporting and life support, this question should no longer have to be asked in the future.

Dear Sir or Madam, Your article. Direct hit - founders need insurance ... ends with the sentence that insurance advisors are independent, unlike insurance brokers. This is simply wrong. The insurance broker is independent of the company and works on behalf of the client by way of trustee judgment. The fact that he finances himself with brokerage does not mean that he is dependent. I suppose this is where the insurance agent should be discussed.

Difference between brokers and consultants

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To this extent, it is of course important for the insurance brokers to advise and act as independently as possible. The fact remains, however, that the insurance broker will receive a commission from the insurance company, and that, in the case of an unmanageable offer, it is presumed that these offers are often based on the offers. The consultation is also free of charge.

The mentioned insurance consultants, on the other hand, are quite expensive, they cost the customers 100 Euro or more per hour, set by the Lawyers Compensation Act. The practice of paying the client a reasonable fee in the event of a conflict of interest was so new to me that the boundaries between the insurance consultant and the insurance broker are obviously blurring.

Demarcation and transparency

However, it is regulated by law that insurance brokers are not allowed to call themselves insurance consultants and that they are not allowed to broker contracts or work in any other way on a commission basis for insurance companies - and that for sure with good reason to have one klare to ensure separation for the customer. Incidentally, there are also cases in which insurance brokers illegally call themselves insurance consultants.

I wanted to create for my readers as clear as possible, to whom he can turn in which case: I recommend in my book also expressly insurance brokers, however, should be my clients always with the commission in the back head. To an expensive insurance consultant, start-ups who have little money will often not go.

To me, the statement that insurance advisors are really independent is only an indication that you could get good advice from brokers - provided you have the commission thing in mind.

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