Camera and Equipment Insurance

A note about "theft" versus "mysterious disappearance." You may have theft insurance with your homeowners policy, which will cover your cameras if you are held up, robbed, or put in bodily harm in exchange for your property. But if you place your camera on the park bench next to you and three seconds later it is gone (stolen), it is not considered theft, but is termed "mysterious disappearance" by your insurance company. In this case, theft insurance will not cover you. If your camera is stolen from your office while you are out at lunch, theft insurance will not cover you. This is where the additional insurance discussed on this page will (hopefully) come into effect.

Jay,

I'm not sure if I totally agree with your definitions of "theft" and "mysterious disappearance".

I ran an insurance agency for 8 years here in New Jersey and what the insurance companies REQUIRE is a police report. If my camera is with me at work (as it always is), and it disappears from my bag, I have to contact the police to report a theft. I receive a report from the police, detailing the theft, which I then turn over to my insurance carrier who then pays me according to the terms of my policy. While the camera may have "mysteriously disappeared", it did not jump out of my bag and walk away on its own. Someone, a person, had to remove it without my knowledge. That's theft.

"Mysterious disappearance", while it can apply to missing property, almost always applies to life insurance policies where the insured has "disappeared", usually without a trace. Under those circumstances, the insurance company can withhold payment until they are reasonably satisfied that the insured had passed away, and is not just simply hiding in a cave on an island somewhere out in the Pacific. One famous example of a "mysterious disappearance" was Amelia Earhart, the pilot. Although the Navy searched extensively, neither Ms. Earhart nor her plane were ever found.

According to Black's Law Dictionary, "Mysterious Disappearance" can also be the loss of property under unknown or puzzling circumstances which are difficult to explain or understand. Leaving your camera on a bench and then finding it has disappeared is not exactly mysterious, puzzling, difficult to explain or understand. Either the camera fell off the bench in which case it should be on the ground near the bench, or someone removed the camera from the bench and this is then clearly theft. Now whether the insurance company decides to pay you for the missing property is another matter but again, if you produce a police report, the odds are clearly in your favor that the company will pay you, assuming of course, you have not filed 200 previous claims for theft of equipment. This is also a good reason to remember to READ your insurance policy carefully and thoroughly and consult with an attorney on any segment(s) of the policy that are not clear to you.

A better example of "mysterious disappearance" as it relates to property, is if you come home to your apartment and find your stereo, computer and television set are gone and yet there are no signs of forced entry into the apartment. You will have a very tough time proving to the insurance company that those items were stolen from your apartment unless the police can trace the items back to someone who may have had access to your apartment such as a superintendent or landlord. Insurance companies want to see proof in the form of a police report, that clearly indicates broken doors, broken windows, or some other form of forced entry into your premises before they will pay you for a claim of theft. If the lock has been picked on your apartment door, the police can usually tell, and will or should include this in the report. (Meanwhile, head down to your locksmith and pick up a MEDECO lock)

According to Black's Law Dictionary, Theft is defined as, the felonious taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent of depriving the true owner of it; larceny. Anytime your personal property "disappears", the insurance company has to assume the property was stolen and pay you according to your contract if you supplied them with the necessary documents to prove rightful ownership of the property and a report from the police indicating that the property has "disappeared" in a manner consistent with "theft"; you are innocent until proven guilty. Again, the key here is to read your policy and thoroughly understand what is expected of you in the event you have to file a claim with your carrier. Additionally, many states have laws which require insurance carriers to finalize all claims within a certain time frame. Check with your state insurance commissioner for details or again, speak with an attorney.

I have owned an insurance agency in California for the past twenty years and want to help my fellow camera enthusiasts.

Most homeowner policies have SEVERE limitatins on "business" personal property. Some companies offer the option to purchase higher coverage and most of them will stop at $2500 with a 10% coverage off premises. They provide NO coverage for loss of income or extra expense. They are designed to cover only non-business exposures.

Before you consider purchasing "commercial" insurance you should ask your agent or broker to see if you have options available on your existing homeowners policy. You may have to contact several different carriers to get the coverages you need.

One company my agency is contracted with is Allied Insurance, a member of Nationwide Insurance. Allied offers a Home Enterprise Program (available in 10 states) which is designed to provide most of the coverges needed by the typical small business being operated from the residence premises. It combines personal and commercial coverages on one policy. It is designed for exposures such as barber and beauty shops, dog and cat grooming, florists, photographers, music instructors and tutoring, etc.. Professional Liability is specifically excluded. Other companies may have similar products available.

Also, Personal Inland Marine Floaters, Personal Artical Flaoters, Scheduled Personal Property Endorsements are designed to add "all risk" coverage to specific personal property owned by the insured. This coverage is so broad as to include loss caused by accidently dropping a camera over the side of a boat. Don't wait until a loss occurs to find you have little or no coverge.

