<p>I am looking for insurance for my D's bassoon. She has it at school in her dorm room. I have a high deductible on my homeowner's policy, so I would prefer to have a stand-alone policy for it. I did find a firm called Heritage Insurance Services. Any info on them? Any other leads? Thanks.</p>
<p>Try your regular home-owner agent. Most policies allow you to add instrument as a rider for an extra fee. If instrument is used professionally it costs a bit more. Good luck.</p>
<p>Does your daughter belong to the International Double Reed Society? Student membership is $35 per year and they have a group insurance plan through Clarion for 66 cents per year per $100 of coverage, which includes professional-grade all-risk worldwide coverage. Note that there may be some minimum policy cost if you are covering less than $10K or so worth of instruments.</p>
<p>You can also go to Clarion directly (<a href="http://www.clarionins.com%5B/url%5D">www.clarionins.com</a>) but the rates would probably be better through a group policy, perhaps by enough to offset the $35 annual membership to IDRS.</p>
<p>Call Clarion to confirm before you jon IDRS, however. I tried to obtain coverage through Clarion via our Early Music America membership, but was told that they would not cover double basses in the posession of anyone under 21 years of age. No way, no how, no exceptions. Hopefully, things are different with bassoons.</p>
<p>Just insured D's clarinets and saxophone through my State Farm homeowner policy and paid $0.54 per $1000, so $0.66 per $100 seems VERY steep (> 10X steep).</p>
<p>Maybe a typo there BassDad?</p>
<p>Does the State Farm policy include coverage outside the home? How about if the instruments are being used at a paid gig? How about if it is being transported in someone else's car or in a school bus? What if it is checked aboard an airplane not as a carry-on? I can't imagine that anyone would insure, say, a $10K instrument for $5.40 per year unless the coverage has some very serious limitations.</p>
<p>The cost of the insurance I mentioned was not a typo but it covers all risks, worldwide plus replacement costs, loaner costs, lost income coverage if you miss a gig because you don't have your axe, newly aquired instruments not listed on the policy for up to 30 days, borrowed instruments, etc... Perhaps that is overkill for the OP, but I think it is reasonable for someone who uses the instrument in situations not covered by the typical homeowners policy.</p>
<p>I'm the one with the wrong digit, State Farm was $0.54 per $100, not 1000!!! Math higher functions not working today.</p>
<p>Anyway, State Farm good for student away from home in a dorm and gigs; agent said only need professional coverage when you are a professional and have no student credentials. </p>
<p>Regardless, now that I've got the math correct, the extra $0.12 per $100 is a good deal with Clarion. I will definitely look into that next year.</p>
<p>This was great timing. I was also looking for insurance for D's instrument at college and just about to go with our home insurers. I checked the Clarion web site and while very impressed, the page for exclusions was not available. I called their phone #, and one exclusion for theft is when the instrument is left in a locker. This may present a problem, I thought a locked locker in a music building would be safer than a dorm room where only the door into the room could be locked. Not always, since Clarion said lockers were high risk for theft. So now D needs to decide where she will be keeping her instrument. Guess the safest place for an instrument depends on school and instrument size. Clarion's policy does sound great, but will check the exclusions with our home insurers to see if lockers are excluded.</p>
<p>We also carry extra riders on our homeowners insurance, and yes, the instruments are covered wherever they are (here, at school, on the road, etc). The extra rider is for theft AND loss. It is important to have coverage for both. Unless you can prove theft (car or apt broken into or something of that kind), an instrument that gets lost is simply LOSS and this is not covered by a theft only policy. Also insure for the replacement value cost if you can. This does cost a bit more, but our daughter's instruments were both purchased used (and we got very good deals). It is unlikely that we would be able to replace them with other used instruments quickly. Thus we have replacement value insurance...if the instrument gets stolen or lost, we can order the SAME one as a replacement, new.</p>
<p>I recently bought two Pacsafe locking devices for our daughter's instrument and my camera gear for when we travel. They are very lightweight, fold up into a small bag, but quite secure when installed over the instrument/camera bags. It would take a bolt cutter to gain access to the contents and you lock it around a permanent fixture so the item can't be carried off. It would be a little bit of a hassle to use multiple times a day, but may help if your child is away from her instrument for a longer period of time.<br>
<a href="http://www.pac-safe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=11%5B/url%5D">http://www.pac-safe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=11</a></p>
<p>This is not a replacement for insurance, but just an added safeguard.</p>
<p>We have CSI (College Student Insurance). It was suggested to us by Juilliard. It covers locked lockers among other things. We did have to submit an appraisal for his instruments. We also have his laptop on the policy. (And that's all - we didn't insure all his stuff.) I don't have the policy in front of me, but I think this is the right web site:</p>
<p>I believe the rider on our insurance policy (Met Life) was about $24 for $10K protection. I had to have the insturment professionaly appraised to get the coverage (that cost about $80).</p>
<p>We had to have our instruments professionally appraised also. BUT we do so much business with the instrument shop that there was no charge!</p>