Do You Buy Added Insurance for Your Keyboards & Equipment?

[Old No7]

Something made me think of this the other day...  Maybe it was another GAS attack...

 

Even if you're not gigging regularly in a band or as a solo act, I think that many of us have thou$andS of $$ invested in (or is it "spent on"?) keyboards, speakers, amps, mixers, pedals, cables, recording equipment, DAWs, etc. -- but I'm thinking that most homeowners policies would have "exclusions" for covering all that, especially the big-ticket keyboards, just like they typically do for jewelry or firearms collections.

 

So...

 

Do you buy added insurance for your keyboards & equipment?

 

Curious to see the replies to this, thanks!

 

Old No7

 

[TJ Cornish]

YMM(Massively)V, but for me:

 

If I’m using my gear to make money - e.g., paid gigs, that should be covered as a line item, and for that matter, getting something to the effect of “DJ” insurance that includes some personal liability if someone trips over your cord is a good idea.

 

If your gear is used in your home for pleasure only, you may not need additional insurance as it’s considered personal property. Obviously check with your agent as this I’m sure differs for each company and possibly each state.

[JamPro]

I have car and home-owner's insurance in case of accident, fire and/or other contingencies.

 

When asked by the sales-people if I want to purchase supplemental insurance for a given item I am buying, I always ask: "Is that thing I'm buying made so poorly you expect it to break soon?"  The answer is always a hurried "no".

 

Consumer Reports tells us such point-of-sales insurance plans are little more than a way to get more money out of consumers, and most consumers never need to (or worse, forget to) file a claim, and often find they do not get the benefit they expected if they do file a claim.

 

I try to buy stuff I think will last; if I don't think it is well made, I buy another brand/model.  For accidents, I have car and home insurance, which handles the big stuff. 

 

My calculation is that any insurance that covers "drunk guy spilled a beer on my keyboards" is not cost-effective.  

[TJ Cornish]

6 minutes ago, JamPro said:

I have car and home-owner's insurance in case of accident, fire and/or other contingencies.

 

When asked by the sales-people if I want to purchase supplemental insurance for a given item I am buying, I always ask: "Is that thing I'm buying made so poorly you expect it to break soon?"  The answer is always a hurried "no".

 

Consumer Reports tells us such point-of-sales insurance plans are little more than a way to get more money out of consumers, and most consumers never need to (or worse, forget to) file a claim, and often find they do not get the benefit they expected if they do file a claim.

 

I try to buy stuff I think will last; if I don't think it is well made, I buy another brand/model.  For accidents, I have car and home insurance, which handles the big stuff. 

 

My calculation is that any insurance that covers "drunk guy spilled a beer on my keyboards" is not cost-effective.  

I totally agree on store insurance policies; I think the question was about homeowners insurance, which while certainly better than the retail scam, still has enough loopholes that some investigation is necessary.

[lightbg]

I’m covered for 30K by MusicPro insurance. My premium is less than 1% of that, and I don’t have every item covered. If the house burns down I know I’m not hand carrying a B-3  and a pair of 122’s on my back………..

 

Jake

[DJkeys]

35 minutes ago, lightbg said:

I’m covered for 30K by MusicPro insurance. My premium is less than 10%of that, and I don’t have every item covered. If the house burns down I know I’m not hand carrying a B-3  and a pair of 122’s on my back………..

 

Jake

I have had separate music gear insurance forever.  It was necessary when we were touring, and now it gives me peace of mind for the gigs I do now.  MusicPro covers full replacement value, been using them as well now for many years.  It is reasonably priced and easy to update and amend your list of covered gear.

 

-dj

[mcgoo]

If you make money with your gear, homeowners insurance won't cover it. You need an Inland Marine policy. You also want to learn the difference between Actual Cash Value and Replacement Cost. You want the latter unless you're ok with an insurance adjuster saying your Wurlitzer 200 is discontinued so it's almost worthless. Check out Clarion Insurance. Insurance for musicians. Surprisingly affordable. 

[Steve Nathan]

I've had coverage through a partner program offered by the AFM.  $1 per $100 if value is cheap peace of mind.

