summer toys: Insuring your pool, trampoline, or boat

Winters are long and cold where I live in the St. Charles, MO. When summer finally arrives, all you want to do is take advantage of the warmer weather-whether it's riding a jet ski at the lake or taking a dip in the pool at home.

These "toys" are what summer's all about, but there's always that chance of someone getting hurt using them-which puts a real damper on the fun. Because of that risk, it's smart to have insurance coverage to protect you.

If your summertime fun involves a recreational vehicle (RV), an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), a personal watercraft (PWC) like a jet ski or a wave runner, a boat, a golf cart, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a trampoline, a pool, or even a swing set, you should consider the possibility of an accident and how to protect yourself before it happens.

What Kind of Insurance Coverage Do You Need for Your Summer Toys?

Review the types of insurance available to you for your particular toy. You will need to consider physical damage coverage for your property as well as liability insurance. Most insurance policies also include coverage for property damage to others and coverage that will reimburse you or a guest for hospital or doctor bills.

Property Damage: If you're thinking about getting property damage coverage, estimate the value of your property and how much you would lose. If you have an RV or a boat, you're probably looking at a pretty sizable loss without insurance. We usually recommend choosing the highest liability limit the underlying policy has to offer and then adding an umbrella policy to your portfolio.

Liability Insurance: If you or a guest is injured while using one of your summer toys, medical bills can add up quickly. A guest could even sue you if he or she is injured on your property. If you're worried about legal action or high medical bills not covered by your homeowner's policy, you should talk to your insurance provider about adding extra liability coverage to your homeowner's insurance plan, or take a look at an umbrella policy.

Umbrella Coverage: If you have an umbrella liability policy, don't forget to include your summer toys on this extended liability coverage. Confirm that your umbrella carrier will allow any of these toys to be included. Some carriers may not allow personal watercraft to be included.

Trampolines
Kids love trampolines, but they carry significant risks. Check with your carrier to make sure your homeowner's insurance policy covers a trampoline. Some carriers prefer not to absorb that exposure, and some may cancel or decline to renew your policy if they find out you have one on your property.

Pools
Physical damage to an underground pool is probably not covered on your homeowner's policy if "earth movement" is specifically excluded. An aboveground pool may be protected by "other structures" coverage in the policy. Medical expenses and liability coverage on the homeowner's policy will provide some coverage if a guest is injured.

Boats
Your homeowner's policy can include a boat up to a certain length. Check with your carrier on its size limitation. However, I usually recommend insuring your boat on a separate policy altogether. That way, if there's a claim, it doesn't count against your homeowner's policy.

Just like sunscreen protects your skin from sunburn, insurance will help protect your finances in the event of a lawsuit. Claims are considered a blemish on your record. The more claims you have, the higher a risk you are considered to be. You'll have to pay higher premiums, and you may even have trouble getting coverage.

And just as important as being properly insured is exercising all safety precautions when operating your summer toys, to keep them fun and safe.

Discuss with your agent what kind of summer toys you have and how you will be using them to determine how much insurance you need to protect your assets, your lifestyle, your health, and your well-being.

Steve Ludwig is a licensed insurance agent at Select Insurance Group with a broad spectrum of expertise in accident, health, property and casualty insurance as well as specializing in working with the individual.
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Insurance Brokers vs Agents

What is the difference between using Insurance Brokers vs Agents?

Let's face it, shopping for insurance is generally a dreaded and time consuming task. Not exactly fun and although it only takes about 15 minutes to get a preliminary rate - that's only the rate from ONE company. How many agents do you want to call and how many blocks of 15-30 minutes do you want to take out of your life?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to call one agent and have them shop your auto, home, life, heath or other insurance policy around FOR you without it costing you a dime of money or time away from your family?

That's the difference between a Captive Insurance AGENT and a Multi-Carrier Insurance BROKER. A captive agent can only write for ONE carrier such as Allstate, Geico, State Farm, Nationwide or Liberty Mutual to name a few which means you have to call each and every one of those carriers if you want a rate from each and every one!

Now an Insurance Broker on the other hand writes for MULTIPLE Carriers saving you a whole bunch of time and that's not even mentioning money! When you work with an insurance broker, you give them your information ONE time, they in turn, enter it into their system just like a captive, one carrier agent does, but the difference is the broker will then receive rates from a multitude of carriers!

Do you want to hear the best part?

Brokers are paid the same way as captive agents... but instead of an agent who needs to make a "sale" with the one auto policy or one home policy or one life policy they have to offer, a brokers job is find you the BEST available policy for you to "buy" that's right for YOUR given situation on a budget that YOU can afford! The captive agent has to sell you on why THEIR limited product line is so great and why you 'need' to use THEM, where the insurance broker has a much easier job to find YOU a carrier that can offer YOU the quality coverage that YOU actually need with a premium that fits into YOUR budget.

You see a captive agent is about trying to fit you into THEIR product.

An insurance broker is about fitting the best product around YOU.

Which do you prefer... to be "sold" a policy because the agent only has the one to offer OR... "buy" the policy that is right for your needs? Now don't get me wrong here... I'm NOT saying the products that single carrier agents represent won't be anything less than perfect for your needs! What I am saying is what happens when that carrier's price goes up? What happens when you need a coverage that they do not offer like guaranteed replacement cost on your homeowners insurance? What about wanting to use the same agent for more than just your auto and home needs like life insurance? If you are working with a single company captive agent, you are stuck to only use that companies products which may or may not be the best fit for you. And in all honesty, how many people do you know who will tell you that you can get better down the street? When working with a broker, you are less restricted because they are able to offer many more carriers, many more products, many more types of insurance and of course, many more price points so an insurance brokers job is to seek out and find the best product for YOUR need, not try to "fit you into what a captive agent happens to have available".

Want to hear another great benefit of working with a broker?

When it comes time to shop your policies around in the future to be sure you are receiving the best value... all you have to do is call your broker and tell them to do so. If you're with a captive agent, there isn't anything to shop around because they only have one product to offer.

Captive agents are in a "you can take it or leave it" situation.

Insurance brokers are in a "let's see which product fits YOUR situation the best".

call us to get the most SELECTion for your insurance dollar.
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