My medium format digital back puts me way over the limit on the camera equipment rider on my homeowner's insurance policy with AAA.
I have been very happy with AAA. They paid immediately for the loss of an $8,000 camera years ago, but they won't budge on their limit ($65K).
When I purchased the new back, I (of course) upgraded my lenses and, due to an unfortunate equipment addiction, have at least $100,000 worth of equipment in my camera closet.
I need to find a company that will insure all my gear. Would like to find one with reasonable rates, but more importantly, a good record for covering losses. I am interested in replacement insurance.
Appreciate any recommendations from this group.
Thanks.
First question is are you a professional photographer or an hobbyist? I ask because what you have access to and what the insurance will cover could vary.
If you are an hobbyist, I would assume that you could have an umbrella added to your policy to cover additional losses, such as photography equipment. Most insurance companies should be able to handle this, however AAA may only be geared towards providing policies and accessing risks associated with domiciles and autos. You probably could have another company add an umbrella and keep the AAA coverage, but this would be more expensive that just changing insurance companies and having it covered by one entity. Plus, if you did have a loss, you would have to deal with two companies, instead of one. Not to mention, insurance is something you should shop around for every 3 years or so. Often, some insurance agencies will make changes to how they access risks and/or need to cover overall losses from bad year, forcing them to increase rates, whereas others do not.
I am a pro and I make my entire living from photography, have all of my equipment covered, and I often have to show proof of insurance before entering a building. Roughly we have $80K of equipment covered. Our commercial liability coverage is $4M yearly with $2M aggregate. We are owner/operators, have no employees and do not need workman's comp., but plan on getting it down the road. For this we pay $1350 per year. Our insurance company is The Hartford Group, and we went through an independent agent.
When I decided to purchase insurance, I went to an independent agent who represented about 20 insurance companies. He ran the numbers and got pricing from 6 companies, nixed two of them due to bad reps. The Hartford was the best choice.
