Insurance for Coaches

I am planing on giving wakeboard lessons this summer and was wondering if anyone could help me with some insurance questions. Do you have personal liability coverage? If so, who do you have it through? and what sort of insurance do you have on your boat and who do you use? Your help would be greatly appreciated, I just want to make sure that I am appropriately covered.

Thanks

www.thewwa.com

Consider getting an umbrella personal liability policy on top of your other coverage. You will have to maintain some minimum level of liability insurance on all off your exposures (car, boat, home,etc). I have this type of policy through State Farm, comes out to about $20/mo for an extra $ million liability.

I use Belter insurance, they've been great for the past two years.

http://www.belterinsurance.com/

Thanks everyone for the input, it's greatly appreciated. I've browsed the internet a ton and didn't get much; it's definitely good to hear what everyone here has and works well for them.

I have a 2 Millioin dollar umbrella persona liability policy on top my rego insurance. I used to Coach out of my own boat. But the insurance policy was trough the roof and my umbrella did not cover me in while I was doing business in my own boat. NOW what I do is use client boats only to Coach them. That way anything that happens falls on the customers insurance. I also use waiver forms for ALL RIDERS. I paid my Lawyer to draw up the waiver form that basically excludes me from all liability (although nothing is fool proof). This has been much cheaper. I have noticed too that most people that I give lessons to really like that we come to them, help them dial in thier own boat. Most people feel more comfortable riding their own set-up/lake/ect. Usually I get the whole family involved so that the parents know what we are up too, how to drive properly, what gear to use, how to set-up the boat. You get the idea. All my insurance is from State Farm.

insurance is good

I go to an event every year for BASE jumping the they have written waivers and do a video waiver. So I state your name wave everything. Covers their arse in video audio and written.

USA Water Ski has a brand new program. There are some hoops to jump thru but well worth the savings. The cost is only $30 per year.+ USA membership + Level 1 instructors + must be able to pass background check.

http://www.usawaterski.org/graphics/...htsandFAQs.pdf

first, i don't know anything about the new USA Waterski program, i haven't looked into it.

personal liability probably won't help you out if something happened while you were giving lessons. because at that point, it's not personal- it's commercial. nintzel has pretty good advice- but a state farm policy does not have to protect you if someone is paying you for a service and there is an accident related to that service. that "through the roof" number nintzel is talking about, if you're wondering, could be close to $5000.

that belter insurance agency that liquidforcefan mentioned looks pretty good. you could get a local independent agency (not Statefarm or Farm Bureau) to do the same thing- only the local agent may not have experience with this category of insurance so your call on that.

my advice is to not take people out that would sue you! and get a good waiver, and still get the commercial insurance!

bottom line: with the costs involved, it's hard to give lessons part time without losing money or risking personal assets.