Insurance rider for your gear?

I have had a rider for years. Very inexpensive and worth it.I had a transformer get hit by lighhtning in my neiborhood and lost a Audio Research sp-8 ( years ago) and got replacement cost which was more than I had paid for it.If you can't afford to replace what you have its worth a little extra for peice of mind... Thorman

I have a separate rider that covers my gear at 'retail' replacement cost. Have pictures (from several angles) of all equipment along with sheet with serial numbers, cost, and how many units are involved, all filed with insurance agent. Have agent come over to inspect set-up too so he/she actually sees and grasps what you are insuring. A real eye opener for some of those people.

Definately get separate riders or boost your contents coverage... take pictures and keep them in a separate place.. ie office or friends house for safe keeping. In the event that you have a loss, fire, water damage, theft...you will have visual proof of the equipment. Replacement value is important, otherwise you would get current market value on your gear. Good advice by squidboy!! Good luck!
Joe

I've got a rider for both my equipment and software. The best person to talk to about this potential need is a claims adjuster and not the agent. It's certainly cheap piece of mind.

I've always wanted that explained to me. My regular personal property replacement coverage is more than enough to replace every item in the house, even paying manufacturers' list prices; so why do I need to pay more for the audio gear??

A good friend got robbed this past summer; and his insurance carrier replaced everything without the rider.

Sugarbrie,

That is an excellent question. I hope this helps. I have a ton of vinyl that's really valuable. I really don't care what it's worth except if it is gone and I wouldn't settle for purchase price if anyone wanted to buy them. The library is too huge for me to do anything more than photograph it. This is not an ordinary collection by anyones standard except the community here at Audiogon. This collection has been appraised by a local professional and insured for a set dollar figure. Waste of money? I don't know, but worth it for the peace of mind. There are tons of horror stories about insurance adjusters and all I want to do is avoid the potential greif. Additionally, most homeowners policies have a maximum dollar figure for personal posessions at 150% of the residence insured value. My vinyl exceeds that amount. The next question is about vintage equipment and even reasonably new equipment that isn't available new. Just imagine the arguement you would need to make about your stuff if it's now a pile of ashes. For myself it would be difficult to fight for a settlement after such a huge emotional loss. In all fairness, most insurance adjusters dealing with a home loss settle quickly and fairly. Little fraud occurs in this area so they are much more open to loss than say, a car loss. The only example I have for you is a friends 1958 D28 Martin guitar which was stolen from his living room. It was eventually replaced with a new D28 minus deductible after a court battle. He wasn't made whole by his coverage since he paid over $4000 for this instrument eight years prior to the loss. Price of the new D28 was around $1800 and it will take at least 20 years for it to reach it's maximum potential. Geez, you can't even find spruce today to compare with that used in the original, so it's doubtful the instrument will ever age as well. The only way to know is after the fact and I'm going to err on the safe side. To each his own.

I deffinately agree that an additional insurance rider to
cover your audio gear and CDs/Tapes/Records is worth the
very small additional premium you pay. Shall we face the
facts - some insurance companies are great to deal with when you have a claim - and others are pains you know where.
It really isn't until you actually have a claim, that you
ever find out what type you have. Who needs more hassles in
life? Spend a few extra dollars and aviod the worry.

Thanks to everyone for the great responses. My insurance company told me today that an additional rider would be a good idea as an adjuster that may process any claim I make might or might not have a clue as to the replacement value of my equipment and vinyl collection. I will document with pics, lists, serial numbers and receipts and keep them in my office.