Insurance for your new limited company, a checklist by milestone.

You filed at Companies House, the certificate landed, and the company is real. Then comes the quiet question nobody answers for you: what insurance does a new limited company actually need? Search it and you get a wall of cover names, a dozen "you must have" lists, and a strong sense someone is about to sell you everything at once.

Here is the calmer version. You do not need every cover on day one. You need the right cover at the right moment, and those moments are your business milestones. Each time the company crosses a line, win a client, take on a hire, buy a camera, it triggers a specific cover. This is that checklist, in the order it tends to happen.

One thing to settle up front. There is no single magic policy that bundles everything in. With careless™ you build one modular policy and switch on the Sections that fit the work you actually do. You pick what you need, you see your price before you commit, and you add the rest as the company grows. So treat the list below as a checklist, not a shopping spree.

Milestone 1: you incorporate and start trading

The baseline question every new company asks is "am I legally required to have insurance?" For a company with no employees, the honest answer is usually no. Public liability, the cover most people think of first, is not a legal requirement. You can trade without it and break no law.

So why does almost every new company end up with it anyway? Because the people you work with insist on it long before the law does. Which brings us to the next milestone, where the checklist really starts.

If you want the full picture of where the law does and does not apply, the public liability guide for the self-employed walks through it, and it applies just as much to a one-person limited company.

Milestone 2: you win your first client or a contract asks for cover

This is the moment most new companies actually buy insurance. A client, a venue, a landlord or a platform asks to see proof of cover before they let you start, and suddenly the cover that was optional becomes the thing standing between you and the work.

Public Liability covers the compensation and legal costs if your business accidentally injures someone or damages their property. It is the cover contracts ask for by name, usually at a limit of £1m, £2m or £5m, and the figure your client asks to see is the figure you need.

Two things worth a click here. If you are not sure what "proof of cover" even means or what a certificate has to show, the proof of insurance and certificates guide covers it. And if your work is mostly advice or deliverables rather than physical, jump to milestone 6, because public liability is not the cover for that risk.

Milestone 3: you take on your first hire

This is the one milestone where the law is not optional. The moment you employ anyone, even one part-time helper, Employers' Liability becomes a legal requirement, from day one. It pays the compensation and legal costs if a member of your team is injured or made ill by their work, and it is written at a £10m limit as standard, double the £5m the law sets.

The penalties are real, and who counts as an "employee" is decided by how someone works for you rather than by the label on their invoice: apprentices and many labour-only subcontractors do. Our policy's own definition goes wider than the law's duty and takes in voluntary helpers under your control. Before you make that first hire, read the employers' liability legal requirement guide so you have cover in place from the first day, not the first week.

Milestone 4: you buy or carry equipment

The day the company owns gear worth replacing, a laptop, a camera, tools, stock, you have something to protect. Which cover depends on whether that gear stays put.

If it lives at a premises, Business Contents protects it against theft, fire, flood and damage. If it travels to client sites, shoots or events, All Risks follows it wherever the work takes it. Most new companies that work off-site want the second one.

The line between the two trips a lot of founders up, so we wrote it out plainly in the all risks vs business contents guide. One click there saves you insuring the wrong thing.

Milestone 5: you start holding client data or running online

The moment the company keeps customer data, takes payments, or runs on email and systems, it has a cyber exposure, and it is one of the biggest everyday risks a small company carries. A ransomware lockout or a spoofed invoice can cost more than any break-in.

Cyber covers the incident response, the recovery, the income lost while you are down, and the third-party claims that follow a data breach. It comes with a 24/7 incident helpline as standard.

If you are wondering whether a company your size is really a target, the honest answer is yes, smaller companies are targeted precisely because their defences are lighter. The cyber insurance for small business guide makes the case in full.

Milestone 6: you give advice or sell professional deliverables

If clients pay for your expertise, your advice, a design, a spec, a strategy, the risk shifts. The claim that hurts is not someone tripping over your gear, it is a client saying your work cost them money. That is what professional indemnity is built for, and it is the one cover public liability does not stretch to.

We will be straight with you. We do not offer professional indemnity yet. It is coming, and the Professional Indemnity page sets out what it will cover. In the meantime it is worth understanding the gap rather than assuming public liability fills it, and the professional indemnity explained guide lays out exactly what the cover does and who needs it.

Milestone 7: you want protection against disputes

Sooner or later a company hits a dispute, an unhappy client, an unpaid invoice, an employment claim, a tax enquiry. Legal Expenses funds the legal costs of taking it on, and it comes with a 24/7 legal advice line that heads most problems off before they ever reach a solicitor.

It is the quiet cover that earns its keep the year you actually need it. The business legal expenses guide explains what it funds and how the helpline works.

The checklist, at a glance

• Incorporated, no staff: no legal requirement yet, but check what your first contract will ask for. Public liability.
• Won a client or signed a contract: Public Liability, plus proof of cover.
• Made your first hire: Employers' Liability is the law, from day one.
• Bought or carry gear: Business Contents or All Risks, depending on whether it travels.
• Holding data or running online: Cyber. Yes, even at your size.
• Selling advice or deliverables: professional indemnity is coming soon, understand the gap.
• Want protection against disputes: Legal Expenses, explained here.

Paying milestone by milestone

The work you do, the milestones you have actually reached, and the limits you need. Nothing on this checklist is priced until you switch it on, so a company at milestone two pays for milestone two. Every charge is itemised before you pay: the premium, Insurance Premium Tax, the broker's policy fee and the payment processing charge. The business insurance cost guide breaks down what moves each figure.

Buy at the milestone, not before it and not after it

The whole point of a checklist is the order. Insure nothing you have not reached, and nothing later than the day you reach it. Get it wrong in the second direction and the checklist tells you so the expensive way: the claim that lands before the cover does, or the contract that goes elsewhere because the certificate is not ready. Cover is arranged with Kovrilo and underwritten by established insurers, and a section can go on the week the company earns it. Start at the milestone you are on.