Insurance on your firearms?

[Sevens]

For those of us lucky to have more than one or two firearms, what's your approach to insurance?

Most typical home owner's policies will cover anything you own... but only up to a point. Jewelry? Sure... a few thousand. You have baseball cards? Yes, the first thousand. Guns? We cover that, to the first thousand or so.

You can have anything covered but you typically have to add a specific rider to cover them. My home owners insurance agreed to cover all mine (with an extra value-based fee), but I had to submit a list with serial numbers and descriptions. I've gotta say that I'm not thrilled with the idea of having done that. I think most of us think alike when it comes to any "lists" of our firearms in the hands of, well, anyone.

I've got a buddy who refuses to insure his for exactly that reason. He doesn't want his firearms listed by anyone. Anyway, I've put off getting my concealed weapons permit in Ohio for one reason: It's public record and some real live liberal a-hole newspaper editors in the state have "done their part" to fight Ohioans right to carry by publishing and printing in their newspaper the names of folks who have exercised their right to carry.

How these two items are related-- I'm not sure they are. Pretty much, I suppose, is the idea that my privacy is compromised by either or both.

But anyway... what's your answer for insurance on your collection? A rider on your home policy? An outside insurer? Just trust your gun safe?

 

[kristop64089]

I am faced with this very question, and every answer I have recieved, Is it's not worth the added cost of the rider. I live in the "stix" and am Buying another House in the "stix".

When I questioned my agent on this added rider, he said we had to take into account thae fact that we have no Hydrants, our water has to be trucked in or pumped from ponds. So any addition is a higher rated cost.

I've also been directed towards the statistics of house fires and their
"commonality". They are, for the most part, rare. So again paying for something you may not use.

I was advised by my agent, my FFL, and a few people whose opinion I respect, Buy a fire safe. It's cheap insurance. The 1200 degree for 1 hour is a good rating. As I am told by many, most House fires do not burn That hot, for that long. YMMV

I bought the safe.

 

[Six Shooter Steve]

I had the same experience with my insurance company. I wasnt too thrilled with giving them the serial numbers off my firearms, but on the other hand I wouldnt be thrilled about replacing them out of my pocket. Yeah it may be an extra hundred bucks a year, counting extra for my wifes jewelry, but a small price if the house goes up in flames.

 

[tplumeri]

I have the safe and the rider and the safe is in a basement room behind a fire rated door. got alot of $$ tied up in there!

 

[Adventurer 2]

I had a firearm stolen out of my truck along with other stuff. Car insurance wouldn't pay. Home owner's policy covered it. The rifle wasn't covered on a rider just the home owner's policy. The agent accepted the police report that I filed and paid based off of the police report.
My advice - don't get anything stolen. Policy has a deductible. In addition, the stolen rifle looked brand new when stolen, but the insurance company depreciates whatever was stolen. At least I received some compensation. The insurance companies are working to give up the least amount of $ possible.

 

[Lurch37]

I've never had to use my homeowners insurance and hopefull won't have to. With that said, if there was such a calamity, the part of the insurance policy that covers "contents" gives a flat dollar amount to be paid to replace said contents. I've always thought you could buy/replace whatever you wanted to with those funds. Maybe I'm wrong.

It's kind of a moot point with me as I have an Insurance Policy thru the NRA's programs department. This policy does NOT require any serial numbers unless the gun in question is valued over $1500.00. That amount isn't hard to reach with the value of some of todays gun prices though.

It should be noted that you must be an NRA member to get this particular policy, but I would assume there are other companies that offer insurance for collectables, guns, etc..

 

[sholling]

My agent told me its cheaper to keep adding safes than to keep a rider.

 

[Sgt.Fathead]

We have our Homeowners through our auto/life carrier and have separate added riders for jewelry, firearms and collectible automobiles. It's worth it to me. The guns and jewelry can be replaced, the '55 Pontiac Chieftain can't. However, for the price, we went with all three.

 

[model70fan]

I use a little of all things, I have some of my more expensive guns insured through my regular agent, I have NRA insurance, I have multiple high fire rated safes, and I store guns in multiple locations. Any serial numbers I have given for insurance purposes can be forgotten if the time comes that an official wants to take them, (I sold them to a guy, can't remember his name, for cash, sorry). Does anyone send in warranty cards for firearms? 'Cause that gets that gun on a list to, just somethin to remember.

 

[Playboypenguin]

If you chose not to insure something that is fine, but don't go whining when you lose everything you own to something as simple as an electrical fire.

As for someone know I have a carry permit, I really don't care.

 

[SOSARMS]

I was panning through the replies here, and noted that the CIA was not mentioned here. They insure for very low rates and do not require serials , just general descriptions.....just another option....

