To accompany our new partnership with Newmoon Insurance, we have created a new members resource guide to valuing and insuring your instrument.
Available in the BBE Member Resources Library, the guide includes advice on valuing your instrument, a checklist to ensure that it is appropriately covered, and an FAQ on insuring your instrument with Newmoon Insurance.
Valuing your instrument
When insuring your instrument, it’s important that you obtain an accurate valuation, as it is unlikely any policy will pay out above the value that you insure for. In almost all cases, brass instrument policies follow a new replacement policy, meaning if your instrument is lost or stolen, you will replace it with a new one.
It's important to understand that a policy will only pay out a maximum of the insured value. This can lead to under-insuring your instrument if you don’t assess its value regularly. This is especially true when inflation is running high as the replacement value of your instrument might be significantly higher now than when an instrument was purchased.
Insuring your instrument
Many people keep their personal instruments on their household insurance but this approach is not without risk and may mean your instrument isn’t properly covered. An example being that your home policy will require force entry or exit into a building to provide theft cover e.g. someone breaks a window to gain entry to your home. If at a venue, concert etc will your home policy provide non force entry theft cover? Unless listed specifically, your instrument may well be valued well over your single item limit, meaning it is not covered at all.
Many contents policies will only cover instruments whilst they are in the house, leaving them uninsured while out at events or in vehicles. Policies can also require evidence of forced entry in order to make a claim, making it hard to claim if someone walks off with your pride and joy.
Contents cover usually has an excess, which will remove a significant chunk of any payout, making it harder to replace your instrument.
On top of this, your house insurance premium might rise in future years, outweighing any savings that might be made on using the contents policy to insure the instrument in the first place.
Finally, and most importantly, by not being a music specialist your home insurers might not have the expertise to get your damaged instrument replaced, be able to source a temporary replacement or know how to replace your instrument, leaving you without. It is for this reason BBE recommends considering a bespoke musical instrument policy, such as that offered by our partners at Newmoon.
Newmoon discount for BBE members
Brass instrument insurance guide (members only)