Wedding Photography Insurance

[robnlauren]

Finding information about insurance seems to be an almost mythic quest. There are quite a few posts on this forum and others about the topic but none seem to lead anywhere. I'm hoping anyone out there who is running a photography business shooting weddings will be able to help me out.

First of all I live in Edmonton, Canada. I've started up a small photography company, with the eventual intent of shooting weddings and light portraiture. Right now we're just geting ourselves established, but we hope to be booking weddings by next summer. As of yet we are an unincorporated company but hope to be incorporated within the next 6 months.

I need to know where I can get insurance for
A) All of the photography equipment we have acquired. This amounts to about 15-20 thousand CDN dollars. I would like to be covered for the typical fire and theft BUT I would also like to be covered in the event that we drop a lense by accident or break a camera body by accident.
B) Liability insurance- For if we're taking pictures and someone trips over our gear, or if we accidently damage some property at an event we're shooting we need to be covered.

Listing the gear under house insurance policy's is not an option as house insurance won't cover equipment which is used to make a commercial profit with (I think a lot of photographers forget this fact when they list their camera under their house insurance policy!!!)

Can any wedding photographers, specifically in Canada explain how they went about getting insurance coverage and what the extent of that coverage is.

Thanks in advance for any help on the topic.
Cheers,
Rob

[Eoseni]

I'm also interested in the same question, and am generally in the same situation - though not a studio - just solo going pro, but I'm in CT, USA. Laws may be different. Thanks for the post.

[Big Mike]

Have you called your (or any) insurance company? I would think that business insurance is a pretty standard thing. You might even get a discount for using the same company you use for your personal insurance.

Maybe check out the Canadian Association of Photographic Art (http://www.capacanada.ca/)

I'm also a photographer in Edmonton, just starting out. Good luck to you.

[jamiewexler]

http://www.hillusher.com/WPPI/

[rlhphotos]

You should be able to take out a secondary on your home insurance to cover equipment like that, if you dont own a house then call a standard insurance company, they will work with you. As far as liabilty if you join the PPA you are entitled so legal help if you opt for it in your membership dues. Other than a professional organization backing you I haven't seen much on the liabilty insurance end.

but Jamie's site look promising for covering everything.

[SuzyView]

I got mine through a private insurance agency. It's very inexpensive I think $500/year and it covers jobs that are not paid or people that don't come through. But always, insurance is a good idea.

[Tim_h]

I just got insurance from State Farm. I wanted to get my equipment covered so they quoted me 276 per year to cover 9k of equipment and that includes 300,000 for liability. As far as I know you cant add your equipment to your homeowners policy if you take pictures for money.

[jra]

As someone else stated above...I just called my insurance company and they gave me a policy. Just let them know when you call that the equipment is for commercial use and they will direct you towards the correct coverage.

[robnlauren]

The one Jamie gave looked good, except it seems like it's only for the States! At least as far as I could see.

I'll give a couple insurnace companies a call and talk to them. Maybe look into PPA as well, or the Canadian version. Thanks guys!