Insurance -- the big discussion thread

Tom Hardwick · August 7th, 2006, 06:51 AM

Ian, you'll probably find the cheapest way is to add the camera as a named item on your household contents insurance.

Scott Devlin · October 3rd, 2006, 09:40 AM

Okay - I have all of my equipment including cameras, cranes, dollies, computers, etc...I also rent a house and it is all stored here. Where should i go for insurance for all of this stuff. What do you guys do? It is making me nervous traveling around to shoots and not having any insurance yet.

Don Bloom · October 3rd, 2006, 10:22 AM

I have very good luck with RVNuccio.com. It's all on line and they place policies thru Firemans Fund which is a very large insurance group. you can also get liability thru them. They're pretty reasonable.

Don B.

Josh Bass · October 3rd, 2006, 12:47 PM

State farm also does this, surprisingly. I had a policy with them a while ago, and then let it lapse 'cause I found out that they apparently didn't support using gear for business purposes, (even though they'd said they did when I explicitly asked them).

So I just got renters insurance, and got a new personal articles policy (this is what covers your gear), and for some reason, now it's okay that I use the gear for business. Around $15K of stuff insured for about $200 a year.

Josh Bass · October 4th, 2006, 11:26 PM

Ok, scratch that. I got a call from them yesterday saying the underwriters didn't wanna do it. . .thought it was too risky, and I got a quote for $330 a year for $12K of gear under their commercial policy. I dunno if I'll go for it.

Don Bloom · October 5th, 2006, 06:01 AM

For about the same money you can get your gear covered AND get $1mm in liability thru Nuccio. I don't work for them but I do "shill" for them as they have been the fairest price wise I've seen in a long time. Do I know how good they are in a claim? No because I haven't had to file a claim EVER with any insurance company in over 20 years. Just luck I guess but if you use common sense and are just a bit vigilant there is a better than even chance you will never have to file a claim either BUT...I digress;-)

RVNuccio seems to me at this time to have the best thing going maybe I'm wrong.

Don

Josh Bass · October 5th, 2006, 08:30 AM

Yeah, I saw that. . .

Looks like I could get all my gear covered for around $250? Crazy!

The thought of itemizing everything again makes me groan, however. Do they really need dates purchased and all that? I was kinda younger and dumber in those days, and didn't save most receipts.

Don Bloom · October 5th, 2006, 08:45 AM

Get the month and year as close as possible and you should be OK. Itemizing is a pain but it's the only way to be accurate. What I had done was to go thru all my stuff, write down what it is, the serial number and then the month and year purchased on a legal pad so when I was typing the form(s) it went pretty quick.

Good Luck,

Don

Josh Bass · October 5th, 2006, 10:05 AM

Luckily, when I didn't know state farm was gonna shaft me, I went through all my gear and wrote down serial numbers and whatnot. So I have most of the info, just not dates purchased. I could maybe give year. . .no idea what month most of of this stuff was.

Joseph Olesh · November 17th, 2006, 01:21 PM

i've invested in a mac book pro, hvx200, and a still camera this past year. i'm looking into renting out the hvx, and i know i'll be using my laptop as a field monitor-leaving it open to damage.

my question is how have you guys gotten your equipment insured? do you rent out your equipment? i have about $12000 worth of equiptment i'd like to get insured, is that enough?

thanks for your help.

joe.

Boyd Ostroff · November 17th, 2006, 01:56 PM

Welcome to DVinfo Joseph. I've moved this thread to our business forum. The insurance question has been discussed pretty thoroughly in the past, see the following threads:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=60744
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=59436
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=53920
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=10475

Since you plan to rent out your camera you are definitely operating a business. Be sure to tell this to your agent since it will have an effect on the type of coverage required. Probably also a good idea to discuss with your tax accountant.

Ken Diewert · November 23rd, 2006, 12:54 PM

I've been trying to find reasonably priced insurance (equipment and liability) for a reasonable price in Canada.

The best I can get is $1295.00 a year. That covers $13k wort of equipment and $500k worth of liability. With a $1k deductible. Pretty basic coverage for that price.

I've called WEVA, as they have group insurance rates, and they don't offer insurance to Canadians yet.

Anybody know of any specialty insurers that would offer coverage?

Thanks.

Michael Dalton · December 1st, 2006, 10:03 AM

Best option is to get a rider policy on your home insurence, I got something on mine with state farm and only pay $300 or so. You pay double for business. This covers anything from droping it in a river to theft.

hope this helps

Michael

Ken Diewert · December 6th, 2006, 11:58 PM

Michael,

I've had brokers looking all over for me, they tell me if I was doing it for a hobby it's OK, but pro... Also, I've got the H1, which is about 12k CDN to replace. My homeowners policy would only cover me for up to 5k worth of camera gear.

I'll try State Farm though.

Thanks,

Ken.

Frank Granovski · December 8th, 2006, 04:37 AM

TD/Canada Trust, VanCity, to name a couple. As mentioned, you get a rider on your home/apt insurance. Vancity are brokers, so they'll find the cheapest rate. That would probably be ING Direct as the insurer. TD would be just slightly more. Also check out PC Financial (SuperStore).

October 3rd, 2006, 09:40 AM	#287
Scott Devlin New Boot Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Wakarusa, IN Posts: 13	Insurance for Equipment Okay - I have all of my equipment including cameras, cranes, dollies, computers, etc...I also rent a house and it is all stored here. Where should i go for insurance for all of this stuff. What do you guys do? It is making me nervous traveling around to shoots and not having any insurance yet.

