<p>Just found out that it is required at my son's college. I did search this forum, and found references to insurance, but I am wondering how much we should realistically expect to pay and if there are any advantages/disadvantages of getting a seperate policy vs a rider on our home insurance.</p>
<p>And how much is reasonable? He will likely have a couple or three instruments, possibly a tv or minifridge, and definately a laptop. Likely minimual cloths and other personal effect since he will only be an hour and a half away from home. I'm thinking around $6k would be reasonable. Am I in the right ballpark?</p>
<p>As far as being able to prove what he has, I assume that we should take pics. I am a little concerned about his trumpet though. He has a Bach Strad, but it was a strike instrument and was branded as a Bach Liberty which is worth about half as much as a strad. We had the instrument checked out by someone that I consider to be an expert, he confirmed that the instrument is a strad despite being stamped liberty. My concern is that if the instrument was to be lost/stolen/distroyed, we couldn't replace it for the insurance value of a Liberty, and it seems like it would be an uphill battle to make an arguement with the insurance company that it is a $2500 instrument and not a $1200 instrument when it is clearly labled Liberty. Real liberties were made with a two piece bell, this liberty is a one piece bell and is identical in every way to a stradivarious. Music and Arts had a contract with Bach when Bach had a strike, Bach couldn't produce Liberties due to the strike, but they had Strads on hand, so they stamped them Liberty and used them to fullfill their contract with Music and Arts (who was holding their feet to the fire). If he lost it, I'd hate to have to replace a strad labled as a liberty with a liberty labled as a liberty. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Also, would we need to itemize items? I'm personally not real big on insurance, in 7 years my son has never lost or damaged an instrument, so I don't think it is likely to happen now. But if I HAVE to purchase it, I would feel like a sucker if something did happen and for some reason we couldn't recover the full value (minus deductable) of whatever he lost.</p>
<p>We supplied our insurer with a complete list of all instruments, electronics and other items of value, including the make/model/year and estimated value. We keep that, together with images, on a spreadsheet. It’s a good practice to adopt ;)</p>
<p>Our rider for his items, despite their high value, was quite reasonable in cost.</p>
<p>In the case of the trumpet, I recommend you pay for the official appraisal of it by the individual who determined it was a strad. </p>
<p>Without sounding paranoid, I’d also recommend some of the anti-theft/locator programs for any mac/iphone/ipad items if you have any. </p>
<p>He’s been fortunate not to have had any issues in his dorm, but dorms represent a high theft opportunity in some places and can be targeted as such.</p>
<p>PS - Although the list may sound anal, I should mention that my husband’s practice of doing this and maintaining replacement value on his policy turned out to be an outstanding decision when needed – and faced a catastrophic basement/rec room loss due to a burst pipe. So I’m a convert now ;)</p>
<p>I’m seeing some prices online for $6k “dorm” insurance in the $135-$170 per year range. That sounds fairly reasonable to me and I don’t mind doing that.</p>
<p>Is there an advantage to having the insurance as a rider on our homeowners insurance plan? I’m sort of heasitant to contact our home insurance company as our rates have never been raised in 7 years and I don’t particularly want to bring that to their attention - our current rate is 30-35% cheaper than any other insurance company.</p>
<p>I have to provide the college with insurance info before he moves in a week from tomorrow, it’s an online form and only asks for a insurance number and for the contact info for the insurance company.</p>
<p>Hmm, “anti-theft/locator” sounds interesting, I will check into that.</p>
<p>Back in May, CLRN8MOM started a similar thread with some great info. I would link to it but do not have the skills to do so. Search the music major forum for “insurance” and the thread titled “Shopping for instrument insurance” should come up.</p>
<p>Thanks Momofbassist. I just looked at that thread, it does look like I may be better off not adding a rider to our homeowners coverage.</p>
<p>I guess at this point, after reading everything that I can find, my biggest concern is that any instruments are covered along with everything else in his dorm room. The college specifically requires that his dorm room is covered, but I want to also make sure that they same policy will serve for both dorm and instrument coverage (even if the instruments is not in his dorm at the time).</p>
<p>I guess there are many different ways of thinking about insurance. We have a $1000 deductible on our homeowners and have never insured any of our kids in dorms or apartments on the philosophy that you should not insure anything you can afford to replace. In the event that the entire apartment or dorm were destroyed or robbed, I suppose we would be out a lot of money, but the chances of that happening are slim enough that we take the gamble. As an example, with rounded-up numbers, a $150 policy for 16 college years (that’s our 4 kids) would come out to $2400. We have completed almost half of the 16 without any theft or loss that would be severe enough to initiate a claim. Maybe I would feel differently if my kids needed $3000 computers or cameras for school.</p>
