Insuring your trophy room & firearms

[whacker1]

A few ways to get coverage, and several ways to pay a claim:

Currently anyone that has replacement cost coverage in their homeowners policy for contents has coverage under contents for animals/trophies.  The problems with this.

If you have a large trophy room like some of the pictures I have seen on here, where we are talking 20 + animals, the value of your taxidermy will erode the contents limit significantly.  $100,000 contents limit doesn't go very far if you have $50,000 worth of trophies.  So you can raise the limit of the contents to accommodate the value of said trophies.

Or, you can schedule the items as if they were fine art; However, many insurance companies are not willing to schedule trophy animals, so one would need to purchase this through a third party carrier. 

The way claims are paid:
This is an extremely interesting situation, as I stated on the Taxidermist Business side of the equation.  If one is able to schedule the animal with an insurance company, you would be establishing an agreed value.  The value of your choosing or from an appraiser agreed upon by you and the insurance company.  This would be the best circumstance, but as I stated not all companies are willing to do this. 

The second is under the contents coverage of the homeowners policy - most insurance companies are going to try and find a value that will make this situation right for the lost item (s).  Each company will handle it differently, and will probably upset more folks than they make happy.  It will probably involve some hefty negotiating. (keep in mind that most claims adjusters do not know our field as Sportsman, so most won't have had any exposure to Taxidermy)  One of my friends and occassional hunting partners is a property adjuster and he stated that they typically try to find something that would match it as close as possible for valuation.  320 class bull might go for $3000, so they try and set their value based on that.  It gets harder to find value for a 190 class sheep, so they might pay closer to $15,000 - $20,000 for something like this depending on what the market place is.  This process is much the same as we would use for setting the value on a schedule.

This wasn't meant to be a solicitation, but I have been working on this for a few months on my own trophies as well as Firearms limitations and scheduling my guns.

Feel free to PM me or use my email if you want to ask more specific questions.


Neil
Insurance Peddler Extraordinaire

[bucklucky]

This is the type of stuff my brain cannot handle, you just scrambled them for me. As a Taxidermy shop owner, I guess I would need to adjust the limit ofcontents to cover me ars?? I would have to go to about a ,illion to cover all the animals I have in?? If a guy was to raise that limit, doesnt that cost aditional $$$ ? I really dont know if I am fully understanding this or not. How do I prove that I have the animals I would be claiming??

[Skinner]

Bucklucky, I just finished my new house and finalized my new insurance policy.  The agent said I had a minimal $ to cover my guns but if I wanted to do it right I would have to show him and document each and every firearm, bow, spotting scope, ect.  The same thing went for my mounts that they were not covered unless I specified them in my policy.  And yes your monthly premium would reflect your new "room and contents".  Not sure about your situation with things coming and going but it would be a bad time to find out after the fire!

[whacker1]

Charlie, Two Answers

For you as a taxidermy shop owner - you should buy a separate commercial business policy if you don't already have one to cover any of the animals not owned by you, but in your possession.  This is the proper way to replace the animals if the worst happens and they were all destroyed.

Second, on the homeowners side to cover animals you own.  The mounts should be covered by most homeowners policies with limitations.  If there is concern for valuation or limitations then one should specifically schedule the mounts just like artwork or jewelry to make sure that they can be replaced or paid for at replacement cost. 

Firearms are typcially limited to $2500 - $5000 in most homeowners policies.  If you are anything like me you can reach $2500 in 1 - 2 hunting rifles including the scopes.

And as Skinner said - there is additional premium dollars for extra coverage, but better to know now vs after the fire.

Did that clarify - I apologize for getting to technical.  My goal was to inform/ not confuse.  Call me if you have any questions - 509-252-1414 office