Equipment Insurance for PE Groups

School systems are underfunded enough as it is, and that means any educational program manager needs to safeguard their assets very well. If you are a PE teacher or coach, you probably know exactly how much money you have invested in your equipment. Rather than putting that investment at-risk of a total loss in case an accident occurs, instead, get the right equipment insurance. You might need a couple of options to ensure you get the right protection. Consider how each can help you out.

It often takes years for a PE organizer to build up all the equipment in their care. Still, it only takes one accident to wipe all of that out. Make sure your program has enough equipment insurance on hand to replace the items in case a total loss occurs.

The Risks Your Equipment

Faces Students might use your equipment every day. You might have to move it from place to place in order to organize different events. At night, it will stay securely within its appropriate storage—or so you hope. Still, the thing is, numerous types of hazards might come along that could damage equipment. That’s a lot of money you might lose. Consider accidents like these:

• A fire could damage the school and the equipment within the gym
• Storms might arise, both during play or after hours, damaging items stored outside (or inside in severe cases).
• Thieves or pranksters might steal items or vandalize them
• When you transport items to other sites, they could get damaged in wrecks or lost during the process of moving them.

The appropriate equipment insurance can help you receive a financial settlement to repair or replace those items. Therefore, the PE program won’t have to suffer heavy financial losses that will prove necessary to its recovery.

Understanding Equipment Insurance

Items that you might need to insure can include any number of the bats, balls, netting and racquets, in addition to specialty items that might include:

• Safety gear like helmets and pads
• Uniforms
• Facility equipment, like scoreboards
• Turf machinery and field maintenance equipment
• Certain concession equipment

So, say for example that one day, the school’s field house catches on fire and is a total loss. Equipment policies can help you cover qualifying team assets following the fire.

The Limits of Your Policy

In many cases, equipment insurance is also called inland marine insurance. Inland marine insurance, in the most-general sense, helps cover assets that the insured party transports overland. Given that your equipment is often very mobile, it’s easy to see why it’s necessary to have this type of protection.

Still, as much as you want your coverage to pay for every loss you might sustain, the fact is that most policies will contain limits.

• Some policies offer coverage for items’ replacement cost values. That is, coverage will pay you enough to buy a new item similar to the one that was lost.
• Other policies only offer actual cash value for damaged items, which is the depreciated item cost at the time the loss occurs.
• Policies will usually have deductibles attached. You pay the deductible before your policy pays the rest of the claim. So, if you have $5,000 in losses and a $1,000 deductible, you pay the $1,000 and the policy pays the remaining $4,000.
• It’s important that your coverage limit matches the full value of your belongings as closely as possible. If it doesn’t, then your insurer might apply a coinsurance penalty. So, if you only insure $10,000 in equipment for a limit of $5,000, then the insurer might only pay 50% of the total loss of a claim after the deductible.

It’s up to you to choose the right ones to maximize your equipment insurance limits. Let the dedicated team at Bene-March Insurance help you do so.