Our daughter’s musical instrument insurance is through Anderson Musical Instrument Insurance Solutions. My daughter has a very expensive flute and travels with it often. It’s important that it is covered. This insurance even covers fee flute if she travels internationally with it.
The countrywide common renter’s coverage price for coverage with recommended insurance levels of $forty,000 for personal belongings, a $1,000 deductible and $a hundred,000 of legal responsibility protection is $197, or about $17 a month, in keeping with an Insurance.Com fee analysis. But this is just one set of coverage limits.
We’ve done it both ways…a rider for the instruments…or a separate policy. In both cases you will need a recent appraisal for the instrument. I would suggest you get theft AND loss insurance.
Regular renters insurance had a net cost of $0 because it was bundled with kids auto insurance and then bundle reduced the total cost by about the amount of the renters. This did not include instruments.
My DS has insurance on his instruments as well as his extensive collection of music. If there was ever a flood or fire, the music would be very costly to replace.
So music insurance can cover sheet music, as well? Yes, I will try to figure out how to get the cello appraised by someone local.
Also, I couldn’t quite make out the numbers @abhirasal’s post, but it looks like the proposed policy from our insurer covers only 15K of personal property. I think that’s sufficient because my son really only has cello, bows, older phone, and a laptop worth anything, but is 15K too low?
And is that theft and loss insurance for the instrument, @thumper1?
Make sure you ask if the insurance will cover the cello if your son uses it for jobs/gigs. Our homeowners insurance would not cover our kids’ cellos if they were using it for business/gigs. So my S now has a separate insurance policy for his cello and bows through total dollar. I did a lot of research when we first purchased that policy, there is some variability with the various companies on what they will cover. For example, one company would not cover theft out of a locker and at the time my S routinely kept his cello in a locker at the music school.
When we did have the cellos on our homeowners insurance it cost $46/year to cover $14,000 worth of two cellos and bows.
I think my kid uses Clarion…maybe still does.
This is not from Clarion…but yes, sheet music can be covered, although doing the inventory took my kid a long time. In addition to instruments, other equipment is also insured.
You need to check each vendor to see what they cover.
Homeowners and regular renters insurance did NOT cover for professional gigs (anything paid).
Theft is when someone breaks in and steals your stuff.
Loss is when you leave it sitting someplace and someone walks off with it.
Get both.
Don’t undervalue the amount of “stuff” your child has. We tend to think about the big ticket items like computers, TVs, etc. but what about everything else? If the apartment burned down how much would it cost to replace all clothing down to socks and underwear? What about pots, pans, dishware, etc.? We tend not to think about the daily use items as they are acquired over time so there is no real cost associated with them until they all have to be replaced at once.
I typically deal with decent grads in this and they always assume they have no more than $10,000 in “stuff”. They mention TV, computer, Xbox, etc. I then ask then how many suits they have? How many pairs of jeans? How many shoes (big for women). Suddenly a $500 suit plus the shorts and ties and shoes to go with it is $1,000. 5+ pairs of shoes is another $1,000. casual clothes and workout clothes works out to be another $1,000. Suddenly, without getting into any big ticket items 30% of the insurance limit is gone. Renters insurance is cheap, don’t scrimp.
Ok, so here’s the reply I got that makes me think I need a separate insurance for the musical instrument. (gak- all these additional costs; oh well):
This is one of those tough, grey areas! I am not a claims adjuster so I cannot say when coverage will and will not extend, but I can say there is the potential a claim can be denied. I’ll use the example of if the cello is damaged at a paid gig. During the claims process this information is provided and Farmers determines it has been used for other paid gigs - the claim could be denied. This is just a scenario, and the claim could still very well be honored/paid, however in our experience when personal items (musical instruments, cameras, etc.) are used to generate money a business policy is usually needed. As you mentioned the cello is not his full time profession so I would like to think coverage will extend, but perhaps the stand alone policy will be a better option.
So I guess I’ll go with renter’s insurance through Farmer’s, which is our homeowners/ auto, and then Total Dollar for instrument insurance.
I’m in the process of getting renter’s insurance because we are downsizing into an apartment.
A policy with $20K in personal possessions, $300K in liability, $5K in medical payments, and $4K in loss of use, with a $1000 deductible, will cost us $139.
We have a rider to cover jewelry because the standard amount is way too low.
