1. Describe the business before choosing cover
Record the legal form, owners, employees, annual payroll, turnover, activities, customer types and countries served. Then list premises, equipment, stock, vehicles, data and suppliers that the business cannot operate without. A sole trader is treated differently from an owner of a limited company: the federal SME portal explains that owners of an SA or Sàrl are also employees for social-insurance purposes, while sole proprietors and partners are generally self-employed.
This first page prevents a common error: buying a standard package that does not reflect the actual activity. A Geneva consultancy and a food business may have similar turnover but very different professional-liability, stock, machinery and interruption exposures.
2. Separate compulsory employee protection from optional cover
Every employee in Switzerland must be insured by the employer against occupational accidents and occupational diseases. Employees working at least eight hours per week for the same employer must also be covered for non-occupational accidents. Confirm the correct insurer, insured payroll and which staff cross the eight-hour threshold; do not assume that adding accident cover to basic health insurance fulfils the employer’s LAA duty.
For occupational pensions, the 2026 federal SME guide confirms an entry threshold of CHF 22,680 a year for an employee with an indefinite contract or one lasting more than three months. Death and disability cover starts from age 17; retirement saving starts from age 25. A pension plan may insure more than the statutory minimum, so compare the definition of insured salary, employer contribution, risk benefits and waiting provisions rather than only the total premium.
3. Model sickness absence and key-person dependency
Swiss employment law requires continued salary payment during sickness, subject to the applicable rules. A collective daily sickness allowance can replace that obligation when the agreed benefits are at least equivalent. Review the waiting period, insured percentage, benefit duration, salary definition, pre-existing-condition provisions and who continues pension contributions. Also calculate what happens if the owner or a key employee cannot work for three, six or twelve months.
4. Match liability, property and interruption to real scenarios
Business liability can address damage arising from premises, operations or products; professional liability focuses on errors in advice or specialist services. Provide the insurer with a complete activity description, turnover split, subcontractors, contract requirements and foreign exposure. Ask what is excluded, what deductible applies and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
For property, use replacement values for equipment, computers, stock and tenant improvements—not the accounting book value. For interruption, identify fixed costs and the time realistically required to restore the site, replace a machine or switch supplier. Verify that the interruption trigger follows the insured property event; a revenue loss without a covered trigger may fall outside the policy.
5. Treat cyber insurance as one layer of resilience
List critical systems, administrators, cloud providers, personal data and maximum tolerable downtime. Test backups, use multi-factor authentication and define who can isolate systems, call the IT provider and communicate with customers. A cyber policy may add incident response, forensic work, recovery costs, liability or interruption cover, but conditions and exclusions vary. If a personal-data breach is likely to create a high risk for affected people, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner states that it must be reported without delay.
A practical annual review
Bring the payroll declaration, staff list, pension plan, leases, asset register, main customer contracts, turnover by activity and country, continuity plan and current policies. Record changes since the last review: new staff, products, premises, vehicles, exports, subcontractors or software. Then compare each policy against one question: which event, financial consequence and time period is it intended to protect? Review the site’s employee pension, accident and sickness, business liability, property/interruption and cyber pages, or book a first conversation to organise the information.
Related services: employee pensions · accident and sickness benefits · business liability · property and interruption · cyber insurance · book a review