A news article on NOS.nl got me thinking. A fellow freelancer had a serious bicycle accident and was unable to work for a long time. Because she had not insured herself against disability, she suddenly no longer received any income. The government does not help in such a case, so she had to survive on her savings. A doomsday scenario.
When I started as a freelancer not so long ago, I looked into the options for insuring myself. Actually, deepening is too strong a word. I looked at the options with the corresponding prices. The cost just kept me from looking into it further. Besides, I had so many other – much more important – things to do. I was busy with the acquisition, the first orders came in, but I also wanted to be well informed about what was going to change for me in tax terms.
The news item took me back to my early days. I had been busy with everything except insuring myself. And apparently I'm not the only one. According to a recent survey conducted by six trade associations, almost half of all self-employed people have not taken out disability insurance. Almost half! Moreover, 86 percent of all 6,151 respondents have studied insurance matters. Apparently it keeps us busy.
We all do probability calculations and on that basis we sometimes take risks. Small and large. Some people get behind the wheel without a driver's license and discover that it goes so well that they still do it 30 years later. Other people think it might be fun to fly in a Boeing 737. They still have an expired pilot's license somewhere for a small aircraft and have been happily flying around the world for 13 years in the largest planes. You just have to come up with it. The disadvantage is of course: if something goes wrong, the consequences are catastrophic.
I had that thought in the back of my mind when I was looking into the different options for insuring myself as a freelancer. According to the SME Service Desk, as a self-employed person without employees you should at least take out the following insurance policies:
• Liability Companies: you accidentally throw your cappuccino over your customer's laptop or you trip over the step when visiting your client and you take that expensive vase with you in your fall. That's an expensive joke. If you cause damage to 'third parties', this will be reimbursed from your business liability insurance. • Self-Employed Entrepreneur Disability Insurance (AOV): if the aforementioned fellow freelancer had taken out an AOV, she would have received a monthly benefit from the AOV. The costs are just quite high. The amount you pay depends on a number of factors, such as age, profession and the amount for which you want to be insured. To save money, opt for basic coverage that only covers serious conditions. • Fire insurance: not applicable to everyone, but if you have your own business premises, this covers fire damage to movable and immovable property.
In addition, there are a number of other insurances that are desirable or even necessary, depending on your company and sector. Examples of this are Legal Assistance, Business Car Insurance and Fraud and Money Insurance. You could also call your pension an (old age) insurance, but because it is very independent, I will leave the pension out of consideration. An interesting addition to this is the Computer Simple Risk Insurance, which covers the risks that (external) computers entail, such as hackers or viruses. Handy for copywriters!
Unfortunately, I don't have a huge amount of money in the bank (hopefully that will change soon). But if I already had that, I wouldn't want to use it for when I become (temporarily) incapacitated for work. Of course I like taking risks in life, that's why I'm self-employed. And I can't suppress a smile when I hear that someone has managed to drive for 30 years without a license or even fly for 13 years without a license. Yet things ultimately did not end too well for those two people. So I'm done. I'm going to insure myself. Then I'll just do my best for an extra assignment per month. Ultimately, that hurts less than standing empty-handed when an accident strikes.
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