October 3rd, 2006, 12:47 PM	#289
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	State farm also does this, surprisingly. I had a policy with them a while ago, and then let it lapse 'cause I found out that they apparently didn't support using gear for business purposes, (even though they'd said they did when I explicitly asked them). So I just got renters insurance, and got a new personal articles policy (this is what covers your gear), and for some reason, now it's okay that I use the gear for business. Around $15K of stuff insured for about $200 a year. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 4th, 2006, 11:26 PM	#290
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Ok, scratch that. I got a call from them yesterday saying the underwriters didn't wanna do it. . .thought it was too risky, and I got a quote for $330 a year for $12K of gear under their commercial policy. I dunno if I'll go for it. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 5th, 2006, 08:30 AM	#292
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Yeah, I saw that. . . Looks like I could get all my gear covered for around $250? Crazy! The thought of itemizing everything again makes me groan, however. Do they really need dates purchased and all that? I was kinda younger and dumber in those days, and didn't save most receipts. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 5th, 2006, 10:05 AM	#294
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Luckily, when I didn't know state farm was gonna shaft me, I went through all my gear and wrote down serial numbers and whatnot. So I have most of the info, just not dates purchased. I could maybe give year. . .no idea what month most of of this stuff was. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

August 7th, 2006, 06:51 AM	#286
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Ian, you'll probably find the cheapest way is to add the camera as a named item on your household contents insurance.

October 3rd, 2006, 10:22 AM	#288
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	I have very good luck with RVNuccio.com. It's all on line and they place policies thru Firemans Fund which is a very large insurance group. you can also get liability thru them. They're pretty reasonable. Don B.

October 5th, 2006, 06:01 AM	#291
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	For about the same money you can get your gear covered AND get $1mm in liability thru Nuccio. I don't work for them but I do "shill" for them as they have been the fairest price wise I've seen in a long time. Do I know how good they are in a claim? No because I haven't had to file a claim EVER with any insurance company in over 20 years. Just luck I guess but if you use common sense and are just a bit vigilant there is a better than even chance you will never have to file a claim either BUT...I digress;-) RVNuccio seems to me at this time to have the best thing going maybe I'm wrong. Don

October 5th, 2006, 08:45 AM	#293
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	Get the month and year as close as possible and you should be OK. Itemizing is a pain but it's the only way to be accurate. What I had done was to go thru all my stuff, write down what it is, the serial number and then the month and year purchased on a legal pad so when I was typing the form(s) it went pretty quick. Good Luck, Don

November 17th, 2006, 01:21 PM	#295
Joseph Olesh Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Washington D.C. Posts: 33	insurance? i've invested in a mac book pro, hvx200, and a still camera this past year. i'm looking into renting out the hvx, and i know i'll be using my laptop as a field monitor-leaving it open to damage. my question is how have you guys gotten your equipment insured? do you rent out your equipment? i have about $12000 worth of equiptment i'd like to get insured, is that enough? thanks for your help. joe. __________________ di bernardi productions. san luis obispo, ca.

November 17th, 2006, 01:56 PM	#296
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	Welcome to DVinfo Joseph. I've moved this thread to our business forum. The insurance question has been discussed pretty thoroughly in the past, see the following threads: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=60744 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=59436 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=53920 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=10475 Since you plan to rent out your camera you are definitely operating a business. Be sure to tell this to your agent since it will have an effect on the type of coverage required. Probably also a good idea to discuss with your tax accountant.

November 23rd, 2006, 12:54 PM	#297
Ken Diewert Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Vancouver Island, Canada Posts: 1,200	Insurance for Canadian Equipment??? I've been trying to find reasonably priced insurance (equipment and liability) for a reasonable price in Canada. The best I can get is $1295.00 a year. That covers $13k wort of equipment and $500k worth of liability. With a $1k deductible. Pretty basic coverage for that price. I've called WEVA, as they have group insurance rates, and they don't offer insurance to Canadians yet. Anybody know of any specialty insurers that would offer coverage? Thanks. __________________ C100, 5DMk2, FCPX

December 1st, 2006, 10:03 AM	#298
Michael Dalton Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Torotnto, Canada Posts: 139	Best option is to get a rider policy on your home insurence, I got something on mine with state farm and only pay $300 or so. You pay double for business. This covers anything from droping it in a river to theft. hope this helps Michael __________________ www.digitalcrossing.ca www.4kafrica.com documentary filmmaker/screen writer

December 6th, 2006, 11:58 PM	#299
Ken Diewert Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Vancouver Island, Canada Posts: 1,200	Michael, I've had brokers looking all over for me, they tell me if I was doing it for a hobby it's OK, but pro... Also, I've got the H1, which is about 12k CDN to replace. My homeowners policy would only cover me for up to 5k worth of camera gear. I'll try State Farm though. Thanks, Ken. __________________ C100, 5DMk2, FCPX

December 8th, 2006, 04:37 AM	#300
Frank Granovski Outer Circle Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hope, BC Posts: 7,524	TD/Canada Trust, VanCity, to name a couple. As mentioned, you get a rider on your home/apt insurance. Vancity are brokers, so they'll find the cheapest rate. That would probably be ING Direct as the insurer. TD would be just slightly more. Also check out PC Financial (SuperStore).