Hi all,

I'm in the process of changing to self-employed status, and am trying to find an insurer who can provide risk/disability cover: ie, to provide some kind of income should I have an accident and am unable to work.

The challenge is that I do a desk job (writing/editing), and some insurers, such as Suva, only offer cover for self-employed persons in a more risky environment. I've searched a fair bit for other firms, but wondered if anyone could make a recommendation here, based on their experience of this?

I am based in Zurich, and work from home. I realise I may need to just work through a broker for this, but just wanted to ask (good broker recommendations also welcome!).

Many thanks in advance.

Hi,

I looked into this three years ago and the amount you need to pay as monthly premiums in order to provide enough to pay your monthly bills if you can't work was staggering. For me a better solution was to forget the insurance and put away anything I could each month as savings in the unlikely event something awful happened.

The chances of both me and my wife being unable to do at least some paid work was pretty small hopefully.

But then again, I'm not the biggest fan of insurance generally.

OK, well, thanks for that. Given that I was profoundly grateful to have household insurance when a housemate accidentally burnt down the home I was living in some 10 years or so ago (long story, but a happy ending), I guess I still lean towards the rather-be-safer side. But I take your point.

I don't suppose the high premiums were due to there not being very many insurers that specialise in this kind of thing?

I can't remember there being too many options to be honest, so you may be right. I do remember even with the high premiums etc, you still had quite a long waiting time 3-6 months before the insurance kicked in.

What you are looking for is called Tagesgeld. Back in the day, I used to have a policy with KPT for about CHF1,500 pa, it kicked in after the first three months and paid about CHF8,000 pm. In the event of long term incapacity it covered the period up until the standard state insurance kicked in.

Thanks for the input on that, I've rung them to ask for a quote - which seems feasible, and the guesstimate costs they give on the site aren't too crazy. Appreciate the link!