And I have a separate musical instrument policy with Heritage, because 1) the value of my instrument is far in excess of what the homeowners/renters insurance will cover, 2) musical instrument insurance provides far better coverage with a far lower or zero deductible, and 3) if you get paid for performing even once your insurance company could (probably will!) deny the claim and then you have a fight on your hands.
Instrument insurance is cheap, the first $25K or so of coverage usually costs around $150 or so (there is usually a minimum cost of $150 or so even if you have less than $25K).
IIRC the college-geared insurance is probably better if you can get it because it covers cell phone and laptop damage for any cause, my DD got her iPhone replaced when it got wet in a rainstorm. I don’t think a normal renter’s policy would cover that.
My son told me that he likely won’t be doing paid gigs since he’ll be too busy but if he did, he said he would use his teacher’s cello (she’s letting him use a much nicer cello during his time at school). I wonder if I need separate musical instrument insurance after all, then.
I will check the policy vs. college student policies. I don’t understand the difference at this point among renter’s insurance and college student’s renter’s insurance.
You need to check the details of the renters policy to see how much instrument coverage they provide, it may be less than the $4k the cello is worth.
I don’t think the regular renters insurance provides the worldwide electronic device coverage for damage and theft like the college policies do. My DD ruined her phone in New Zealand while doing a semester abroad, and her college renters insurance covered it.
What company did you use, @notrichenough?
@Mr.Thatcher, what insurance company is yours? Is it a regular renter policy or one that is geared to college student? Thanks.
Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. Insure your son’s cello.
For which insurance?
DD’s college renters insurance was CSI (now Gallagher): www.CollegeStudentInsurance.com
For my renters insurance I am using MAPFRE.
For my instrument insurance I use Heritage (https://musicins.com/), which is not the cheapest but was recommended by the person I bought my instrument from. Clarion, Anderson, Total Dollar, there are others. They are all pretty similar, just have slightly different coverages.
@sbjdporlo I just got a reminder email for D’s dorm insurance from Gallagher (she just graduated) so I got a quote for son. If I add enough insurance to cover his cello is costs just as much as getting separate instrument insurance, so I think we will insure the instrument on its own policy and get the dorm insurance for everything else.
Thank you all so much for your help!!
I just heard back from my home owner’s and she said they don’t cover cell phones or computers, so I’m going to check out the college student insurance right now.
Looks like Gallagher, Allstate, and Geico were all mentioned.
I also was able to get a hold of the person who sold the cello to us and he’s valuing it between $3500 and $4500 so I will get separate musical instrument insurance, as well through Total Dollar since I used them before and they were pretty good.
Question: Should I get liability coverage? It’s $42 more.
Question: The quote is asking if I have anything (including instruments) worth more than $2000. Should I say no since I’ll get separate instrument insurance?
This depends IMO on whether he is still a dependent. As a student he probably doesn’t have two nickels to rub together, but if you would be exposed if something happened, then I would get the liability coverage just to protect myself.
The apartment we are moving to requires that you have renters insurance with liability coverage. We would have gotten it anyway, our umbrella policy requires that we have $300K of primary liability insurance on cars and residences. My DD’s college required liability insurance to live in the dorms, it wasn’t clear if my homeowners and umbrella policies would have covered her but for the extra $40 or whatever it was I got it through CSI.
We have used both CSI which is now Gallagher and NSSI. My D had to switch due to the fact that after a few claims the first company would not renew her. I can’t recall which was the first. First week of school was a broken laptop screen, summer was a bike. She had to file a police report on the bike and we luckily had the original receipt. I was shocked but they paid out the entire price we had paid for the bike minus a small deductible. I think we had bought the bike when she was in 6 th grade. Next summer was a stolen equestrian helmet and saddle. Both due to negligence on my D’s part. She forgot to put them away. Again she needed a police report.
We went with college plans due to the coverage for laptop and phone. Also with your homeowner policy you would not want to file a claim for smaller amounts as it will have an adverse effect on your premium.
Older kids had rental insurance that they bundled with their auto.
@sbjdorlo I have been looking into musical instrument insurance. I found the best rate with Anderson. For values under $7500 the rate is $135/year and the website was clear and easy to use. We got a quote from Clarion that was reasonable as well but they wanted me to email a picture of a check for payment (???). Total Dollar wanted $450 for three years,
We went with Gallagher for dorm insurance for the rest of his stuff.