Hello Everyone, Over the years my wife and I have accumulated quite a lot of equipment. Replacement costs would be pretty close to 80k. My biggest fear is losing equipment either traveling or getting into a car crash where I have been told by my auto insurance they will not cover anywhere near all of the gear. I know I can have it scheduled on my insurance policy, but I feel like for the sake of simplicity, should I decide to switch homeowners insurance, it might be nice to have a third party cover it. However, most of what I see is catered towards photography businesses which I do not have. Do you insure your gear? Who writes your policy? What do they cover? How much are you insuring? What state do you live in? What are your approximate premiums? Cheers, Andrew
I have a personal articles policy PAP with State Farm. I have about 30k worth of coverage and it's only around $300 a year. Whenever I get something new or trade something in I just email the receipt to my agent and let him know what I traded in to remove and it gets updated, all pretty easy and well worth it.
Thank you! Do they cover replacement cost? Or just what you paid? I was very fortunate and got a fantastic deal on a couple lenses, but the price on the receipt would never come close to a replacement should something happen.
something else to note, if you are down as a hobby / non paid photographer and you later decide to make a calendar or something as small and insignificant which you get a bit of money from you will want to check this with your insurer, i have seen a few smudgers get burnt this way as they got rejected a claim (water drop) because the insurer said they were using the gear to make money therefore it came under commercial just a heads up on that one
I have not insured my equipment and like you It has a large price tag if i lost my digital, large format, medium format and 35mm systems. I have thought about and looked at about selectively covering my most expensive cameras and lenses as a rider of sorts on my homeowners policy, like mentioned above you could get that covered for a few hundred a year. You may be able to find one of the bigger names in photo coverage have a similarly priced hobbyist policy. In the end its all about risk tolerance. Unless my house burns down I wont likely loose the whole thing and targeting specific gear and price range becomes difficult line to draw on a depreciating set of assets. I would consider looking at adding a travel insurance coverage if you bring gear on a major trip abroad, your risk of damage and theft goes way up. Personally I have also thought about getting a nice safe at home to store my gear to cover theft/disaster.
