Strangely, insuring musical instruments can be a bit of a grey area. There isn’t any rhyme or reason for this apart from the fact that instruments do lead a different life to other assets, and they can often be very high monetary and sentimental value to the owner. It is worth checking your home contents insurance and checking that musical instruments are covered both in the home, the car and at schools/places of work. This is another reason why the area is a little different to more normal items that need insuring.
Musical instruments are often expensive, and a lot of home contents policies cover single items up to a certain value. Instruments can fall outside of this and the fact they are carted around and left in cars, halls, venues etc can mean that they do need their own insurance.
There are several companies that offer specialist insurance for musical instruments and the premiums are generally very reasonable. These companies know how the music world works and the travelling life of an instrument. It is worth checking for travel outside of your country of residence if you are going away and taking your instrument, on tour, or a student going on a school trip and taking an instrument with them. The insurance can be purchased for just a one off, or general annual policy depending on needs. (a little like travel insurance). Schools will often have their own insurance on trips/tours, but it is worth double checking the policy if your instrument is of a higher value.
If you hire your musical instrument please check whether you are liable for sorting the insurance, or the company that you hire from cover this for you. As with all insurance there may well be an excess charge for any claims.
If you are purchasing musical instrument insurance, it is worth looking at the different options as the insurance can be tailored exactly to what you need. Not only loss, but damage to the instrument and cover for you, the musician. Insurance companies will also advise on different airlines, and their policies when transporting musical instruments.
As with all insurance, you will be expected to meet the terms and conditions of the policy and with instruments this will cover the case that your instrument is stored and transported in. You can’t expect insurance to cover your instrument if it is in a sub-standard case! Your instrument will also need paperwork to prove the quality, value, standard etc to warrant the cover that you get. Most instruments will have all of this, but it is worth keeping everything documented.
