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maybe you have noticed i am not on here very much or at least not as much as i used to be.

i still like it here but i have some stuff going on that spreads me very thin.

 

here is a very abupt update about whats happening, not looking for anything - just telling and then asking a question.

my wifes father died during one of my weeks from hell a little under a month ago. it was one of the most difficult and horrible things i have ever experienced. i was there - i watched it happen. i watched him suffer and then watched his sufering end. during this time i was late for a cancer benefit that  i had to play and FOH, then sleep for 4 hours then load out another all day FOH show (festival) for 2 days straight. i dont remember a lot of the shows except i could only look at my instrument/soundboard or i would start bawling. keep in mind i am married so my wife was going through something much worse than i and i couldnt be there for her. i was in a very difficult place knowing i had to do these events i had commited to but i needed to at the same time be with my wife. no easy way out.

my FIL was a very, very close friend of mine and i love him very much.

every day now i have to deal with the roller coaster my wife is and i am happy to do it but hell its really f'ing hard. i'm sure some of you understand this from experience.

i would love to at some point tell you all about the funeral - it was crazy and strange (in a good way). a later story for sure.

we have been dealing with the will, social security for MIL, bank accounts, email, cell phones etc etc etc. one thing after the other over and over it never ends.

i have had my own car insurance for 23 years but my wifes car insurance was bundled with her dads. big problems there. also our renters insurance. my insurance guy has been bugging me for yeas to go with him for all this but my wife didnt want to so guess what we didnt lol. well last week after the umpteenth screw up on her insurance agents end she had enough and said we were going with my guy. we got a much better rate and much lower deductable on both her car (full coverage) and our renters insurance.

BUT NO BUSINESS EQUIPMENT IS COVERED. PERIOD.

 as in my roughly $30k of FOH and recording gear. nothing i use to make money is covered. only houshold personal use items.

now my guy sat me down and explained to me that it is 99.99% likely that our previous renters insurance never covered any of my gear even though they said it did. know what? i believe my guy more than the other guy. i dont think any of my stuf was ever covered.

i'm not completely sure i need insurance on my equipment. i have had some stuff stolen sure but thats it since 1997. my guy says he doesnt do business insurance but he is looking into other folks for me. he says it will be EXPENSIVE, like in the range of a mixwiz3 per year.

 

my wife of course is insistent my gear be insured. i itemized it (took forever) and came up with i have around $30k of stuff that right now has nowhere near that in street value. we have been discussing this ad naseum and i say insure it for street value (as in a $3,000 macintosh i bought new i can now buy for $200) whereas she wants me to insure it at its replacement value.

i'm sorry but i can never replace my altec wedges. impossible. nor my white 4203 eqs. nay the dbx 163 death squashers (lovem).

 

i think i could start over with $12k. i wouldnt have what i have now but i could get a decent enough single stack rig for that used.

i dont know what to do. i know i cant afford $1k+ a year for this. i just dont make enough anymore to justify it. 2007 sure you bet. 2013? no way. last year i cleared around 1/8 what i did n 2007.

 

who would i contact? do you guys have business insurance on your equipment?

 

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IMO it's silly to insure for more than what it would cost to replace it all with used gear. And liability insurance is more important than gear insurance. If your gear is stolen you're just out what it was worth. If someone sues you for an injury you'll be possibly paying for it for years to come. Even if you can afford a decent lawyer and MAYBE you don't lose those guys aren't cheap - you could blow through way more than your gear is worth right there.

Someone mentioned that you can get insurance cheap through the Musician's Union if you join up but I never got an answer as to whether they'd insure you as a sound provider if you either don't play or aren't playing on a particular job?

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Very sorry to hear about this, death is never pretty in spite of what TV might suggest...

Insurance is also not pretty, in spite of the ads on TV. Number one is liability insurance since a screw up there could cost you everything you own. A distant number two is coverage in case of fire, stolen, etc. Beware of the limitations, and usually it makes a lot more sense to have a high deductable. I think ours is like $2500 or $5000. The differejce in premiums pay for the deductable in about 5 years IIRC.

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Coaster,

 

My sympathies and condolences to you and your family.

 

Business insurance typically has several components. First, there is a general commercial liabilty component that covers personal injuries to others (not including any employees of yours) that you and your business are legally liable for. That coverage includes a legal defense (lawyers) in the event you get sued. That coverage does not compensate you for any injuries you migh suffer in the course of your business operations.

 

Most business policies also have a component that protects your business investment from certain specified risks. That may include losses to tangible personal property ("stuff") used or owned by the business. The value of that stuff can be either be "actual cash value" (the used market price for used stuff) or "replacement cost" (buying new stuff to replace your old stuff). The types of risks typically include loss by theft or fire, but not by floods or earthquake. (You can buy additional coverage for those risks.). You don't necessarily have to have full coverage on all your stuff, but many policies require that you have coverage on at least 80% of the ACV. (If you have commercial financing on any of your gear, you probably have some property coverage on that gear as part of the financing agreement.)

