All’s well that starts well.
Our insurance policies for start-ups.

As an entrepreneur, you are responsible for making sure that your employees are properly insured. You must take out accident insurance and, if certain minimum requirements are met, an occupational pension plan for your staff. Other compulsory social security schemes are unemployment insurance and pillar 1, which consists of retirement and survivors’ insurance (AHV), disability insurance (IV) and loss of earnings compensation (EO). It is also advisable to take out voluntary daily sickness benefits insurance for your employees.

Whether social security schemes are compulsory for you as the owner depends on the legal form of your start-up:

• As the owner of a sole proprietorship or a general or limited partnership, you are considered to be self-employed. This means that you are responsible for your own cover and the insurance policies are voluntary for you – with the exception of pillar 1. Payment of AHV, IV and EO contributions is mandatory.
• As the owner of a joint stock (AG) or limited liability company (GmbH), you are considered to be employed. This means that you are part of the group of employees and are subject to the same rules as your staff. As a result, social security cover is also compulsory for you.
  

Occupational pension cover is also known as the BVG, pillar 2 or the pension fund. All employees who pay into the AHV and earn more than CHF 22,680 per year (as of 1 January 2025) must be insured with a pension fund against the following risks:

• Death and disability from 1 January after reaching the age of 17
• Retirement provision from 1 January after reaching the age of 24

Pillar 2 is not compulsory for self-employed people, but they can insure themselves in it voluntarily.

Alongside occupational pension cover, employers must also take out accident insurance for their employees. This pays out in the event of accidents both inside and outside the company and covers a maximum of 80 % of the insured person’s most recent salary – but only up to the UVG maximum of CHF 148,200 per person per year (as of 1 January 2025). You can close this gap with supplementary UVG insurance.

Although accident insurance is not compulsory for self-employed people, it still makes sense. It is also worthwhile for family members who help out at the company but do not receive a salary or pay AHV contributions.

As an employer, you are legally obliged to continue paying your employees’ salary if they fall ill. Although this obligation only applies for a limited time, it can still be expensive for you. Daily sickness benefits insurance helps to take the pressure off financially. 

Daily sickness benefits insurance also makes sense for start-ups. If you fall ill as the owner of a joint stock or limited liability company, or if your employees are absent due to illness, both you and your company will suffer. However, it may also be worthwhile taking out daily sickness benefits insurance if you are a self-employed person without employee status because – unlike employees – you do not have a statutory right to continued salary payments in the event of illness.

If your company causes injury or damage to third parties, Allianz will take care of the investigations and negotiations with the aggrieved parties or their lawyer. Your liability insurance covers compensation for justified claims and defence against unjustified claims by third parties for personal injury (damage to health, bodily injury, death) and property claims (damage, destruction).

In some industries, pure financial losses can also be insured. In order to protect your own assets against financial claims from third parties, liability insurance is absolutely essential.

Since the risks vary greatly from industry to industry, we work with you to determine which cover makes most sense for your start-up.

Our property insurance protects you against the financial consequences of damage to your company’s property. It covers natural hazard damage, fire, burglary, glass breakage, water damage and other risks.

And because the risks are different in every sector, you can adapt our property insurance entirely according to your needs.

For example, we insure your inventories, machinery, computers, motor vehicles and buildings, as well as consequential losses such as the costs of clean-up operations, restoration of data/accounts and having locks changed.