Insuring Your Gear: Blanket vs. Itemized Coverage

Our insurance clients often ask: “Why do you itemize my equipment at Trew Shield? Isn’t blanket coverage faster and more convenient?”

It’s a fair question, especially when some insurance agencies offer “blanket” coverage policies that don’t require gear lists. In practical terms, a blanket coverage policy means that a client can cover up to a certain dollar amount of gear (say $100k) without providing details of which specific items that coverage applies to. Blanket policies are more expensive than unscheduled policies, but they do offer some advantages. The process to insure gear is faster with blanket policies (no homework!) and there is flexibility for rotating equipment in and out of the policy.

These advantages sound great on paper, but the key question to consider is: How well do these policies protect a sound mixer in the event of a loss? Specifically, how much can the mixer recover and how long will it take? Unfortunately, this is where blanket policies can become a much bigger headache than you might think.

First, when filing a claim, blanket policies typically require a full accounting of equipment damaged or stolen before the insurance company pays out. This means that a mixer will need to provide proof of ownership for every single item, including receipts or invoices. Every lav mic, cable, transmitter, receiver, boom pole, and earwig—all of it must be individually accounted for.

Considering the broad range of sources mixers buy equipment from (dealers, eBay, Facebook, flea markets), tracking paperwork can be incredibly difficult, which delays the time to recover on a claim. By comparison, Trew Shield itemized policies never require invoices or paper trails, because the items were listed before the policy was purchased.

The second major problem with blanket policies has to do with value. If a mixer purchased secondhand equipment “cheap” (imagine a mint-condition 888 on eBay for $4,000), a blanket policy will only cover up to what was paid, not what the gear is actually worth. In contrast, Trew Shield policies attribute value identified by the mixer before the policy is put in force. This approach is called an “agreed value” policy where the insured and the insurer agree up front on what the equipment is worth and how much it should cost to insure.

Sound mixers have the longest and most complex gear lists of any crew member on set, so of course, it’s very important to have a policy that 1) covers value per item, 2) can be quickly reviewed without going through mountains of paperwork, and 3) doesn’t invite debates about what gear is worth. At Trew Shield, we help clients recover money on their gear losses quickly, without the hassle of paperwork recovery or value debates.

If you have a blanket policy and want to look at converting it to a scheduled policy mid-term, we can help. Send us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at 615-988-0781. We’ll save you money on your premium, and you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ll be able to quickly get paid if you have a claim.