Instrument Insurance Help

[BrianWilliam]

Heritage was super easy to set up. No appraisals required (just serial numbers). I have not had to file a claim.

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Excellent thread, as I consider insuring my new (to me) Weber Gallatin. Looks like Heritage is the way to go. Any recent experience to add to the conversation?

[Pittsburgh Bill]

I found Heritage to offer a good policy but got my carrier (State Farm) for other insurance to write me a policy almost as good as Heritage for less than half the cost.

[Dale Ludewig]

I've had Heritage for years. I've never needed to make a claim but I've heard nothing but good stuff about them. I'm pretty sure they have a minimum premium that would making insuring just a modestly priced instrument or two a bit on the expensive side. One the other hand, they cover you in almost any situation. A word of caution about getting a "rider" of some sort with a normal home owner's policy is this: Some (at least) insurance companies will not cover your instrument in you ever, getting paid or not, play out of your home. I found this out some years ago from the insurance company I was using at the time when I needed to really increase my coverage. The agent told me that I hadn't been really covered for the many years I'd paid the premiums because I played in public. And they knew that when I'd taken the policy out years before. When I asked why they hadn't made that clear, the agent said that was because I hadn't asked. They wouldn't cover damage or theft of the instruments, even at my house, because I played in public and that added to their risk. I cancelled all my insurance with that company, including car, home, and business in just a couple days. I told them I would do everything I could in the future to make sure no one else was duped. I'm keeping my word.

[pops1]

Ask about an "inland marine" addition to your homeowners insurance. When I had that years ago I played out and it was covered everyplace except an unlocked car. It was very reasonably priced.

[Perry]

Long term Heritage customer. I never had to make a claim but the customer service is always top notch when adding and instrument or removing one. Which seems to happen a lot . I just e-mail them and they get right back to me with a confirm and mail out an updated "inventory" list.

Heritage covers shipping mishaps (please correct me if I am wrong) so that comes in handy when selling your instruments as you don't have to pay for useless carrier insurance.

As Dale states above you mus be careful with homeowner riders.

[acinva]

I have been using Anderson: https://www.anderson-group.com/. I am happy with them, but have not had to file any claims. When I first got instrument insurance, I got quotes from Anderson and Heritage and both were willing to lower their original quotes to get the business. Alan

[Louise NM]

With any of these companies, does a $200/year policy cover any number of instruments up to a certain value? For example, is the cost similar to insure 10 instruments with a combined value of $50K as to cover a single $50K violin? I have a number of wood-and-wire instruments around the house. No single one is terribly expensive, but the total cost for the bunch, plus cases and bows, would add up fast.

[Pappyrich]

I have a Valuable Property policy with my home owner's policy with USAA. I have about $10,000 worth of instruments insured for less than $30/yr. They are covered against all possible loss types, everywhere, and no appraisals are required. I set the value for each instrument, and they insure it for that value and charge accordingly. It is a simple as it gets.

[Pappyrich]

duplicate post

[Lucas]

I have Mercury Insurance. My agent said that my homeonwer's policy covers all my instruments for loss or theft up to $60,000, without the need to buy any riders on my policy. Unless you are a professional, there may not be a need to buy any additional insurance. If you are a professional musician, then you would need to buy a policy from Heritage or Anderson.

That is my understanding. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

[mandroid]

Professionalism puts you in a different category getting paid to play ..
having things more exposed.. more often..

never happened to me ..

Heard AFof M has member deals for insurance.

[ajh]

If you put it on homeowners or renters............read your policy. Carefully and for comprehension. They do slide some caveats in. Do not trust your insurance broker when he tells you "Yep....is covered!". His words mean absolutely nothing.

[pops1]

Ask about an "inland marine" addition to your homeowners insurance. When I had that years ago I played out and it was covered everyplace except an unlocked car. It was very reasonably priced.

An 'inland marine' addition is a rider on your homeowners insurance. I don't think all companies offer it, but it covered me gigging. I did not have to put in a claim so can't say how that would have went, but the only stipulation on the policy was " not covered in an unlocked vehicle" a locked vehicle was covered, as was performing venues. You have to provide serial numbers and value of each instrument/amplifier insured. I think then the cost was $10 for each $1,000 of valuation.