[Moonglow]

I’ve had insurance for my gear pretty much as long as I’ve been playing out (40+ years). I use the same company as my home and auto insurance. I provide my agent with a list of the items I want covered including the replacement cost for each item, and update it periodically. I understand that insurance provides protection for relatively low-probability events, and fortunately, I’ve never had to file a claim for any of my equipment. However, I have been a victim of auto theft, and find comfort in knowing I’m covered should this occur with my vehicle loaded with gear.

[The Real MC]

I never bought equipment insurance for 30+ years, but after moving to the house I plan to retire in I am seriously considering it.  I have a home studio.  The primary risk is fire (I don't smoke) and I have a lot of irreplaceable vintage gear.  I'm also in a hurricane zone in FL.

 

I'm not worried about theft.  I practice "out of sight, out of mind" and you see nothing if you're looking through any windows.  I don't broadcast my collection to local friends either.  If I do have services like cat sitters in the house while I am away, my 3rd bedroom with the easily stolen gear - like guitars - is locked while I am away.  The studio is not locked but there is next to nothing small or lightweight that can be easily stolen.  Even the mics are locked with the guitars.

[CEB]

I always had gear insurance through the musician's union. (AFM).  I never had to collect so I don't know how good the coverage really was.

[ElmerJFudd]

If it’s used for your livelihood, would be a significant cost to replace and you store it someplace other than your home (a warehouse, a storage facility, a van), you should have insurance on it.  
 

If it’s worth like a thousand or two and you replace it every few seasons as a depreciated business expense. 🤷‍♂️ I’m not sure it’s worth insuring.  
 

If you have an acoustic piano of great value in the home that would not be covered with your home insurance - like say a $25k+ instrument, you should have additional insurance.  Not so much for theft, but loss in fire or flood.  

[mcgoo]

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

If it’s worth like a thousand or two and you replace it every few seasons as a depreciated business expense. 🤷‍♂️ I’m not sure it’s worth insuring.  

 

I find Steve's point of $1 cost per $100 value to be accurate. That's $20 / yr for a $2k instrument. Methinks it's worth it. 

[Old No7]

Thanks for the responses above.

 

And yes, I wasn't 100% clear, but I was thinking of homeowner's insurance to cover any loss from water, smoke of that F word (rhymes with "ire") that I pray I avoid (a lady at work lost her house 6 months ago cause her song had too many items plugged into 1 outlet...).

 

Good point about Actual Cash Value versus Replacement Cost.

 

All these posts remind me about something I'd heard back in business school decades ago -- "The first rule of insurance is don't risk a lot for a little."  Conversely, don't risk a little and pay a lot!

 

Old No7

[ksoper]

7 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

I've had coverage through a partner program offered by the AFM.  $1 per $100 if value is cheap peace of mind.

 

Ditto.  Within days of initial coverage I had a keyboard stolen out of the jazz club on Pleasure Island/Disney World. Happiest place on earth my ass.  The AFM insurance had my back.  

[Synthaholic]

I had to buy insurance for a few years, but it wasn't to cover my gear; it was to cover the venue I played at regularly, believe it or not, in case somehow my equipment caused a fire, or someone tripped over a cord, and other BS. I had never heard of such a thing. And this was at a massive events venue inside a college football stadium, all brick and concrete, that hosted a lot of weddings and high school reunions, etc. I played there often enough that it was worth it, until it wasn't when I got tired of all their silly and insulting rules, and also found out that bands from out of town who came to play a one-off event weren't being required to carry insurance.

[Mark Zeger]

I have an expensive trumpet and planned to ship it to its builder for routine maintenance. FedEx wouldn’t insure it in transit for more than $1,000 so my insurance agent sold me replacement value coverage for around $90/yr.

 

Maybe 18 months later, the horn fell onto a hardwood floor and was damaged. I worried about whether it could be repaired. The builder was able to fix it perfectly and the insurance covered everything including round trip shipping with $0 deductible. 

