We are finishing up a new house, talking with my insurance company they offer some insurance for guns against theft or fire and such... only up to a certain amount... but they have to have them appraised by someone... who would appraise rifles and put it on paper for an insurance company... OR is there a different place that insures firearms that yall know of??
Gun insurance
- Thread starter Sniper338
- Start date
shortgrass
Silver $$ Contributor
NRA Arms Care Insurance
Most insurance policies cap the payment for firearms, regardless of "total" losses. Lumping everything together won't work. And they will only pay a certain amount for your home, you can't "over-insure" and expect them to just cough up a bigger check.
dragman said:
Agree 100%.
hoz53
Gold $$ Contributor
My homeowners company covers guns if you have a fire as part of contents. You have to have a special rider and pay more if you want theft coverage and you have to give them a list with serial numbers. I wouldn't mind paying the extra but I'm not giving them the list with serial numbers. Just checked NRA arms care is 300 a year for 30K worth of coverage and they don't require serial #s and only a list of guns valued over 2500. I've talked to people who had claims through armscare and they were satisfied
NRA Firearms Insurance. No questions asked, no proof of ownership, no appraisals. No BS. Tell them the total value of the arms you have, pay the premium, if you have a loss, they pay. Period. I keep a list of arms/scopes/spotters with serial numbers just in case but they do not ask for them.
I'm using a good liberty. I wasn't aware of the NRA insurance parogram but adding a rider onto my homeowner's was just what CJ6 and SWD said.
Most homeowner's policies require riders for some items, fine art, jewelry, furs, guns. It's very expensive. The only rider that I have is for my wife's ring.
There are lots of debates about how strong or rated your safe should be but in my opinion any quality safe will make you a harder target than most of your neighbors. I'm not really expecting the Italian Job crew to stop at my house. They would be disappointed if they did. Fire is more of a concern for rating in my opinion. That depends if you live out in a rural county with a volunteers fire department or in a municipality with close professional FD. I can hit a baseball to my local station.
The only advice I will certainly give you is buy a bigger safe than you think you need. and just because a safe says Xx long guns that isn't true if you are talking scoped rifles.
Most homeowner's policies require riders for some items, fine art, jewelry, furs, guns. It's very expensive. The only rider that I have is for my wife's ring.
There are lots of debates about how strong or rated your safe should be but in my opinion any quality safe will make you a harder target than most of your neighbors. I'm not really expecting the Italian Job crew to stop at my house. They would be disappointed if they did. Fire is more of a concern for rating in my opinion. That depends if you live out in a rural county with a volunteers fire department or in a municipality with close professional FD. I can hit a baseball to my local station.
The only advice I will certainly give you is buy a bigger safe than you think you need. and just because a safe says Xx long guns that isn't true if you are talking scoped rifles.
DennisH
Life Time NRA member
The "untold" story of insuring guns/rifles.
What insurance companies fail to tell you: You give the insurance company the value of your firearms when you take the policy out. If you experience a loss, the "insurance" company depreciates the firearms based on the value at the time you took the policy out. It's usually 10% per year. I hope the policy isn't 10 years old. I believe every other entity appreciates them.
Ask me how I know! Jewelry falls under the same category. I believe Jewelry falls under the same depreciation footnote on your policy.
I don't know if firearms are insured under the full replacement loss cause or not. I know most get their home insured with full replacement value only if you rebuild the house, another fine line statement on your policy. You still come up short if you rebuild as they look for improvements when you rebuild. They will deduct for these items. Don't add any extra rooms or make rooms bigger vs. what is was when you took out the policy, another 100% full deduction.
Insurance companies coverage will vary between companies, but I guarantee you it's not in your favor. Also, in all fairness, I have never had anything insured with the NRA. Don't we have coverage for being an member or a lifetime member automatically? I think the amount is capped. It's been a long time since I have looked over my NRA benefits. But as someone above stated, weigh the cost of insurance out vs. replacement of your firearms at today's cost. I know some have a collection that's value is almost equal to or exceeds their home value. I think getting coverage on these firearms will be cost prohibitive.
Just my two cents, maybe an adjuster will chime in. Listen to the adjuster, the person who comes out and knows your policy better than you or your insurance salesman does.
Dennis
And put it in your home or ???? where it will be very difficult to get out. Thieves have been known to drive through a wall, tie a chain around your safe or a companies ATM machine, and yank it out. They carry a hoist to lift it in a trailer or their truck.
What insurance companies fail to tell you: You give the insurance company the value of your firearms when you take the policy out. If you experience a loss, the "insurance" company depreciates the firearms based on the value at the time you took the policy out. It's usually 10% per year. I hope the policy isn't 10 years old. I believe every other entity appreciates them.
Ask me how I know! Jewelry falls under the same category. I believe Jewelry falls under the same depreciation footnote on your policy.
I don't know if firearms are insured under the full replacement loss cause or not. I know most get their home insured with full replacement value only if you rebuild the house, another fine line statement on your policy. You still come up short if you rebuild as they look for improvements when you rebuild. They will deduct for these items. Don't add any extra rooms or make rooms bigger vs. what is was when you took out the policy, another 100% full deduction.
