Equipment insurance

[Bruce Bennett]

Hi Greg,

There have been several threads that are similar to your post. You’ll get lots of answers and great advice if you search the COW for previous threads.

But, here’s my input…
I use Acuity for my $1 Million General Liability policy (with Marine clause) along with my equipment insurance needs. (Being a Producer, I need to worry about me breaking other people’s stuff before my low overhead stuff). I pay about $40 per month (one person, Producer with no major equipment).

My short “layman’s” answer to you post..
You will probably have to get 2 different policies. (Not quite sure what the Insurance terms are for this, but I’m sure others here that will jump in and let you know).
The first policy is for the equipment that you break. The second policy is for all the equipment (your equipment and your subcontractors’ equipment) that other people break.

As far as theft? Good question. I’m not quite sure what I have for that. I’m going to call my agent tomorrow to find out.

P.S. you may want to fill out your profile with more detail about who you are. In my experience, it helps you a lot and you’ll get more respect and answers here on the COW.

Thanks for the post and Good Luck!
Bruce

Bruce Bennett
Bennett Marketing & Media Production, LLC

[Steve Wargo]

Ditto what Bruce said. We have our basic policy with The Hartford and our huge equipment policy through someone else. The Hartford limit is $125k. It’s a photographer’s policy. Had it since 1990.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Walter Biscardi]

[Steve Wargo] “We have our basic policy with The Hartford and our huge equipment policy through someone else. The Hartford limit is $125k. It’s a photographer’s policy. Had it since 1990. “

That’s interesting because we had The Hartford for the first 5 years of our business and the equipment was insured for full value at the time ($250k) and we had $2 mil liability insurance for field production. Wonder why they limited you?

But ditto on the comments from Bruce too. You can just call the insurance companies and get some quotes and better yet, get a local insurance representative to come to your office. When I thought I could do a little better than the Hartford, I looked up one of their local independent agents and the guy ended up saving me something like $500/year but my insurance went up by about 50% and I’m still with the Hartford.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Rich Rubasch]

I also have the Hartford for liability, equipment and even Worker’s comp!

All through a local insurance company right here in town. One phone call gets my answers on all my insurance questions.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Steve Wargo]

[walter biscardi] “Wonder why they limited you? “

When we bought our HDCAM gear in 2002, our Hartford Agent said it was over their $125k limit so we bought an equipment policy elsewhere. Maybe things are different in Georgia. The Hartford was competitive on price for our liability and we need more of a reason to switch than a couple hundred bucks. If we switched every time we were offered a lower price, I would spend all of my time with insurance agents. Most of them have rather drab personalities and talking to them puts me to sleep. And besides, I’m never actually happy to see them unless I’ve had some sort of problem. Kind of like the cops.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Gregory Lindsey]

Thank you everyone for the info. I’m going to call my insurance company and see what they offer and start from there.

Greg

[Todd Terry]

I will just caution to be be very careful and read the policies that you wish to purchase very carefully….

Our insurance has always been with the same company… it’s all the usual stuff, damage: theft, fire, vehicles, and a couple of million bucks worth of liability…

However in the early days here I also had a special rider just for damage to photographic equipment. Once when I had a claim (one of the very few times that I had a claim, in fact) because something had been dropped or damanged, the agent quickly pointed out that the fine print in the photographic rider excluded any loss on any claim that included or contained any kind of “glass breakage” whatsoever… if there was any glass breakage the entire claim was not paid, even if that wasn’t the primary damage. Ergo, fairly useless in the photographic world. This is a well-known and nationally-respected company (well, not resepected by me, anymore). We quickly dropped that and went with different coverage.

Just gotta be careful….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com