SOA insurance
 

Hello,
I just would like to get feedback about the SOA insurance. Is it a good one? Can we find better?

In particular, could people from the SOA answer to say if they have this insurance or not, and if not why?

Also did you take any additional insurance?

Thanks,
Quoc

Hey Quoc:

As far as I know the SOA doesn't have it's own insurance--there are a few organizations out there that have packages for Steadi ops, but not one that stands out; all are quite comprehensive and thus pretty pricey.

Oops, I was hoping you'll have good feedback on this insurance, but apparently you don't know about it :) What insurance have you then?

The SOA has indeed a special insurance, which is in fact a modified/adapted insurance from Firemans fund. Peter (Abraham) told us about this during the workshop, and I wanted more feedback before taking it.

Peter said it's better to have this insurance because some insurances might not be happy to reimburse damange if, for example, you have an accident while the camera is on a steadicam hard mounted to a car. He said some insurances will not understand that's a _normal_ operation and not a crazy thing to do with the equipment.

I had a couple of email with the person in charge of this insurance, from what I understood (and the sample policy I read), this is the policy from Firemans fund with some modifications. The reason you have to be member of the SOA to get this insurance is because the policy is written in the
Steadicam Operators Associations name and then individuals are listed as
certificate holders under the policy. This was done in order to give
everyone the benefit of group rates.

So, any more feedbacks? :)

Regards,
Quoc

Hi Quoc,

Charles is correct - the SOA does not have its own insurance policy, unless something major has changed in the very recent past. However, you are somewhat correct in that some insurance providers may require you to be a member of the SOA in order to open a policy (if I remember correctly, mine did). That may be what Peter was talking about.

Best,
Afton Grant

Well I don't know if this is just a perception/wording problem, but the person did say the policy was written in the Steadicam Operators Associations name.

Here is the exact quote:
"Yes, you must be a member of the steadicam operators association in
order for us to write coverage for you. The policy is written in the
Steadicam Operators Associations name and then individuals are listed as
certificate holders under the policy. This was done in order to give
everyone the benefit of group rates."

This person is working for Walter P. Dolle insurance agency (wpdolle.com)

So yes, the SOA doesn't have its own insurance policy (in the sense that the SOA is not an insurance agency), but it has a policy under its name. That's what I meant by SOA's insurance ;)

But anyway, apparently, no feedback on this policy on this forum. Too bad...

Regards,
Quoc

You might to ask your question at www.steadicamforum.com

No doubt you will find SOA members there :)

Apparently reading every Steadicam related forum can be a good thing.

http://www.steadicamforum.com/forums...topic=3242&hl=

Check out the first portion of Janice's post:

-------------------------------------
Hi all;

Something like fifteen years ago I helped get the Steadicam Insurance policy going for equipment.

It has been a tremendous success and many operators have it.
--------------------------------------

And there you go. The mystical SOA insurance, whatever it is, was started by Janice Arthur apparently.