Risk management and income stabilization have been gaining increasing attention in the EU’s agricultural policy debate, also in connection to the recent proposal of a specific package of measures hypothesized in the ongoing CAP reform. The paper summarizes the current policy picture at EU and Italian levels, deepening country specific issues of construction of an income stabilization tool and providing a quantitative appreciation of the financial importance of a generalized measure of income stabilization for Italian farms. Estimates of farms’ losses and compensations are differentiated by type of farming and dimension of farms. The results are discussed looking at the perspectives of the new policies under scrutiny