For underwater gear I've been insuring through a company called DEPP, or Diver's Equipment Protection Program, and been happy with the coverage. The deductable is low and they cover most losses including flood insurance. Not cheap, but worth the money to me. www.ProgramServices.com

I have an F1n outfit. I have valued the replacement cost today at $3725 Canadian. When i phoned my household insurance agent he ask me to register the serial numbers with the carrier. He explained that the equipment would be added on as a named risk. This would ensure that there was no confusion with the carrier. I dropped off the info and a picture of all the equipment as well and left it with him. Four days later i recieved the updated policy and to my surprise discovered that there was a ZERO deductable and it was a no hassle coverage ( As i requested ) and get this $26.00 per year on top of my home policy. Good deal or what?

The original article discused costs for personal articles floaters/riders on a homeowners policyin the range of $1.35 to $1.75 of value. I suspec that rates such as that are for urban areas where the acturial risks are relatively high. I mentionthis because the rates I have paid for years are much lower. Currently I am paying $0.13 per $100 of value for photographic equipment. Check with yoru insurance agent or broker. Even at $1+ this is relatively inexpensive insurance.

I'm a "wanna be" professional photographer, still in the infancy stages of building a business. I contacted our personal insurer - USAA - about covering my gear. They don't insure equipment or inventory for business, so transferred me to their "General Agency" division. Their base coverage was $350 a year, and covered up to $15.0 at CASH value, not replacement value, with a $250 deductible. any suggestions who to call?

I also hadn't even thought about insuring the office equipment! I've just added a CD RW and a photo printer. Guess I better check those out also.

If you are not using your photographic equipment as "professional" equipment, you can add it to your homeowners/renters policy as a rider, usually with little or no deductible but it's only covered if it's "non-professional use" and it's covered for it's stated value so make absolutely certain you know what it will cost you to replace the equipment. Keep this clearly in mind if you decide to go this route.

I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, a great city albeit one with one of the largest hard drug user populations in the western world. When you have a large group of addicts around you’ll realize they need a lot of money to support their habits. Two weeks ago my beloved GR1s and a T90 were ripped off when my apartment was broken into. I consider myself lucky...this is the first equipment loss I’ve had in 25 years. Since then I’ve tried to get all risk insurance to cover the $20K worth of equipment I use (as an amateur)...no luck: either the premiums are to high or I’m laughed out of the office. Phil how about trying to organize some kind of policy in Canada....Anyone else: do you insure in BC? With whom? Thanks Jim

Jim, if you use your gear for personal use only, a standard tenant or homeowner's policy will cover it. Just watch for what the perils you are insured against are, and check to see if there's an off-premises limit.

I'm an insurance broker in Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada), and the carrier I've chosen to insure my home has no off-premises limit on personal property. I pay a $500 deductible, but given the value of my gear, that's okay.

If insurance is an issue with you NANPA members have an insurer who writes Commercial Inland Marine Policies for members. I assume that there is a lower rate for NANPA members. I found that my homeowners insurance limits would not come near covering a major equipment loss even if I didn't have related income. This policy is all risk and covers me in most foreign countries. The NANPA website is www.nanpa.org

My Insurance Company will list camera equipment in excess of 200.00 as scheduled items on my homeowner's policy. Items with a value less then 200.00 default to my standard homeowner coverage. This coverage is not as good as a scheduled item.

Now, I have a lot of "stuff" with a unit price less than 200.00 when added together would be a great loss to me. Am I being too picky here or is there another way to insure my equipment?

I recently had my residence burgled and most of my camera gear stolen. This was the first time I've had to deal with insurance companies, and I have to say I learnt a lot from it. Here are some comments for fellow naive insurance customers.

The first thing is that I didn't think through my policy. My insurance policy covers camera gear up to $3000 Canadian. I'd bought all my stuff used and didn't think it was worth that much. Of course, the insurance covers replacement cost of new items. And a local camera store valued the stolen goods at $4600. Plus tax on top of that. My $3000 coverage doesn't even come close to covering all the items I lost. So when calculating the replacement cost of your gear remember to factor in both new cost and taxes.

Second, the policy replaces stolen equipment with the rough equivalent that's sold today. Sometimes that worked out to my advantage. I had an old Canon T50 camera stolen that was pretty well worthless. But the camera shop rated its replacement as the cheapest Canon SLR sold as a body (not a kit) - the Rebel G. A Rebel G replacing a T50 is a pretty darn good deal.

However, I also lost a 30 year-old Pentax Spotmatic that was in excellent condition. Having that replaced with a Pentax MZ-7 is kind of sad. It's like saying, "Okay - your beloved 1965 Ford Mustang, your first car, is gone. Here's a shiny new 2001 Mustang!" It's not exactly the same thing.

