Stand-alone policy

A stand-alone policy is a self-contained insurance contract dedicated to a specific risk, designed and priced independently of traditional property or liability policies. In cyber, the stand-alone policy has become the reference response to the silent-cyber problem, by isolating the digital cover in a dedicated contract whose scope, limits and exclusions are explicit. This approach offers several advantages, pricing tailored to a properly identified risk, clearer accumulation management for the insurer, and greater legal certainty for the insured, who knows precisely what is covered. It contrasts with cyber covers added by endorsement to an existing policy, which are often narrower and prone to ambiguities in how contracts interact. The stand-alone policy is not without difficulties, however, notably the risk of overlaps or gaps between the autonomous cyber cover and the insured's other policies, for example when a single loss falls both under cyber business interruption and a conventional liability cover. Coordinating contracts then becomes a matter of insurance-program management.

A mid-sized industrial company renews its policies following the 2019 Lloyd's directives. Its broker recommends taking out a stand-alone cyber policy for 10 million euros, explicitly covering extortion, digital business interruption, data liability and incident-response costs. The property and liability policies are simultaneously amended to exclude cyber unambiguously, eliminating any risk of double recovery or coverage gap. Together they form a coherent program in which each policy knows exactly where the other's scope ends.

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