Financial Loss Liability Insurance in Italy

Due to the increase in digitisation in all service areas, the risk of causing financial losses has increased enormously. This applies equally to Italian freelancers, the self-employed and companies. The sectors of IT and telecommunications, web and media, consulting and service are particularly at risk, even if self-employed persons and companies in these sectors are not required to take out financial loss liability insurance. For certain professions, financial loss liability insurance or professional indemnity insurance is actually mandatory (required by law or by the respective professional association) in order to conduct the profession.

Persons who are employed are generally privileged in terms of liability. If employees cause damages, it is the company that is liable. Which is why exali.com also insures damages caused by:

• salaried employees, volunteers and interns, students on placement
• employees from temporary employment agencies on-boarded into the company
• and freelancers*

*Freelancers = natural persons on-boarded into the policyholder’s business, provided that they are working on behalf of the policyholder.

The Following Exceptions Apply:

As officers of the company, managing directors and board members can be held personally liable for a breach of their duty of care (so-called officer liability). This also applies to employees with special functions, for example internal data protection officers, compliance officers, money laundering officers, occupational health and safety officers or authorised signatories.

Awarding Contracts to Subcontractors:

Insurance coverage is there for you even if you use subcontractors for certain activities and projects.

For many professional groups, the law does not stipulate how much your sum insured/covered for financial loss liability must be. Exceptions include solicitors or mortgage brokers. Unless a mandatory sum insured is stipulated, you are usually free to choose a sum insured of between 100.000 euros and 3.000.000 euros per insured event. Since there isn’t really one single sum insured that works for everyone, it’s a good idea to consider the following questions when deciding on your sum insured:

If you need help working out what sum covered/insured you need, our exali.com customer advisors will be happy to help you free of charge and with no obligation.

The notice period is one month and takes effect at the end of the insurance year. exali.com offers a minimum term of one year or three years (with a 10% discount). If these deadlines are not met, the contract is automatically extended for another insurance year.

However, there is a special right of termination in the following cases:

Overpaid premiums will be reimbursed pro rata.

In principle, insurance protection for financial loss liability can take one of two forms. So-called “catalogue coverage”, where all insured activities and insured risks are listed exhaustively (only what is explicitly mentioned is insured), or open coverage (also known as blanket coverage for your profession) or all-risk coverage. With this version, all activities in a specific job description (e.g. IT expert, consultant, webshop operator, etc.) are insured without being mentioned in an exhaustive list (all activities within the insured job profile that are not explicitly excluded are automatically insured).

If the Italian policyholder expands his field of activity during the term of the policy, these new activities are automatically covered by the policy. exali.com recommends blanket coverage for your profession since, in an age of increasing globalisation and digitisation where new tasks and activities are constantly emerging within individual job profiles, these new areas are automatically covered by your insurance if you have open coverage, even if they are not explicitly mentioned. That’s why financial loss liability insurance policies from exali.com have blanket coverage for your profession.