[cassdad]

Yes - I understand the argument FOR insurance;  seems to be the general consensus here.  However, I was raised differently - with the applicable motto being “don’t be insurance poor”.  It’s easy to get caught up in the game of playing it safe, “peace of mind”, and spend, spend, spend on insurance.  That’s why insurance companies are so profitable.  I guarantee you that any insurance offered takes in more money for the insurance company than they pay out.

 

My Dad sat me down one day, and we ran the math looking at it over let’s say a 30-year time period:  “How much do you spend on XXXX (house insurance, car insurance, etc)?”  And then:  “How much has it ever paid you?”

 

He always self-insured on everything.  (And yes, for example, if you check with your DMV, self-insuring is an option for auto insurance.  You simply basically pledge some bank savings as a “bond”.)  Even after having a fire in his bar business - it was always, LONG-TERM, less expensive to just take the hit and pay for the damage himself as opposed to the cost of insurance.

 

Of course, one can cite a situation where insurance was / is a life-saver.  We each have different tolerance levels for risk.  I’m just saying that after many decades of owning musical equipment, knock on wood - in my case I’ve never had any expensive equipment stolen or damaged.  Just lucky I guess, and yes, that could change tomorrow.  But perhaps, being able to bank that premium money myself over all those years allowed me to afford new equipment.  Just giving another perspective.  YMMV.

[analogika]

I used to have insurance only on the instruments I actively used to make a living. 

Two building explosions and two instances of water damage later, I am much the wiser: 

 

Over a period of twenty years, I kept picking up stuff here and there for a couple of Euros — a package deal here, somebody threw an old FX unit at me for a crate of beer, stuff like that. So it never felt like much "value" to me, beyond the love of the vintage gear itself. 

 

The bread and butter were only a handful of keyboards, so those were insured. 

 

Then the building blew up where they were in storage, and everything I didn't happen to have at home or in repair was destroyed and/or stolen. 

And then I sat down and tallied up the value, and it came up close to the down payment on a house. 

And it wasn't insured. 

The very next day, I listed up EVERYTHING I still have — whether actively used for gigs or not — pulled up current value, and insured it. All of it. 

For stationary equipment, it's 0.5% of recovery value/year, for stuff I move around, it's 1%. That includes the laptop and iPad, both of which have been replaced after damage with zero hassle in the past. 

[Steve Nathan]

10 hours ago, cassdad said:

Yes - I understand the argument FOR insurance;  seems to be the general consensus here.  However, I was raised differently - with the applicable motto being “don’t be insurance poor”.  It’s easy to get caught up in the game of playing it safe, “peace of mind”, and spend, spend, spend on insurance.  That’s why insurance companies are so profitable.  I guarantee you that any insurance offered takes in more money for the insurance company than they pay out.

 

My Dad sat me down one day, and we ran the math looking at it over let’s say a 30-year time period:  “How much do you spend on XXXX (house insurance, car insurance, etc)?”  And then:  “How much has it ever paid you?”

 

He always self-insrnados, hurricanes, ured on everything.  (And yes, for example, if you check with your DMV, self-insuring is an option for auto insurance.  You simply basically pledge some bank savings as a “bond”.)  Even after having a fire in his bar business - it was always, LONG-TERM, less expensive to just take the hit and pay for the damage himself as opposed to the cost of insurance.

 

Of course, one can cite a situation where insurance was / is a life-saver.  We each have different tolerance levels for risk.  I’m just saying that after many decades of owning musical equipment, knock on wood - in my case I’ve never had any expensive equipment stolen or damaged.  Just lucky I guess, and yes, that could change tomorrow.  But perhaps, being able to bank that premium money myself over all those years allowed me to afford new equipment.  Just giving another perspective.  YMMV.

It costs me $500//year to insure a $50,000 piano from a house fire or other disasters.  Are you suggesting that, I should set another $50,000 aside in a bond of some sort instead?  I'll take the $500/year peace of mind. It will take a Hundred years to have paid the Insurance company more than its value.

[JohnH]

Gigging every weekend, i had Music pro for awhile and going to re add it in 2024. It is also a tax write off.