Finally, be absolutely sure to record every single item you own in a spreadsheet, with serial numbers for everything with serial numbers. And keep receipts and proof of ownership. Otherwise the insurance company may turn down parts or all of your claim.

So. Yes, I had insurance. Did it help me? Well. Kind of. I can't replace much of what was stolen, and I'm not sure if I will. I could obtain a cash settlement, but it's not going to be a $3000 cheque or anything - the cash value is depreciated too.

Still. If I get burgled again at least this time there isn't much to take. :)

I know this is really stupid of me but i don't have the receipts of many of many of the higher priced items that i own, and also one or two was given as a gift sans receipt ( Mamiya 645 outfit ) is there anything i can do besides photos and serial numbers that will be adequate proof to the insurance companies of my actual ownership of these items?

For all the people in the US having trouble getting the non-commercial insurance they want: The property/casualty division of the very large and famous insurance company with an umbrella for a logo (you know who) has been very helpful with my all-risk personal article floater. Theirs is a replacement policy, so you don't have to provide any info beyond the total insured value. Keep your records in a safe place (or better yet, two copies in two places), and when something gets stolen, stepped on, or dropped, you provide a copy of the receipts (or merely good documentation of the items, such as pictures, serial numbers, model numbers, and brief descriptions). They will reimburse you, up the total insured value that you specified when you bought the policy. No hassles, nice people, and fair cost (right within the range quoted in the above article).

Here is a cautionary tale: A professional photographer secured an all risk commercial policy for his gear. While on vacation in the islands he was held up at gun point and striped of all his Nikon equipment. He filed a local police report and reported the loss to his insurance agency. The company denied his claim because he was not using the gear for commercial purposes at the time of the theft. Conversly, I had a so called "all risk" rider on my homeowners policy. I specifically asked my agent if occassional jobs for money were still covered. Their reply was that it was an all risk policy. While shooting a wedding, I had a misshap resulting in a damaged Hasselblad. Claim denied because at the time I was working for money. The insurance Companies are Legalized Racketeers, and I suspect were one to trace ownership of insurance holding companies, one would find the headquarters on Mulberry St.

SWEET CHRIST, whatever you do, DO NOT get a "all risk" rider under your homeowners policy. Especially if you use State Farm.

If you have a lot of camera gear and tend to travel or use it in dangerous situations DO NOT insure it under your homeowners policy. I purchased a seperate "all risk floater" from state farm for all my camera gear, and because of 2 losses in three years they dropped my homeowners policy completely. Not just the aditional floater, but the entire homeowners policy. Now I have to spend at least three years with a sub-prime insurance company paying triple my previous rates before I can get one of the big-boys to insure me again (because of having been refused insurance). Mind you, I never had a claim on the house policy itself, just on the camera floater. My local agent had told me it was okay to make the claims, I made them. And then when it came time to renew my homowners policy 2 months later, State Farm said, "Sorry, we're denying you homeowners coverage because you had too many losses on your policy" Even though it was on a completely SEPERATE policy (the floater, NOT my homeowners policy). You are basically throwing your money away by insuring with State Farm, they will jerk you around. And I suspect that there is a good chance of this happening with any homeowners company. I now use Traveler's insurance group for a professional photographers insurance package. Which is quite reasonably priced. That reminds me, I need to pay that bill.

Ritz Cameras sold me insurance for Canon EOS 10D (1500$)- 150$ a year or 277$ for two years. It covers all damage to camera ( but not theft or loss) So it sounds like about 10% in a year. Probably expensive. What do you think ?

There are some Mack insurance in Adorama, no loss or theft, and no drop, but like extendd manufacturer waranty : 100$ for 4 years for 10D.

What do you think about this rates and conditions ?

I do not have any of my camera gear insured (~$2,500 worth). I keep all my camera stuff next to my hunting rifles in my gun safe. I'd like to see someone break into that thing. My gear is safe at home when I am not around, however, going abroad well then I use common sense and keep my camera and lens (I usually just bring one lens, 70-300) around my neck at all times! Common sense will prevent any theft, but insurance does help.

I am an insurance agent for Farm Bureau Financial Services in Arizona. I am also a former professional photographer (I still run my website: www.azdustdevil.com) If you are a professional photographer, you need a commercial policy, which is very inexpensive. Yes, you need to protect your equipment, but you also need to protect yourself! If you are in the Phoenix area, give me a call at 480-635-3855 or you can email me at talbert.mcmullin@fbfs.com and we can talk about it. Oh, and by the way, many carriers force you into a limited-coverage situation, I don't.

The article pointed out that you should be totally honest with your agent. This is true. If you are not honest about your equipment and activities, your policy may not cover you. It's simple: The more equipment you have, the more your policy will cost. Here's something to ponder, if a fire destroyed your studio and your equipment, what would that do to your livelihood?

