insurance on tools

[amertrac]

Do most of you carry insurance on your collection of vintage tool separate from your working tools?
  I just took inventory and after a reasonable estimate of replacement value I discovered that the value of my garage contents is more than moma's car. My insurance agent licked his lips when i showed him the list. The first thing he said was it's only 30 by 30. I haven't heard from him yet but i suppose i will have to mortgage the lower forty , The regular insurance on the house,garage and sheds cover contents but not enough for me. bob w. 

[Papaw]

I have no insurance on my old tools.

[Lewill2]

Although my collection is purely non-user tools my insurance company wouldn't write a seperate rider for the collectable/antique tools. My agent said the next best thing was to max out the contents section of my insurance. The next thing he said that I could do was to over pay on the value of the house so I could get a higher contents value. He said their reasoning was that they couldn't determine if I was using the tools and damge them verses getting damaged by fire or theft. I believe some insurance companies will write a rider for antique tools but in order to do that I would have had to change all my insurance over to another company and I didn't want to do that. The next issue I would expect is how would you update the inventory with the insurance company? Maybe a yearly process?

[scottg]

  Insurance on collectibles is pretty reasonable. I used to be able to afford it.
I had my bottle collection insured for 75 thousand and it was about 60 dollars a year as I recall.
Google ....collectibles insurance... and you get plenty of companies. 
 They will sell you a policy with great delight. No muss, no fuss, done in minutes flat. Jusp pay the money. 
      But making a claim means you actually have to prove the loss.
 
   Pictures, descriptions, comparable sales values and updated to keep current??
Yeah we all have endless time for that.
 12000 items with all that work and for a 2 dollar wrench?
  AS IF!
Keep the change.
 
  I know people with million dollar collections just as uninsured as I am.
 
 Fire alarms, burglar alarms, a big dog and a loaded scattergun is better.
 yours Scott
 

[fflintstone]

Insurance can be a pain. Take all your documentation to your agent, ask their advice. If you don’t like the answer ask someone else. The time to ask questions is before you have a claim.
I am out about 30k in jeep parts from the second fire.

[john k]

No insurance on my collectibles, and no insurance on the tools at work.  Looked into it and rider on my work tools would be about $600 per year, so I decided I'll buy another $600 in tools each year instead.

[dimwittedmoose51]

No insurance on my collectibles, and no insurance on the tools at work.  Looked into it and rider on my work tools would be about $600 per year, so I decided I'll buy another $600 in tools each year instead.

Yeah, either way you can write it off as a business expense, huh??

Since I,m a newbie at this(read; less than a decade) I don't have the stash most of you have, but I always thought the old tools would survive hurricane/tornado/fire/flood whereas the stuff made in Asia these days wouldn't.......YMMV


DM&FS

[stillfishin]

Bob, insurance is really good until you go to collect on it. One time I asked my agent about insuring my ww tools. I probably had 20k worth, so not a huge deal. He told me to just keep records and photos and if something happened the contents part of the insurance would likely pay out, and if some were stolen, well I could probably be paid under the blanket coverage. I've never had any claims, but do read the homeowners policy fine print. I'm not too sure what if anything would be paid there.

[Aunt Phil]

Do most of you carry insurance on your collection of vintage tool separate from your working tools?
  I just took inventory and after a reasonable estimate of replacement value I discovered that the value of my garage contents is more than moma's car. My insurance agent licked his lips when i showed him the list. The first thing he said was it's only 30 by 30. I haven't heard from him yet but i suppose i will have to mortgage the lower forty , The regular insurance on the house,garage and sheds cover contents but not enough for me. bob w.

Bob one of the few good things about NY is the laws governing how a homeowner's insurance policy has to be written.

Your policy declaration section carrys a line called "personal property", and there is no limitation on the value you can insure personal property for.  I know of one HO2 policy where the base policy for the house is $112k, Additional buildings on property are $60k, and Personal property is $150k.

Additional buildings and personal property are cheap items on a NY homeowner policy because losses are actuarially low. 

Things you also need to understand about Homeowner policys; comission paid to agents by the company is less than 4% on renewals and anyplace from 25 to 35% on new policys.  Agents have verylittle incentive to service existing policys.  This leads many agents to attempt to sell what are called "Inland Marine" coverage for collections.  Any agent mentioning "Inland Marine" should immediately be ducttaped to a clothes pole, flogged and left for crowchow.  He damn well ain't working for you.

A second thing you need to be aware of when negotiating to buy insurance, the collection is your HOBBY, and not a business!  If you admit the tools and buying and selling of the tools is a business, your only insurance availability will be commercial inventory coverage.

I firmly believe in bidding all my insurance every 3 years.  I also record and retain all conversations with insurance agents.

