As a director, your personal assets stand behind your decisions.
Directors and officers insurance keeps those private assets out of the discussion. We compare by chat what exists for your company.
Your company does not protect you here
A company separates your business from your private assets, but that separation falls away the moment someone pursues you personally as a director. It is then not a mistake by the business, but a decision you took.
Think of:
- A supplier who kept delivering while the company was already in trouble.
- A tax debt that stays unpaid.
- An obligation met too late.
- A fellow director or a shareholder who disagrees with your policy.
Those arguments are not about machines or buildings, but about what you knew and when you should have stepped in.
That is also what sets this insurance apart from all your other business policies. Those cover your business. This one covers you. A claim reaches your savings, your home and your family, even if the company no longer exists by then.
What people most often underestimate are the legal costs. A file that drags on for years and in which you are eventually proved right is still a file that has to be paid for. Whether those costs are covered in full differs per insurer. That is what we look at.
Whether this makes sense for you and what amount you need depends on your company form, your sector, the number of directors and the commitments you take on.
What we work out in that conversation
We ask the questions that determine how large your personal exposure is: how your company is structured, who sits on the board, which commitments you take on and whether there are external shareholders or investors involved.
Because we are a broker and not an insurer, we have no policy of our own to sell. We compare what different insurers offer and explain where the differences lie. In directors and officers cover, those differences are mostly in the question of who exactly is insured, whether defence costs come out of the sum insured or sit on top of it, what happens to claims that only surface after you step down, and which situations are excluded.
If there is more than one director in your company, we look at whether a single policy covers everyone or not.
Everything runs through chat and stays in the same conversation. If a director joins, if your structure changes or if something goes wrong, you pick up the thread where you left it.
How to start
You send a message through the chat on this page.
You answer a few targeted questions about your company and your mandate. No long questionnaire.
You get a tailored proposal usually within two working days, explaining what is covered, up to what amount, and what is not in the policy.
If you agree, you confirm the proposal.
What a conversation with Ōmata looks like
You do not need to know which policy you are looking for, and there is no form to fill in.
Start your request
Viktor is online
You are talking to an AI assistant. You can ask for a human colleague to take over at any time.
- CustomerThe trustee of a bankrupt client is writing to me personally as a director. Can that happen?
- ŌmataYes, it can — in a number of cases a director can be held personally liable. Do not respond on the substance yet and keep everything. Do you hold directors and officers cover?
- CustomerNo idea. We have public liability and a fire policy.
- ŌmataThose do not cover this. Which company is involved, and since when have you been a director there?
- CustomerA private limited company, I have been a director since it was set up in 2016.
- ŌmataNoted. I will pass this on to our expert as urgent. You will hear from us usually within two working days.
Try it yourself
Who this is for
Anyone holding a board mandate, paid or unpaid. A director of a non-profit runs the same risk as one of a company, and usually does not realise it.
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Managing directors of small companies
One or two directors, no board. The risk sits with the same person who already feels the debts personally.
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Non-profit board members
Voluntary, unpaid, and still holding a mandate with all the duties attached.
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Board members
Including those with no day-to-day management. The mandate is enough for you to be held liable.
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Management companies
A company acting as director brings the permanent representative personally into play.
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Anyone taking over a mandate
A new director inherits the file, not the history — but does inherit the questions about it.
Who this is not for
- Sole traders without a company. Without a legal entity there is no board mandate. You are already liable without limit on your own assets; this policy does not help with that.
- Employees only. An employee without a mandate does not direct. A senior role is not the same as a board mandate.
- Anyone already covered through the group. Larger groups often take out one policy for all subsidiaries. Check whether you are already on it before adding a second.
- Anyone trying to insure something that already happened. A fact you knew about at inception falls outside. This insurance looks forward.
What directors and officers insurance covers
Directors and officers insurance usually covers the loss arising from a management error, the cost of defending you, and investigation costs when a trustee, a shareholder or an authority starts asking questions. In practice the defence costs are often the main thing: they run even when you are ultimately proved right.
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Management errors Decisions judged in hindsight to be errors: an investment without grounds, a neglected obligation, an undeclared conflict of interest.
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Defence costs Lawyer, expert and court costs from the first moment, including when the claim turns out to be unfounded.
Usually the largest item.
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Unpaid social security and VAT Directors can in certain circumstances be held personally liable for unpaid social contributions and VAT.
