Insurance Quotes
 

Hi all --

I am trying to get a $1M general liability insurance for my 1-crew doc project. There are no stunts, pyros, animals, etc, just a regular doc.

The lowest quotes that I received are $1,400/year, or $1,200 for a coverage of 60 days.

This seems a bit steep to me. Can you let me know if these are the right ballpark figures, what you are paying, and what insurance company you are using?

Thanks!

In what state do you need insurance?

District of Columbia

Have you tried here. Special Event Insurance :: RV Nuccio and Associates, Inc.

Thanks for the tip, but they only offer special events and videographer's home/business insurance, not not a general liability insurance that I could use for multiple shoots.

I spend right about that much each year, however my policy is a $2Million total general liability policy but limited to 1 million for each event. (those kind of technicalities are worth discussing with your agent - but might grow with your policy as it ages - mine's been in effect for more than 15 years.)

That's the minimum that most companies require for the certificates of insurance I've dealt with lately.

It's a hassle to pay each year - but being able to pull a certificate of insurance with a phone call has made it possible to do a lot of larger gigs I would have been prohibited from bidding on if I didn't have the coverage.

Also, my advice is don't worry what insurance company - worry about developing a relationship with a local insurance broker so you have a name in your rolodex that will answer the phone when when you need help. My agent shops the policy every so often working for lower rates since I have a long history with no claims - but the agent remains the same. That's the business relationship that's critical, IMO.

Good luck.

I checked out here in Northern California, and a $1M "liability only" policy would run between $1600-1800 depending on various factors (and that was for a small crew indie production company)... so I suspect you are in the ball park. Check and make sure you can pull insurance certificates with "additional named insureds" at no additional cost, or at least know what the cost is.

ps. Bill Davis's advice is spot on about the agent IMHO.

pps. A one week shoot was $500...annual makes sense if you are doing much work at all.

Great advice, especially regarding agent, thanks! I have a few quotes from different agents that differ very little. Surprisingly, they are all underwritten by Zurich Insurance, so I guess the agent matters more.

Hi Stefan,

Sounds like your quote is in the ball-park (the actuary would need a lot more info to develop a quote, including shooting location as indoors and "public" outdoors, days/hours, etc.) I've found the general policy about doubles when you're also filming outdoors in a public environment - that makes sense from an exposure point of view. As was pointed out, some others confuse event insurance with various film insurances - two separate animals! And even general (film) insurance is a fairly limited subset of coverage:

Film Emporium

For instance, if your "1-crew project" gets hurt, you'll be sorry you didn't get workman's compensation insurance here in California. Some years ago I had an employee hop off a high chair and claim injury. Sure enough, his doctor cited his bursitis became inflammed due to sitting on the chair for several hours, ergo the "accident" was on the job! Thank goodness for appropriate insurance coverage in situations like this - no, general insurance won't cover this type of loss... or numerous other situations. Momma didn't say life would be easy, or fair!

Good luck, Michael