Do I Need Musical Instrument Insurance?

Today we discuss how to decide if the musician in your family needs musical instrument insurance. Watch (or read) to find out more!

(Video is 4 minutes. The full transcript is below.)

Full Transcript of video

Hey friends, the Fearless Advisor here. Today I am going to discuss when to consider musical instrument insurance.

My oldest son is a sophomore in high school and has been playing the oboe for over four years. He is committed to a musical career, and I love to hear and watch him play. This past summer we made the decision to graduate from the rented school instrument and purchase an oboe of his own. This happens to also be a part of his college plan, but that is for another video.

Cost of a musical instrument, frequency of travel

As you can imagine, professional-grade musical instruments are not priced for sale at Wal-Mart or Target. Additionally, the instrument now travels as much as my son does with all the trips to and from school on the bus. I knew without question that I needed to cover his oboe against damage and loss.

A homeowner’s policy does not cover the instrument when in the care of a transportation company.

Since I am simply a lover of music and not a musician, I was not aware musical instrument insurance existed. Therefore, I contacted my insurance agent and added the instrument to my homeowners policy and paid the additional premium. As I later found out, when the oboe needed a repair, the homeowner’s policy does not cover the instrument when in the care of a transportation company.

3 situations for musical instrument insurance

That’s when my search for musical instrument insurance began. It turns out there are many insurance companies that serve this market. What I learned is the main practices that someone would consider instrument insurance is when the musician:

• Is a professional musician,
• Is a collector of high-value instruments, or
• Ships or travels frequently with the instrument.

Instruments are fragile and easily broken if dropped or mishandled.

First, it is important to remember that insurance is designed to cover against risks with a low probability of occurring but a high level of severity if they do happen. Think about car insurance. It is designed to cover your liability of a major accident. Severity is typically high for instruments as many of them are fragile and easily broken by dropping or mishandling them. Therefore, it would be prudent to cover against the full loss of the instrument.

Sometimes homeowners or renters insurance is not sufficient.

Second, although homeowners and renters insurance may be sufficient in some cases, they typically have coverage limitations based on the causes and cost of the damage. Additionally, a musician may have to consider damage they may cause when performing at venues. For example, an amplifier that causes a fire could be considered the musician’s fault. Some policies offer public liability coverage.

Questions to ask about a proposed coverage and policy

Finally, every insurance policy has rules and limits to the coverage. Before you sign up for a policy, be sure to read the proposed coverage and policy. Ask many questions about all that could go wrong and how the policy would cover you and your instrument. This should include the cause of the damage or loss.

Part of this questioning should also be about the amount of the deductible. How much will you have to pay before the insurance kicks in? Additionally, some insurance companies offer discounts for members of certain organizations. For example, members of the Double Reed Society receive a discount from Clarion Insurance.

When planning to purchase a musical instrument, also plan for the cost of insurance.

I cannot say I ever thought that I would be recording a video about musical instrument insurance. However, now that I have seen some of the orchestra and band communities, it is clear that there is a need for this service. My encouragement to you is to research and plan for the cost of this insurance when purchasing a new instrument.

If you have questions about how musical instrument insurance fits into your financial plan, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to schedule a meeting with a member of our team. Thanks for joining us!

Reference link: https://www.benzinga.com/money/best-musical-instrument-insurance/

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