Guides

#Start with the risk, not the product

Insurance is easy to buy wrong. So don't start from which products exist, start from what could actually go wrong in your work. Ask three questions: what happens if I cause damage at a client's site, what happens if my equipment disappears, and what happens if I can't work for an extended period. The answers point to the protection you need.

Risk exposure varies enormously between professions. A writer working from home faces a completely different exposure than a carpenter on a construction site or a photographer with expensive equipment at a client's premises. Don't buy what your colleague bought, buy what matches your work.

#Liability insurance

Liability insurance covers damages when you cause injury to a person or property while on assignment. It's the insurance clients most often ask about, and in some industries it's a requirement just to get on-site. Many consulting and trade assignments assume you already have it.

Pure financial loss, meaning economic damage without anything physically breaking, isn't always included in a standard liability policy. If you work in consulting, finance, law or tech where bad advice could cost a client money, check that specific point in the terms.

#Property, equipment and home insurance

Computers, cameras, tools and instruments are often a freelancer's biggest investment. Here's a common and costly misconception: a personal home insurance policy rarely covers equipment used for professional purposes, and even when it does, there are often low coverage caps. Call your insurer and ask directly whether your equipment is covered when you use it for work.

Also check what applies outside the home and outside Sweden. Equipment that's transported, left in a car, or brought along on a trip is often handled under separate terms with its own exclusions. Photograph your equipment and keep receipts, it makes a potential claim significantly easier.

#Accidents, illness and income

As a light entrepreneur, you're employed by the light-entrepreneur company, and the statutory workplace-injury protection is funded through the employer contributions on your pay. That protection, however, is only a baseline. Many people add accident insurance that applies around the clock, since an injury in your free time can knock out your income just as effectively as one at work.

For longer periods of illness, it's your sickness-benefit qualifying income (sjukpenninggrundande inkomst) at Försäkringskassan that determines what you receive, and it's based on your income. Uneven freelance income can therefore give you weaker protection than you'd expect. Many trade unions and unemployment funds also offer income insurance as a supplement in case of unemployment, so check what your membership already includes before buying anything new.

#Ask what's already in place

Before you take out any policy: find out what's already covered. Ask your light-entrepreneur company in writing which insurances apply to your assignments, and request the actual terms, not just a summary. Then read three things in them: coverage amount, deductible and exclusions. The exclusions are almost always what matters most.

Check in particular whether the coverage applies to every type of assignment you take on, whether it applies outside Sweden, and whether it applies when you use your own equipment or your own car. If you take on high-risk assignments, work at height, heavy machinery or advice involving large sums, ask for explicit confirmation that it's covered before you start.

#Assignments organized with Truster

With Truster, you invoice without a company of your own and get paid with tax and contributions handled, with documentation and agreements gathered in one place, which makes it easier to show how your work is set up when an insurance question comes up. The platform is built by a payment institution authorized by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority and is used by more than 55,000 people across the Nordics. Truster is launching in Sweden by invitation: join the waitlist.