Frequently Asked Questions

Note: the person who listed as the applicant will become the Named Insured on the policy. The name of the insured should match the name on the rental contracts/location agreements. The Named Insured has special rights and duties. These rights and duties are explained in General Rules of the policy wording.

Video: Steve Beatty explains the "Named Insured"

Individual

If you are applying as an individual, please list your full legal name in the Applicant’s name box.

Partnership or Joint Venture

If you are applying as a Partnership or Joint Venture please list you and your partners or co-venturers full legal names.

Trade Name/Unincorporated Company   

If you are applying as a company that is not incorporated please list your full legal name and your unincorporated company name by including the acronym dba (doing business as).  An example of how to correctly list your name in this scenario is below:

Jane Doe dba ABC Music Company

Corporation

If you are applying as a Corporation, please list the full legal name of your corporation including the company’s designation (i.e. Inc. Ltd, Corp.)

We often get the question, “Where do I upload my photos/list of my insured equipment?” …actually, we do not require an equipment list for our files, but it is a requirement that insurance clients have an equipment list that can be supplied to the insurer in the event of a claim.

How should this equipment list be assembled? There is no one “official” or “proper” way of doing it. Simply create a spreadsheet and document all the information you feel necessary to keep track of your gear.

The musical Equipment and Instruments under this policy are covered under an Inland Marine coverage form. Meaning, the coverage is included while in your studio/office/home for storage, while in transit* to and from your gigs, and while being used away from your premises anywhere in the world**

Note that there is no coverage for property while rented, leased or loaned to others;

* The policy contains a theft from an unattended/unlocked vehicle exclusion that reads as follows:

We will not cover loss by theft or pilferage that occurs while covered property is left on or in an unlocked and unattended container, compartment, vehicle or trailer. We will cover theft of property from a locked container, compartment, vehicle or trailer when there are visible signs of forced entry. This exclusion will not apply while covered property is in the care or custody of a common carrier.

** Coverage is included anywhere in the world with the exception of any country or jurisdiction which is subject to trade or other economic sanction or embargo by the governments of Canada or the United States of America.

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This is the cost of repairing or replacing the damaged property without deduction for depreciation. Replacement cost will pay for the smallest of the following:

1. The amount you actually spend in repairing the damage, 2. The amount it would cost to replace the lost or damaged property at the time of the loss with new property of similar kind and quality to be used for the same purpose. 3. The limit of coverage that applies to the property. Payment will be made once the property has actually been replaced.

INSTRUMENTS

The policy territory for instruments is limited worldwide.  This means that there is coverage anywhere in the world with the exception of any country or jurisdiction which is subject to trade or other economic sanction or embargo by the governments of Canada or the United States of America.

COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY 

Coverage Territory (excluding Non-Owned Automobile Liability) applies anywhere in the world with the exception of any country or jurisdiction which is subject to trade or economic sanction or embargo by the governments of Canada or the United States of America. In jurisdictions where the insurer may be prevented by law from paying damages or defending lawsuits they will indemnify you.

The Equipment deductible is $250 per claim. This applies to any one incident, not per item.

This coverage is designed to protect against claims of bodily injury or property damage to third parties caused by your operations as a professional musician. It includes the cost of a lawyer to defend you.

The Commercial General Liability coverage offered through the program would not be intended to cover touring exposure. A tour is defined as a series of pre-scheduled performances in different cities, performed by an artist or group over a series of weeks or months. A tour has a scheduled start and stop date and the band/musician is responsible for booking the venues in which they perform. If you are a touring band/musician, please see our music tour liability page.

This Commercial General Liability policy provides coverage for claims arising from a personal recording studio. This Commercial General Liability policy excludes claims arising from the operation of a commercial recording studio, which is what it is when you have third parties using the studio. Operators of commercial recording studios can use StudioPolicy to buy a policy online.

This Commercial General Liability Policy also includes coverage for tenant legal liability (coverage for your professionally used rented premises), Employers Liability (Canadian employees only) and Non-Owned Auto Liability equal to limits chosen. The commercial general liability / tenant legal liability coverage’s would not apply to personal residence or any activities outside of those as a professional musician.

This policy includes the following exclusions: Pyrotechnics and/or Throwing of Objects Exclusion; Abuse Exclusion, Field of Entertainment Exclusion.

To be considered as classical musician, the applicant must be a fulltime classical musician and not affiliated with any other type of music in a professional capacity. 

Front Row's musical instrument insurance program is for music professionals who are Canadian residents and members of select music associations. If you're not a current member of any of the associations listed in the "Music Association" dropdown, you won't be able to purchase this insurance. If you're a member of a music association that isn't yet listed in the dropdown, please tell us about the association and we might be able to add it to the program.

No, there is no exclusion on rap music/hip hop-related events and the insurance rates are not higher.

Below is a breakdown of how instruments and equipment are valued under this insurance program:

• Replacement Cost, except if agreed value is requested. The cost of repairing or replacing the damaged property without deduction for depreciation.  Replacement cost will pay for the smallest of the following:
• 1. The amount you actually spend in repairing the damage,
• 2. The amount it would cost to replace the lost or damaged property at the time of the loss with new property of similar kind and quality to be used for the same purpose.
• 3. The limit of coverage that applies to the property. Payment will be made once the property has actually been replaced. Because replacement costs can vary, we recommend that you round up the value you choose for your equipment limit (e.g., if you estimate the replacement cost of all your gear as $12,756 CAD, select $13,000 as your equipment limit). Note: mid-term changes to your policy limits are subject to a $25 change fee. If you know that you will be acquiring new equipment during your policy term, you may wish to include the value of this equipment in your limit total. The equipment limit represents the maximum amount that the insurance company will pay for any one claim. It limits the amount that you could receive from a paid claim. It should be adequate to cover the replacement costs of every item insured under the policy.
• Agreed Value: If agreed value is requested, a current appraisal less than 5 years old must be provided. To maintain agreed value an updated appraisal must be provided every 5 years.