[amertrac]

I talked to my agent , he said that the work tools are covered as part of the personal household contents but the so called hobby inventory is not . I left an inventory with him and he asked for pictures I laughed and asked him  1 tool  1 picture ? and told him i can get groups but they will be hard to identify each one.i just went through inventory for two months I will junk it before i will do it again ( well maybe not) He hasn't called back yet bob ( the worrier ) w.

[Aunt Phil]

Bob, there's only 1 way to put it.
You need 2 things; A new Insurance Agent and a policy that has a substantial Stated Value Personal Property limitation.

The agent you have either doesn't know what his product is or doesn't want to get off his a** and do the job.  He's a manure spreader!  There is a longstanding philosophy in selling insurance, you fling enough crap at the wall some of it will stick.

There's a real easy way to detect manure spreaders in every area of sales.  They walk into your place, spot the singular item hanging on the wall or sitting on the table they figure you're proud of by the nature of the display, and focus the conversation on it for 5 minutes.  From then on they figure you're bonded to them and they own you.  I've met many of these salesmen & I like to waste as much of their time as I can before sending them down the road.

The ONLY relevant question to your collection of tools being covered under a NY HO policy is simple.  Would the coverage be different if you collected fishing poles rather than tools?  That answer will be NO if the agent is honest.

You're stating a value for the items you collect, the carrier is setting the premium rate based on anticipated loss cost as derived from their actuary, and you're contracting with the carrier. 

Buying, selling and swapping small portions of a collection are a normal part of collecting be it an individual or a museum.  As long as you don't hang a sign on the wall "Bob Tool Sales" or file a Schedule C for tool sales, you're a collector, not a business.

Time has come to interview some new Insurance salesmen.

[amertrac]

I think you may be right I have had allstate since i bought my own car at 17 yrs old thats almost 60 years.maybe i should write a letter to the big office if I knew where they were hiding   lol  bob w.

[Aunt Phil]

Allstate has become an interesting carrier over the last 10 years in NY, and though it may shock many people is a damn good carrier.

They've also made some changes to their system especially in terms of company relationship with the agent, especially their stand alone agent shops.  I damn near choked when I learned what a 1 man Allstate agency sold for 10 years ago.

The level of srvice from the agent to the customer has fallen off, big time.  Evidently all Allstate claims on property insurance now go through central processing and they are contracting out claims inspection.  If you can communicate in English this can be very good, although Allstate needs to improve the level of communication between adjusters and customers.  Then again based on some of the people I've tried communicating with lately the asjusters could just be burning out.

If you presently have Allstate and are using the multiple line discounts be in a seated position when you hear quotes from other carriers, and have oxygen handy.

I believe Allstate independent agents are contractors, not employees, so there really isn't much you can do to one from the point of contacting the company.  Fortunately there seems to be a decent population of them so it might be beneficial to contact the next one down the road and asking if your policies can be switched to his office since your present agent has no desire to help you.
If nothing else it will stir sh!t up.

[1930]

quote...........damn good carrier................sorry but I have to add my two cents. Allstate is many respects has been one of the worst carriers for a number of years, progressive maybe being theee worst. Really isnt a good insuarnce carrier any longer. State Farm has been one of the best for quite  few but even they are latching onto the tricks of the trade.
Strictly speaking automotive collision coverage mind you. I have no other experience.
Dont care how the car is fixed ( unless there is a real chance they may get sued ) as long as its fixed quickly and for as little out of pocket expense as possible.
They certaintely dont care that when they cut a mans wage for a repair they are gonna cut the repair, dosent matter, its all on the shops warranty.
I could spend pages going on but will jus.....

[amertrac]

quote...........damn good carrier................sorry but I have to add my two cents. Allstate is many respects has been one of the worst carriers for a number of years, progressive maybe being theee worst. Really isnt a good insuarnce carrier any longer. State Farm has been one of the best for quite  few but even they are latching onto the tricks of the trade.
Strictly speaking automotive collision coverage mind you. I have no other experience.
Dont care how the car is fixed ( unless there is a real chance they may get sued ) as long as its fixed quickly and for as little out of pocket expense as possible.
They certaintely dont care that when they cut a mans wage for a repair they are gonna cut the repair, dosent matter, its all on the shops warranty.
I could spend pages going on but will jus.....
 from your perspective ( which few look) I can't see where one ins, co, differs from the rest as paying, adjusting and demanding to the body shop , but to the public we look at getting the car fixed and fixed right,paying our deductible. the body shop usually gives a break on that.
I have shopped with latest ins. contract in hand and have found that Allstate gives me the coverage and price the same or lower than most other companies, I THINK BEING WITH THEM SO LONG HAS A BARING ON THE PRICE. i have had very few claims auto, home , road service and when we did we were satisfied     The conversations between service providers and Allstate may be troublesome but we are not aware although it would be interesting to hear some information on that subject .It might influence buyers   bob w.