Insurance for equipment

chrislockerman

chrislockerman

Active member
Don't know if this is the right forum... but I am interested in finding insurance for my equipment. I have been letting colleagues use the equipment (so far no problems) and if something happens when I am not around, I'd like my gear to be covered.
Any advice, suggestions? Thanks so much.
-Christian
 
Get it done. An LLC is a wonderful thing to have as a security blanket should anything go wrong and you'll need insurance. I am insured for under 100k as overhead is just not what it use to be. The price is worth the piece of mind. I don't rent and I don't loan but stuff happens.
 
Can you explain what you did to get your gear covered? It can't be as simply calling an insurance company. Obviously you set up an LLC - is this an easy process? Thanks for the info.
 
it is that easy.
Get a cheap lawyer (traffic ticket level is fine.. it's just paper work) to set up your LLC. You can do this yourself online but I do not rtecomend it. You can have it done tight without spending more than 100 bucks.
Then, just call your insurance agent and explain that you'd like to have your gear covered. They'll ask you for an equipment list and what ya paid for everything, depriciate it depending on how old it is, send a dude out to verify/appraise and they'll write ya a policy for the whole lot. I had to have it done again when I closed my studio and moved everything to my home. I am working out of my house now. I'm enjoying a fraction of the overhead I use to have, I am working less hours than I use to and nothing had to change, insurance-wise, at least on my equipment.
 
Grinner - are you using a specialty insurance company for your gear, or simply the same company you have your home owner's policy through?
Just curious
 
They don't send anyone out to appraise your equipment, I've never heard of that before. You just send them a list of what you have, they don't care, they cover you up to a certain point anyway.

We have our insurance through Wells Fargo Insurance Services and they cover our production insurance and equipment. You can't do serious shooting without production insurance anyway, and that covers equipment.
 
they did in my case. maybe there is a threshold of worth for an adjuster to come out. They came out at the location of my studio when I opened and then when I shut it down and moved home, they came out again (to add it to the home-owners policy)
Luis, I began with a commercial policy and then changed it when I moved home.
It was all the same company tho.
 
Interesting. I have the contents of my home insured for about $100,000, they never looked at any of it. My equipment is insured for about $100,000 as well. Not a huge amount but big enough I guess.
 
Yeah I highly recommend having photos of all of your gear and office setup (even if it's a home office). We were robbed earlier this year and had to file about a $15,000 claim with insurance for stolen goods and although the insurance company was great about dealing with it quickly and all, we still should have had pictures of the stuff. We had receipts for everything, fortunately, I'm meticulous about that. I had scanned in most of the receipts anyway, and the other ones I had in paper copy still.

Less than $1,000 a year Chris? That's awesome. We pay about $8,000 per year for full production insurance. I think it's a great deal still but it doesn't buy that much necessarily, I mean if we do more than a quarter-million dollars in production in a year then we have to pay extra for each amount above, etc. Obviously the big guys could exceed $250,000 on a single small project, i.e. one-day music video shoot or two-day shoot, etc. One commercial. But for us it's good enough for now and it can be expanded. It's all passed on to the client anyway.
 
If your spending $8k then you must have a couple of million in gear then.... For under $600 a year I've got $2mil in liability (upto $4 mil a year) and $80,000 of gear. Your probably overpaying.

Matthew
 
I use Insurance West. They are out of Simi Valley , California. Covers my trailer,contents,liability,additional rental equipment-when needed, any car or truck I rent.
As well as freelance hired help-especially if they f * & k up. $ 1500.00 year
 
It would be great if everyone could post who their insurance provider is.

I'd love to see a sticky on this topic and we each add the following:

1.) Insurance Company, including address and phone number
2.) Underwriter
3.) Annual fee
4.) Coverage
5.) Deductable
6.) Excemptions from policy
7.) Overall level of customer service (ie, how quickly do they issue certs for vendors? Do they charge extra to additionally insure? Are they polite?)
8.) If you've ever had to file a claim, what was the experience like?

That would help us all save a lot of money. If someone starts this I'll happily add mine...I've already paid up for the year, but I can always take note and go with someone else next year.
 
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