[Buck]

Inland marine policies tailored to musical instruments and offered by specialized agents have several advantages. They don't typically require written appraisals for instruments that are easy to value, meaning instruments that have a reasonably clear record of market value. Shipping is covered either on the policy or by additional fee per shipment. Professional usage is covered. Diminished value is covered. It's easy to have a $500 repair bill, such as a broken headstock, where the after-repair-value is thousands of dollars lower than before the damage. Unless your policy specifically addresses diminished value, it's not likely to be covered.

I have used Heritage for years, had one claim and zero issues getting that squared away.

[walter carter]

Inland marine policies tailored to musical instruments and offered by specialized agents...

I have only one personal experience with a claim on a homeowner's policy, and it was a nightmare. My stepson had a break-in at his home, and all his instruments and gear were stolen. After providing a detailed list, he had to deal with an adjuster who had no clue about musical instruments. For example, "I see new Les Pauls online for $1500. Why are you trying to claim that your used Les Paul from the 1970s is worth twice that much?" After several weeks of this, the company offered around half of the value as a settlement, but then they brought in a second "examiner" who found an exception for musical instrument buried deep in the small print. There was a liability limitation of $1000 on instruments, and the policy had a $1000 deductible. They paid zero. So, if you want to rely on your homeowners policy, read every line of the fine print very carefully.

Even if you can get an inland marine rider on your homeowner's policy, you're still dealing with a company that is unfamiliar with musical instruments. Heritage, Clarion and Anderson specialize in musical instruments. That says it all.

[djweiss]

I've had one claim on on Heritage Insurance policy for some water damage. They covered the repair as well as loss of value. It was any easy transaction, and made the policy worth it.

[Pete Martin]

Don't know if it still applies, but I've had friends unfortunately surprised by their homeowners policies coverage not working if they had ever made anything from playing music. Before you purchase any coverage see where it applies and the exceptions.

In all my years I've used Clarion, had 2 cases where damage happened, I needed reimbursement, and had a check in my hands within a week.

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Friday morning I looked online at Clarion, Heritage and Anderson. Clarion says it doesn't insure anything under $3K. Heritage has a very detailed questionnaire to get a quote, which I completed and submitted. Haven't yet heard back. Anderson has a short questionnaire, which I submitted and received a quote almost instantly. In the afternoon I received an email from Anderson, asking me to complete the purchase.

I had checked with my homeowners insurer and was told an appraisal is required to separately schedule my mandolin.

I need to read back over this thread for experience with Anderson, whose quote I find reasonable. Not going the homeowners route.

[bigskygirl]

Sherry, see if your insurance offers a personal property policy - for high dollar items like jewelry, instruments, etc.

[dscullin]

Regarding USAA... I am a USAA member and went to their website re: valuable personal property insurance. In regard to musical instruments, it says “ for personal use only.” Therefore if you are gigging even a little bit, it would likely not cover you if you had a mishap or stolen instrument when performing.

[Sue Rieter]

Bumping this thread, because I have decided to start this process. After reading through all the previous replies, I'll be calling my homeowner's (Amica) first.

Sherry, I am wondering what you ended up doing?

[Bill McCall]

Interesting bump. We just went through and inventoried, recorded serial numbers, and photographed our instruments. We had added to our inventory (you know how it goes) and wanted to verify for insurance.

[Sue Rieter]

I called Amica and talked to them about the "Personal Article Floater". It all sounded pretty good, and the estimated cost was low, like $30/year. The deductible does not apply. They said you'd be covered anywhere, whether you were getting paid or not (not that anyone is likely to pay me to play a mandolin ) I got a copy of the fine print and I'm reading it. The big thing is, the agent suggested that to ensure "reasonable replacement value" that I should have appraisals of antique and other one of a kind instruments. For more easily replaced items (my KM200S, for instance), a photograph would suffice.

Where does one go for appraisals? Is it expensive?

[pops1]

Jake should be able to do that for you. Cost is a percentage of the estimate. Some say to get a high estimate so as the years go by and your stash appreciates you won't have to get new estimates all the time.