If you are an amateur, but want your equipment covered, you will want to schedule your photo gear so it will be covered. Again, I'll be happy to discuss the details with you.

From Talbert McMullin (with new ID) I've been banned from the site by Brian, who is so insecure he cannot take a little criticism. He's not a photographer, he's a typical computer hack with the manners of a goat. I decided to be a member of photosig.com....much more professionally run.

Anyway, for good photography insurance, contact Tom Picard at 1-800-726-3701. They are specialists and can probably cover you all over the world for a reasonable price.

Best wishes to all of you. Good night, and good luck.

I tried to read most of the coments but nothing seems to give my particular case any help. I travell a lot and in not so conventional methots, eg, planes or payed transports. I sometime will take a bus, a plane but a lot of my travlling is done hitchhicking. I have never been muged, but then again, my equipment until a little ago was only a good laptop and a film point and shoot worth $80usd new. If I had lost any piece of this equipment on any road it would off been horrible. ofcourse I can alweys get a cheap 35mm and just devellop and scan to digital all my rolls and put in a cd case. a bit more money, in some countries even a whole weeks worth of living. but recoverable. now ive spiked my equipment a tone and loosing it would be going back almost two years. I'm not one to be too shy of my camera if I like and old building or a good image, but ive found i can be reciliant about taking a picture i would like to take because i dont want to expose my new nice gear, ofcourse all this gear is made to look as shity as possible, black tape covering all blinking red light and fanfare, but worrie hampers my habillity to take pictures, or to take all the pics i see. yes, i can, i do have, a "shitty backup camera", but i want to just insure the whole lot of this under 5000usd equipent to not worrie about it and be able to flow better... any companies that you might know?? also, i only own a car as a "under my name" possible recidence. insuring under a home address is imposible. insuring must be done as a premium only deal, where i can pay a yearly bond and that warranties in any country of this our planet, the recovery of my lost equipment within a reasonable time span. Now that im writing this it seems to me a bit over the top, but thats the reallity of this your humble servant. please infor in this panel and/or by writing to my email at cestodebasura@gmail.com ta much.

Hi

I am new to this site and to the world of the canon 400d. i am about to buy the camera in K.L Malaysia, and i need to get insurance quickly.

I have read your comments about insurance and it all seems to stem from house hold insurance. as i am do not own my own home and i am travelling for 1 year around the world, i need to purchase individual camera insurance (my travel insurance will only cover upto 250 uk pounds for electricals).

Has anyone else been in a similar situation or know of a good insurance web site i can check out??

I really dont want to carry the camera around until i have insurance.

Also is 450 (uk pounds) a good price for the canon 400d, the standard lense, 1 gig memory card, and carry case?

Any help from those 'in the know' is much appreciated.

Many thanks, Kate

I have been looking for an insurance that covers both owned equipment and rented equipment. I still shoot film primarily, for which I own all necessary equipment, except for some studio lighting, but there are a few times a year when I need to shoot digital due to high volume, such as friend's wedding and performance events. Since it makes more sense to pay a couple of hundred bucks to rent the latest equipment when I need them, I was looking for a personal insurance that covers both types of equipment. Based on what I found so far, it seems that personal policies such as renter's policy do not cover the rented equipment, particularly off premises. I was told that I had to get an inland marine floater or another commercial policy, which would at least 3x the premium. Does anyone know if there's a good insurance for such a scenario?

Thanks,

Ryuji Suzuki

I'm glad to see a good discussion on insurance for photographers. A typical homeowner's policy will not cover professional use of your equipment or liability. You may be able to add a separate home business policy which will cover all of your camera and office equipment while it is in your home, but not on location...so this is of limited use for location photographers or anyone who travels often on assignment. Most of the major photographer's organizations offer custom tailored policies. ASMP has several options to choose from, but they aren't by any means cheap. It would be interesting to hear from photographers who have found reasonably priced insurance policies from reliable companies. --Andrew Andrew Prokos Photography, New York City

Also in line with Josh Root's (unfortunately first-hand) advice, I heard from my own State Farm agent that attempting to file claims on homeowner policies and their "floaters" can and probably will result in cancellation of the homeowner policy itself (or, at the very best, denial of coverage renewal).

Thanks for your blog. I have a quick question about insurance though. We're doing a photo shoot next week and the photo rental store asked if we have "rental property insurance." How do you obtain this for just a one shoot? THanks again!

Mm. I am Canadian also (Ontario). Had $6,500 of gear stolen the other day at a photo show. In spite of a rider, the insurance company (Desjardins) is treating me quite badly: they say "no receipt, no payout". So my Canon batteries, 580EX flash, etc are not covered. My loss with the $1,000 deductible is over $3,000.

So much for a rider. makes me "not happy".

For UK photographers, there is this comparison site called Camera Insurance. Provides a comparison table for UK camera insurers.