 

You can buy either of those components separately. Of the two, the general commercial liability coverage is more valuable for your long-term financial health. It may be required for certain jobs, too.

 

Your car and home/renters insurance agent may be a good guy, but may not deal with many business policies. It is worth shopping around to see what other insurance agents or brokers will quote you. You can get coverage for just your stuff, without any liability coverage. It is called "inland marine" coverage, and typically covers almost all risks of loss. It is fairly pricey.

 

I hope that the above is of some use to you. Hang in there. Mark C.

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First and foremost, I am so sorry for your loss. The older we get, the more of it we see and will see. Never gets easier.

Regarding insurance, sit down with your guy, and talk until your options are clear to you. Think on it, and then try to make the best choice. You can always go back and change it if it wasn't a good choice.

I agree that it is very likely your gear wasn't covered by your renter's policy. Most commercial-use tools are covered by an "inland marine" rider or policy.

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So sorry for your loss. My dad died a few years ago from cancer and my mother in law is currently losing her battle with same.

 

Re. Your insurance dilemma. Been an agent for a dozen years or so. Primarily P&C (property and casualty).

Those indicating liability coverage as the more important of the two are correct. Your prop. coverage covers your stuff, your liability coverage covers you from losing everything in a lawsuit and,unless you have a separate entity that your working from (i.e. LLC or inc.), not only is your sound gear at risk but so is every personal asset you have (house, cars, bank accts, etc). So, you need a CGL for liability. Limits are usually $1 mil/$2 mil. (1 million per occurance/2 million aggregate). This you can get from any business insurance rep. However, check out Clarion insurance www.clarionins.com and Music Pro www.musicpro.com they offer both instrument/equipment ins. And event insurance. My cost for $25k of equipment ins. Was $250. A year when I was looking at quotes so it's very reasonable. The CGL will vary based on a number of factors (# of events, # of attendees per event, etc.).

Good luck!

Stix

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Sorry to hear of your FIL's passing.

I get my insurance through the musicians union, or American Federation of Musicians (actually mine's the CFM) but I would say that you would need to contact an office in your area to see who they cover and for how much. There are dues to pay, and then the insurance on top. It may or may not be financially feasible - it is for me, but YMMV.

I don't cover all my gear - just the stuff that would allow me to start over. I kind of figure out what I could replace new and used with, and just come up with a figure I can live with. At $25.00 per $1000.00 (maybe it's $27.50 now) my insurance would be about $1000.00 per year (all in) - I can't justify spending that much, year after year. Somewhere in the $200 to $300 range is my sweet spot.

I also agree with others that liability insurance is very important.

I would try and find an agency that covers events. They might be more in tune with the specialized kind of insurance that musical gear falls under.

 

Good luck - with everything.

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Be careful of underinsuring your gear. Unless you itemize what is and isn't insured what will happen is:

You have 20K of gear insured for 10K and 10K's worth is stolen. They will only pay you 5K minus your deductable. I've known a couple folks who had that happen to them on building insurance (fire insurance only paid for 1/2 the damage) and I'm told all property insurance works the same way.

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For me it looks like it will be around $1200/year for $45,000 worth of gear and 2 million liability. $100/month works for me. Being a legit business it's just another write off. One of the benefits of being legit.

 

I'll let you all know how it shakes out, as I'll be going for it within the next couple weeks.

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The musicians union looks like it offers insurance at $2.75 for every $100 in value/year. $2,000,000 liability is $50 per person, per year.

 

That sounds pretty good to me!

 

I went over my gear list and value. For a modest one person sound company, my gear replacement value is at a holy **** level (abouut $10k higher than my last estimate) and I pretty much can't afford to NOT insure it. Plus liability insurance offers peace of mind

 

Again, at just under $130/month I think it's money well spent.

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I've made contact with the musicians union. Like you said, I'm guessing its difficult to get it elsewhere. A friend has her DJ equipment insured. She pays around $1200/yr for $25k worth of gear. I did the math and my total PA gear tally is around $55,000.

 

As far as I can figure it will cost $1,612.5/yr to insure my gear and 2million liability for 2 people. About $135/month. Then there's joining and annual dues. It was under $250 total I believe. Initiation fee. Dues etc. I'll look it up later I'm just about to eat.

 

But I'm definitely going for it. It's a cost of business, and a deduction. More importantly it's good to be insured. It's something you don't need, until you need it.

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Where do you get an appraisal done? And is the over $10,000 for a single piece of gear or the works? I'm fortunate to have new enough stuff that I could walk into a couple stores, cut them a cheque for the value and totally replace my rig. Everything is currently for sale. No older mystery pieces.

 

Except my guitars and amp I suppose.

 

Ah hell.

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True enough. I might need a separate rider for that.

 

The room it's in has bars on the Windows and before the end of the year, I will have metal outside doors on both entrances to the room with a keypad deadbolt on one, and a non-key deadbolt on the other.

 

That won't stop someone from driving a truck through the wall to get in but it will slow down the random smash and grab kinda bad guy.

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