<p>We do buy AppleCare for Mac laptops because the hard drives always fail. Our expensive instruments (strings) are insured through a specialty insurer. (We did make a two claims, years ago, with a former instrument insurer and were promptly dropped. The first claim was a a repair for a catastrophic accident that required a repair costing thousands. The second was a bow repair for a few hundred. Lesson learned. Better to eat the cost of a theft or accident and save the claims for truly catastrophic loss.) </p>
<p>Insurance companies make money by gambling that your premiums will outstrip your claims; if you make claims you may be dropped or face higher premiums. That said, I understand why parents might want to buy peace of mind in the form of small insurance policies.</p>
<p>My S’s college referred us to <a href=“http://www.CollegeStudentInsurance.com%5B/url%5D”>www.CollegeStudentInsurance.com</a> . I don’t know how good the company is but the cost was reasonable.</p>
<p>Glass, I pretty much have the same opinion on insurance. But in this case, the college requires the insurance and we have to fillout at a proof of insurance verification form.</p>
<p>I actually dropped my standard health care insurance ($500 deductibale 80/20 coverage with $20 copays) nearly 10 years ago when I discovered that I could get a $5,000 deducable major medical plan for $600/mth less. I’m saving $7200 per year on insurance, which more than pays the deductable for the major medical every single year. I deposit my savings into a HSA account, get a tax deduction for doing so, and it’s my money to use for any medical expenses for the rest of my life. It’s really a sweet deal. When people complain about the “healthcare crises”, I just laugh. It’s not really a crises, they just choose to purchase more insurance than what makes sense to anyone. It would be like complaining about the high cost on a Maserati - of course it’s expensive, but you could have picked out a cheaper car!</p>
<p>Linde - we just purchased insurance from that same company, I found a link to it on an old post. It was kind of irritating that they don’t post the complete terms of the policy on line, we called and they emailed it. Looked good to me, of course I’m no expert. the application process was easy and the coverage was immediate, they emailed the declarations page within minutes and I have already used it to fill out the college required proof of insurance form.</p>
<p>So now I’m thinking that everything that needed to be done has been done, but everytime I think that, I realize that there is something else to do.</p>
<p>SAT - done
Application - done
HS Transcripts - submitted
Audition - done
Academic acceptance - done
School of Music acceptance - done
FASA - done
Student loan acceptance form - done
Housing application form - done
Housing application fee - paid
Housing deposit - paid
Enrollment deposit - paid
Class registration - done
Parking permit - done
Online Alcohol Counciling class - done
Online Math Placement test - done
Online loan counciling class - done
In person language placement test -done
Health insurance waver - done
Dorm room insurance - done
Dorm assignment - done
touch base with roommates - done
Books - got 'em
Marching band music - got it
Wind ensemble audition music - got it
Marching band uniform measurements - done
Marching band contact card - mailed
Student “visual information page” login - got it
Student ID - done
Network login info - done
Advisor - assigned
Meal plan - selected
Summer orientation date request form - submitted
Summer orientation - done
Post office box - assigned
Final HS transcript - submitted</p>
<p>So now what are we forgetting? There’s gotta be something. Oh yea, still gotta pay the bill.</p>
<p>We use CSI and have musical instrument riders for both kids. We listed Son’s rider is $14000, daughter’s is also 14K come to think of it. You need a valid appraisal for a claim, bill of sale is fine. Son has a Euphonium and Bass Trombone on his, DD Flute and piccolo. Our total policy is for 19K each. Cost is $231 per kid (I think). Covers 12 month and traveling as well.</p>
<p>Imagep, I like the way you think. I’m still wrapping my mind around your solution for health insurance. And, what?!, the college insists on dorm insurance?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and how DO you pronounced “Imagep”?</p>
<p>The downside of my insurance solution is that high deductable major medical plans might not qualify as “insurance” under Obamacare. Although the solution works out perfectly for me, I may possibly be forced to change or to pay a fine for not having enough insurance.</p>
<p>Whole Foods went to a similar solution. They purchased high deductable policies at a great savings for all their employees. Then they give each employee $5,000 to deposit into their health care savings account, Whole Foods gets the tax deduction for the deposit and for the insurance. Then each employee gets to choose what docts they go to and how much of their HSA money they are willing to spend on healthcare. The employees apparently love this plan and Whole Foods actually found that they suddenly had less people calling in sick.</p>