**If you want to insure antique, rare or one-of-a-kind instruments, we recommend that you contact our office to arrange a quote for these items to be insured on an agreed value basis. As an owner of these unique items, you may not be satisfied with a new instrument of comparable material and quality replacing your antique, rare or one-of-a-kind instrument.

Example: if you own a vintage Les Paul guitar that is appraised at $25,000 and you do not request that your instrument be valued based on agreed value, the policy would only provide you with a new Les Paul guitar of comparable material and quality used for the same purpose in the event of an insured loss. In order to make sure that you could replace your vintage guitar with another vintage guitar of same value as your original appraised guitar, you need to contact our office to arrange a custom quote and provide a copy of an appraisal that is less than 5 years old.

Once a policy is purchased, policy changes can be made HERE. These changes will be sent to our help desk and processed manually and will then be reflected on your policy. A $25 fee will apply to changes that result in additional premium. 

We do not require a schedule/list of instruments/equipment to be on file to bind coverage under the program. It would be the insured's responsibility to maintain proof of ownership for your records. In the event of a claim, the claims adjuster would require the proof of ownership.

For vintage instruments: If you’ve had them appraised, then we need the appraisals.

We do not have monthly payment options for our online policies.

We offer insurance for music schools in Canada but this would be separate from the instrument insurance online program. Protégé is an insurance product custom-designed for art schools (including music schools) by Front Row Insurance Brokers. Read more about the policy here. This policy can be arranged offline.

A clause in an insurance policy requiring an insured to carry a certain percentage (usually 80, 90 or 100%) of insurance in relation to the value of the property insured. The insured shares in losses to the extent that he is underinsured at the time of loss.  Under the terms of this clause, property must be insured in an amount equal to or exceeding 90% of its insurable value. Failure to do so will result in a penalty in the event of a loss. The manner in which the 90% co-insurance clause would operate is illustrated in the following hypothetical example.  

Example:

A) Owned Instruments/Equipment is insured on a replacement cost basis for $60,000.

B) Actual cost to replace the Owned Instruments/Equipment is $100,000.

C) Minimum amount of insurance required to satisfy the 90% co-insurance clause is $90,000. (90% of B)

D) Amount of loss $50,000.  

Application of co-insurance clause:  

FORMULA:

Amount of insurance carried   X  Amount of loss / Amount of insurance required    =  Recovery

$60,000. (A)  X  $50,000 (D) / $90,000. (C)  = $33,333.33

This example clearly illustrates the necessity of insurance to value. Note the amount of recovery never exceeds the amount of insurance carried. For this reason it is important to insure for 100% of the insurable value in order to have enough coverage in the event of a total loss.

**Coverage Territory: Worldwide - Anywhere in the world with the exception of any country or jurisdiction which is subject to trade or other economic sanction or embargo by the governments of  Canada or the United States of America.

Full coverage for Earthquake & Flood

$10,000 Office Contents Coverage - office furniture, fixtures, photocopiers, office supplies, including tenant improvements done to the office space. This would be for a home office/studio or small rented office/studio space. Please contact us if higher limits are needed.

$10,000 Rental Reimbursement - If any Musical Instruments or Equipment that is insured is lost or damaged by a covered cause of loss, the insurer will reimburse you for the reasonable rental expense you incur to rent substitute property necessary to continue your operations while the insured gear is being repaired or in the process of being replaced.

$5,000 Computer Hardware/software/extra expense coverage - pays to help maintain normal operations following direct physical loss or damage to covered property at an insured location by a covered cause of loss. Pays extra expenses that are over and above your normal operating costs and that are directly related to your covered loss.

$10,000 up to 30-days: newly acquired Instruments/ equipment - automatic coverage for equipment that is newly purchased or acquired atomically, even if those items have not yet been added to the policy.

$10,000 up to 30-days: Borrowed Instruments/Equipment - provides coverage for instruments/equipment that are borrowed or non-owned while being used as a replacement for insured gear that is damages or stolen

$5,000. Valuable Papers - reimburses the cost to replace or reproduce valuable documents such as trusts or business records, corporate agreements, contracts and charters in the event of a covered loss.

$5,000 Accounts Receivable - covers the loss of revenue owed to the insured musician by their customers that they cannot collect because of damage to their business records in the event of a covered loss.

Built-in Inflation Guard on Instruments & Equipment - if the value of an insured equipment or instrument increases in value from the time it is first reported, the insured values will automatically increase accordingly.

$5,000 Business Income / Extra Expense Coverage - covers the additional expenses incurred due to a covered loss, including the loss of business income.

An example of this coverage would be: An artist is a music teacher and their instruments and teaching facility were damaged in a fire. This would cover their cost to rent a temporary location for teaching; and cover lost revenue during the period they were down and could not teach.

For assistance, please contact MusicPro Insurance:

1-800-MUSICPRO

www.musicproinsurance.com

For individuals, partnerships or corporations based in Québec wishing to get more information or to purchase coverage, please contact one of our brokers by:

Completing an online application: HERE

Emailing US at: MONoffice@frontrowinsurance.com

Calling us at 514-382-9625.