 

[blume357]

NRA has a company you can get insurance with.... you only have

to list high end collectible guns.... and keep in mind if you belong to the NRA you already have a $1000 worth of gun insurance.

 

[hillbille]

not sure of all cases in wv state farm on basic homeowners was 2500.00 per item tools, guns, ect. my rider was only 9.00 a year bumped coverage up to 5000.00 to get more covreage than that though required serial #'s ect. and a quite larger fee. I thought the 9.00 for extra 2500.00 was fair and still did'nt have to give #'s. but was told if submitted a claim i would have to come up with a bill of sale and #'s for what its worth.

 

[Sevens]

I'm not specifically trying to change opinions-- I started the thread in hopes of learning about ideas I may have forgotten. But I do want to say something and you can take it for what it's worth:

I've had five fires in my lifetime. That's a whole other bunch of stories. No, I'm not a pyromaniac. Without boring details, I'm talking about a dryer catching fire, a space heater catching a porch on fire and a lightning strike. In my parents home when I was 14 through the next 25 years and other events. Statistically, YES, it is a rare event for most. But really now, we are mostly a group of people who carry concealed and I'm sure folks have said to you, "Do you NEED to carry? What are the chances you would ever NEED it? What are the statistics?"

I'm just saying... "fires are rare" is, in my opinion, not a really wise answer to this question. Your mileage may vary. I know more about home fire prevention than most, I would be willing to bet. 5 home fires has helped in that endeavor.

The other point I wanted make is that a fire safe protects a firearm from fire much in the way it does from theft. Just like any very determined person or group could steal or defeat your safe, there isn't a safe we can purchase that will save a firearm or any other personal item if the fire is nasty enough. If it's in the basement it's much less likely to be burnt up or melted or compromised by heat. In that case, it's more likely, however, to be drowned by the local FD.

I don't bag on anyone for their choices in this subject. Safe or no safe, location of safe, insurance or no insurance. We share ideas and tell stories, but each of us is his own dog.

 

[Stiofan]

Take this for what's it's worth. I'm an agent, been so since '84.

Most homeowners will give you $1,000-1,500 coverage on guns automatically, subject to your deductible. For a few dollars more you can increase that limit to $5,000 or $10,000, depending on the company. This is not scheduling any of the guns, just increasing the coverage limit.

Now a decent gun safe will set you back $800-1,200. If you have valuable collectables, it's a smart choice. Short of that you can schedule your guns as some of you above have done (provided description, serial number, etc.) and they will be covered all risk, which is a bit better than the standard homeowners coverage, as it includes mysterious disappearance. A gun goes missing, and you don't know how it happened, you don't have to prove a theft or burglary occurred, just that it's gone. Scheduling items is more expensive, maybe 1-2% of the value of the guns, and it's a yearly amount.

I'd recommend at least increasing your standard gun limits as high as possible, to $5 or 10K. That would cost less than $20 in most cases. How you insure beyond that is up to you.

 

[yourotherleft]

Great topics. I always wanted to ask you expert about this. I guess I'll take Stiofan's word for it, see if I can just increase the gun coverage for few bucks a year.
True, having other people know too much detail about my toys is always making me nervous.

 

[rellascout]

Most home owners policy will cover up to $2500 subject to deductible. For most people this is enough coverage. After that is really depends on the company. Mine was only about $100 to go to $5,000.

People also need to account for the fact that theft is not the only thing to worry about. A fire could cost you your collection

If you are a NRA member check out these guys.

http://www.locktonrisk.com/nrains/armscare.asp

$10,000 worth of coverage will cost you $159.40

 

[kristop64089]

I am glad this thread popped up. I just talked to my agent about an umbrella coverage for all my guns. Stiofan's post put the ball in motion.

My agent is getting back to me on this. We are going to cover for $20,000. I'll give ya thecosts when I get it.

So, much for "friendly advice" from those around me.

 

[JWT]

I have all of mine insured on a rider to my home owners policy. Does require a description and serial number and I'm not thrilled about it, but figure NICS already has a list so it's worth it to have them insured.

The cost generally is about $5 to $10 per gun per year - not inexpensive, but again worth it if anything ever happens to the guns.

 

[Playboypenguin]

I have all of mine insured on a rider to my home owners policy. Does require a description and serial number and I'm not thrilled about it, but figure NICS already has a list so it's worth it to have them insured.

I find this all pretty funny since when I stated this a while back one board member fought me tooth and nail saying that an insurance company would never ask for such data and that if any old person knew your serial number of your gun they could file a false insurance claim and the insurance company would just pay it without proof of ownership and then you could be charged with possessing the firearm illegally.