Usually covered, but the conditions vary widely by policy.
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Liability on insolvency The trustee raising management errors, or the claim for declaring cessation of payment too late.
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Shareholder claims A partner who believes their interest was harmed by a board decision.
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Investigations and proceedings Support during an investigation by a regulator or the public prosecutor, before there is any claim at all.
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Former directors and heirs Usually those who have already stepped down and, on death, their heirs are insured too for the period of the mandate.
What directors and officers insurance does not cover
Not covered are intent and personal gain, fines and penalties, and the debts of the company itself. This policy insures your liability as a director, not the health of the business.
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Intent and personal enrichment Deliberate harm, misappropriation or a benefit you had no right to.
Never insurable, and rightly so.
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The company’s debts A loss-making business is not a management error.
The policy pays no suppliers and no loans.
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Fines and penalties Criminal and administrative fines stay personal.
The defence against them is usually covered.
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Prior facts you already knew If you knew at inception that a claim was coming, it falls outside.
The questionnaire at the start is therefore not a formality.
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Bodily injury and property damage What your business physically damages belongs in public liability; what a professional error causes, in professional indemnity.
Just ask
Non-profits too, and least known there
Board members of a non-profit carry the same kind of responsibility as directors of a company. Being unpaid changes little: the mandate counts, not the fee.
For a sports club, a youth movement, a cultural association or a trade body that means: whoever sits on the board can be held personally liable for a shortfall, an unmet obligation or an accident the association had no cover for.
Run-off: the mandate ends, the risk does not
If you step down, your liability for the period you were a director does not stop. A claim can still arrive years later, and by then you are no longer a director — but you are still the person being pursued.
These policies usually work on a claims-made basis: the moment of the claim counts, not the moment of the error. If the company’s policy is still running, you are generally covered for your former mandate. If it is not — because the company has stopped or failed — everything depends on the run-off period it contained.
What determines the price
A figure without your details is a guess. What determines the premium, we can list.
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Balance sheet total
The size of the company weighs heaviest.
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Sector
Construction, financial services and care sit higher.
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Number of directors
And whether there is a board or a single manager.
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Sum insured
Per insurance year, for all directors together.
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Financial position
The recent annual accounts and the equity.
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Run-off period
How long cover continues after the mandate ends.
Frequently asked questions
Can I be personally liable as a director?
Yes, in a number of cases. The starting point is that the company is liable and not the director, but there are exceptions: a manifestly gross error that contributed to insolvency, unpaid social contributions and VAT, declaring cessation of payment too late, and management errors on which a shareholder or trustee builds a claim.*
Does this also apply to a non-profit?
Yes. Board members of a non-profit carry the same kind of responsibility as company directors, even when unpaid. The mandate counts, not the fee. Many associations have no policy for it, while it is one of the cheapest covers that exist.
What happens after I resign as a director?
Your liability for the period you were a director continues. These policies usually work on a claims-made basis: the moment of the claim counts. If the company’s policy is still running, you are generally covered. If the company stops or fails, everything depends on the run-off period. Settle it when you leave.
Does this cover unpaid social security and VAT?
Usually yes, but the conditions vary widely by policy and it is the section most often restricted. It is one of the few points where it genuinely pays to lay two proposals side by side word for word.
Is this not in my public liability cover?
No. Public liability covers the damage your business causes to third parties during operations. Directors and officers cover insures your personal liability for board decisions. Two different risks, two different policies.
What if the company goes bankrupt?
Then a trustee comes in, and looks at the board. The policy covers your defence and, within its conditions, the loss from a recognised management error. What it does not cover are the company’s debts: a loss-making business is not a management error.
Who is behind Ōmata?
Ōmata Insurance is the AI-first studio of the Induver group and a sister company of Group Induver NV: two companies within the same group, not parent and subsidiary. Ōmata puts you in touch with Group Induver NV, an insurance broker holding FSMA number 016880; that is where the advice and the policy come about. The full identification is set out in the legal notices.
About Ōmata
Ōmata is the AI-first insurance studio of Group Induver. You tell us what you want to insure over chat; usually within two working days you receive a proposal, drawn up by an insurance broker at Group Induver NV, registered with the FSMA under number 016880.
Ready to start?
Send us a message and tell us briefly what you want to insure. You get an immediate reply and your proposal usually within two working days.
Notes on the asterisks on this page
- This list of grounds is not exhaustive and deliberately names no article numbers.