[Stokely]

The entire state of Fl is a hurricane zone, albeit mostly not for the rising water thing (which is the kind that can remove even your foundations).  I say "mostly" because friends near Orlando had to take kayaks to get to their house for weeks, they were near the St. Johns River floodplains which backed up all to hell.    If i had any big oaks near my house--I'd take them down, personally, before they come down.  Saw thousands of them down across cars, houses and streets after Charley in 2004.

This thread has been eye-opening.  I've been wondering about insurance.  As a weekend warrior who doesn't make a living at it--but who makes a few thousand a year--I might be in some weird in-between position.  I don't have an expensive piano or anything like that, but all added up (even considering cables) the stuff I'd lose in a fire would be quite a bit.

To confuse things further, my band had to get insurance to do some resort gigs so I'm not sure if I'd be covered there when I'm not playing at those resorts.   All stuff to check into.  

[mcgoo]

2 hours ago, Stokely said:

To confuse things further, my band had to get insurance to do some resort gigs so I'm not sure if I'd be covered there when I'm not playing at those resorts. 

 

I would bet that was liability insurance, in which case no, it wouldn't cover your gear. If the venue makes you get insurance, they're making sure your negligence won't cost them. 

 

Here's a little bit I've picked up over the years. Many Insurance companies have Inland Marine policies (policies that cover equipment used in your business). Many agencies will NOT want to offer it to you unless they're already getting your home and auto business. Most of those Inland Marine policies are going to be Actual Cash Value as opposed to Replacement Cost. As I've said before, Replacement Cost is better, especially if you have vintage gear. This is where a company like Clarion is so good, or whatever the AFM offers. They are companies specializing in musical instrument insurance. When I first looked into Clarion, I was bracing for sticker shock, but was surprised that they were actually cheaper than the ACV policy I had with the company that also had my homeowners and auto policies. 

[Polkahero]

I have a rider for all of my music gear on our home owners insurance.  Runs around $200/year for probably around $40k in equipment, covered even if it leaves the house.

[TJ Cornish]

1 hour ago, Polkahero said:

I have a rider for all of my music gear on our home owners insurance.  Runs around $200/year for probably around $40k in equipment, covered even if it leaves the house.

Might want to check to make sure that is still the case if you do any gigs for money. That matters a lot with my insurance. A business policy is needed to cover equipment used for business.

[mauriziodececco]

A few years ago, we had a concert with my jazz/funk group; we invited a friend band to do a couple of songs during the break; the singer put a one pint glass of beer on my then shine new Nord Electro. The morning after i subscribed an insurance for all my instruments, covering accidents and theft in concerts and rehearsals 😎

[Delaware Dave]

no, i've just treated my stuff with kid gloves over 40 years even using soft cases for my keys.  only exception is when i've had to fly the boards...the money ive saved i could  buy my whole rig brand new again.

 

[kpl1228]

Thought about this very thing when I re-did my rental insurance policy last week. On the road a hundred years ago I insured everything separate thru an inland marine policy when I gigged full-time: the agent now says that since those days are done I'm fine and they'll treat the keyboards in my apartment like nice furniture or jewelry, but to take photos and receipts for my records and they'll cover it as if it was a table or a nice watch. No additional coverage or rider necessary.

[Old No7]

4 hours ago, kpl1228 said:

...they'll treat the keyboards in my apartment like nice furniture or jewelry, but to take photos and receipts for my records and they'll cover it as if it was a table or a nice watch. No additional coverage or rider necessary.

 

Kurt, that might mean actual (depreciated) cash value, not replacement cost.  Might be worth it to confirm which.

 

As that Mojo 61 you have is priceless!

 

Old No7

[analogika]

"Actual cash value", at least here, is figured as "price paid as invoiced minus depreciation of X% per year over Y years", which on, say, a 1968 Hammond, works out to, literally, a hunk of wood and a handful of screws and sheet metal. 

Also worth noting that full "replacement cost" of gear in my insurance is only reimbursed if you actually replace it. If you don't, depreciation is subtracted off the replacement cost. For vintage gear that you won't or can't replace, this can be avoided by getting an expert appraisal, but that adds extra cost you need to be aware of.