Insurance companies coverage will vary between companies, but I guarantee you it's not in your favor. Also, in all fairness, I have never had anything insured with the NRA. Don't we have coverage for being an member or a lifetime member automatically? I think the amount is capped. It's been a long time since I have looked over my NRA benefits. But as someone above stated, weigh the cost of insurance out vs. replacement of your firearms at today's cost. I know some have a collection that's value is almost equal to or exceeds their home value. I think getting coverage on these firearms will be cost prohibitive.
Just my two cents, maybe an adjuster will chime in. Listen to the adjuster, the person who comes out and knows your policy better than you or your insurance salesman does.
Dennis
And put it in your home or ???? where it will be very difficult to get out. Thieves have been known to drive through a wall, tie a chain around your safe or a companies ATM machine, and yank it out. They carry a hoist to lift it in a trailer or their truck.
alf
Silver $$ Contributor
NRA only covers $2500 of loss with our membership. Additional NRA Insurance is roughly $100/$10,000 of coverage as I recall. You tell them what you had and how much you paid for it, they write a check. No proof of ownership nor appraisals required up to the amount of coverage. I keep a list of firearms and optics (all they cover) with serial numbers and receipts in a fire-proof(resistant) file cabinet just in case.
bobinpa
Gold $$ Contributor
My insurance company has a "sporting equipment" coverage. On top of that I pay for a rider for 50k which should cover some of my loss if I lost them all. The rider up to 50k was reasonably priced, more than that was a lot more money so I stopped at 50k. All they require is that I can show, not prove, that they were there. Meaning, I have a list of what I have. It includes purchase date and amount with serial numbers. I also have a picture of most of them. The list is in one of the safes and before you laugh at that, I also gave a duplicate list to my parents. Lately I've been thinking that I may not need the insurance...... I have good fire rated safes that should keep everyone except a professional out. And I don't have anything that a professional would really want or at least they could get somewhere else easier. If I had the money back that I spent on the insurance for the last 20 years, I could have a lot more guns or a lot better safes, or another motorcycle or car or, etc ...... you get the point. Put your money in the safe or safes, whichever the case may be.
I have two policies which together at least mostly cover everything.
A "sporting goods" rider on my homeowners insurance. Any loss, up to $2,500 per item - max $7,500 per loss - that covers stuff I frequently use. Covers fly rods and scopes in addition to guns. It's fairly expensive at around $100 or 1.3%/year of the max loss but it will cover a Weatherby with a Schmidt & Bender that falls off the truck.
A collectors insurance policy from Collectibles Insurance Services that covers up to the policy max for less than 0.5%. Covers all risks including damage/loss in shipping or mail, fire, theft, etc. The insured can used an item up to four times a year so it's not limited to safe queens. I gave them a list of firearms when I originally bought the policy but serial numbers were not required. I'm not required to keep that list updated as they believe collectors have significant turnover so everything I've acquired since is covered.
I have multiple safes and they serve a purpose but eventually I got limited in what I could buy. If I had it to do over I would have built this house with a separate gun vault but that option has passed. IMHO it's much easier and aesthetically pleasing to store firearms in an open room with shelves, racks, etc. My safes are limited to handguns so I don't inadvertently arm a bunch of juveniles.
A "sporting goods" rider on my homeowners insurance. Any loss, up to $2,500 per item - max $7,500 per loss - that covers stuff I frequently use. Covers fly rods and scopes in addition to guns. It's fairly expensive at around $100 or 1.3%/year of the max loss but it will cover a Weatherby with a Schmidt & Bender that falls off the truck.
A collectors insurance policy from Collectibles Insurance Services that covers up to the policy max for less than 0.5%. Covers all risks including damage/loss in shipping or mail, fire, theft, etc. The insured can used an item up to four times a year so it's not limited to safe queens. I gave them a list of firearms when I originally bought the policy but serial numbers were not required. I'm not required to keep that list updated as they believe collectors have significant turnover so everything I've acquired since is covered.
I have multiple safes and they serve a purpose but eventually I got limited in what I could buy. If I had it to do over I would have built this house with a separate gun vault but that option has passed. IMHO it's much easier and aesthetically pleasing to store firearms in an open room with shelves, racks, etc. My safes are limited to handguns so I don't inadvertently arm a bunch of juveniles.
shortgrass
Silver $$ Contributor
rkittine
Gold $$ Contributor
My insurance company will only cover firearms up to a total of $30,000 less a $5,000 deductible, even though I have $895,000 coverage on contents. In order to eliminate listing everything, providing receipts (most of my firearms were purchased new) I was able to purchase "Stated Value" insurance, but it is not very economical. I guess a lot of this is what you think your risk level is. I travel a lot and although I have a very substantial alarm system and monitoring contract, I doubt that in a fire my saves would protect my firearms long enough in a fire.
Bob
Bob
Ask yourself why the value of the insured item depreciates, but the premium doesn't? You would think both would depreciate equally. Did that with a car insurer once and he said he'd pay the replacement value if I never wrote this down or told anyone. I didn't like him so tough.
rkittine
Gold $$ Contributor
"Stated Value" pays you exactly what you "state" the value is. It is most common on aircraft and boat insurance. If you increase the stated value, your premium goes up, reduce the value and it goes down. In New York, Home Owners 5, is "replacement value" insurance and you get the item replaced, regardless of how old it is and what the replacement costs. It gets replaced with the new equivalent that is available. When buying insurance, I have found it is worth while having a good broker. Lots of small print out there when it comes to insurance.
Bob
Bob
DennisH
Life Time NRA member
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