what questions does the insurer ask for liability insurance

Turnover, activities and claims history are the core

When asking about liability insurance, the insurer mainly asks three things: what the business does, how much turnover is involved, and what claims have occurred in the past. The activities determine the risk profile — a contractor gets different questions than a consulting firm. In addition, the insurer often asks about subcontractors and the country or countries where services are provided, as this affects the legal systems that may apply in case of a claim. The business's Chamber of Commerce details — registered address, legal form, date of establishment — are also requested as standard; these are the same details that What does your customer mean by filed annual figures? describes for the financial side of that register.

The insurer also often asks about the financial position: turnover figures from recent years, a forecast, and sometimes a credit rating. The latter is comparable to what a bank asks, only with a different purpose — the insurer wants to assess how sustainable the risk is, not whether the business can repay a loan. What that difference means in practice is set out in insurer asks about our financial health what should I enter. If in doubt whether the answer for the insurer should be the same as for the bank, it helps why does the bank ask completely different questions than the insurer when it is about the same thing to clarify the distinction. If the business has no claims history, then "no, no claims known" is a valid answer — there is no obligation to report something that does not exist.

Source of the data in the questionnaire

The business data that an insurer requests — legal form, registered office, date of establishment, managers — are the data that under the Trade Register Act 2007 are recorded for every business. The question about ultimate beneficial owners, which sometimes appears in liability insurance questionnaires when the premium or risk is large, stems from the customer due diligence under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act; the supporting document for this is described in Who are the ultimate beneficial owners of the company?. The questions about turnover and claims history themselves do not come from legislation but from the insurer's underwriting policy — which is why the exact wording differs per policy conditions and per insurer.