Firearm Insurance...

[IsThatLegal?]

I switched from State Farm personal articles policy to Collectibles Insurance Services this year. It was a bit cheaper, but more importantly, no serial numbers given. I did not feel comfortable with a company knowing everything I had (they asked for numbers with every new firearm I wanted insured).

Ditto

 

[maxwelhse]

Anyone have real experience with the Lockton insurance? Claims? Customer service experience? Etc.???

Like others, I've been paying them for ages but never needed to make a claim.

Before I became an NRA life member, which 50% of the motivation was the insurance, I read up on all of the forums and such I could find at the time. There were 5-6 accounts of guys using it without any trouble. The few hiccups people had were with their regular insurance fighting with Lockton.

Lockton kicks in after whatever other coverage you have (and has its own deductible too... $100?) and some guys were reporting that their other company didn't see it the same way for whatever reasons. I think I saw one or two guys whining about their deductibles too, like that was Lockton's fault. ex. $500 auto policy deductible, $100 from Lockton, car was broken into, theif stole a $300 gun, broke a $300 window, guy basically has no insurance.

So... Everything I could find was either positive or silly. As much as gun owners like to peanut gallery, if they were screwing people over we'd have probably heard about it by now.

 

[bwframe]

Like others, I've been paying them for ages but never needed to make a claim.

Before I became an NRA life member, which 50% of the motivation was the insurance, I read up on all of the forums and such I could find at the time. There were 5-6 accounts of guys using it without any trouble. The few hiccups people had were with their regular insurance fighting with Lockton.

Lockton kicks in after whatever other coverage you have (and has its own deductible too... $100?) and some guys were reporting that their other company didn't see it the same way for whatever reasons. I think I saw one or two guys whining about their deductibles too, like that was Lockton's fault. ex. $500 auto policy deductible, $100 from Lockton, car was broken into, theif stole a $300 gun, broke a $300 window, guy basically has no insurance.

So... Everything I could find was either positive or silly. As much as gun owners like to peanut gallery, if they were screwing people over we'd have probably heard about it by now.

Same here. Can only hope that between the $2500 of State Farm and the ArmscarePlus coverage, it will be adequate in the event of some sort of disaster.

When you get to adding up all of the little bits of things, like gear, bags, cases, safes, reloading equipment, components, etc, calculators can get wore out.

Even before the scamdemic and stolen election, I had an eye opening reloading component discovery. Had a Rem 700 in .243 that I sold to fund other things. Got to adding up my .243 components and loaded ammo. Found over $400 bucks worth of stuff. Decided to buy a .243 Encore barrel rather than let that ammo and components go for pennies on the dollar.

 

[maxwelhse]

Same here. Can only hope that between the $2500 of State Farm and the ArmscarePlus coverage, it will be adequate in the event of some sort of disaster.

When you get to adding up all of the little bits of things. like reloading equipment, components, etc, calculators can get wore out.

Even before the scamdemic and stolen election, I had an eye opening reloading component discovery. Had a Rem 700 in .243 that I sold to fund other things. Got to adding up my .243 components and loaded ammo and found over $400 bucks worth of stuff. Decided to buy a .243 Encore barrel rather than let that ammo and components go for pennies on the dollar.

I assume the worst and aim for the high side when I buy coverage. I aim high because part of the old man tax is that I now have a bunch of firearms adjacent stuff, which could be personal property or not depending on the adjuster's mood that day, which I bought new (and much of it remains new... playing the long game in some cases) which cannot be replaced with new anymore. It's not being made. So... Do I now have rare and valuable collectables that I should have declared or do I just have old crap that I need to find on eBay to tell them how big the check needs to be? I have my insurance high enough that BOTH sides should cover it.

A real bummer is that nobody will insure ammo (I asked). I can understand their position, but it's fair to say I've invested more than I'd care to loose in one day in ammo. I have no idea how insurance would treat components, but I'd be curious to know. I'd argue that brass and bullets are just regular old personal property, but I bet they wouldn't see it that way.

I bet they wouldn't see the investment in the cans the ammo was in as personal property either and those cans aren't cheap.

When it comes to insurance, I always aim high. It's not that much more money to pad it a bit and I sleep better. A guy I used to work with had a nasty house fire and spoke from experience there. He said his insurance treated him right (State Farm, btw), but it took some creativity to make it happen, only his garage burned, he didn't remember everything that was in there, and it absorbed his personal property allowance for the entire dwelling. He said if his whole house would have burned down, he'd have been out multiple years of salary.

 

[binkerton]

This has got me wondering about up to date gun values. Is the blue book still a good source or is the market to fast for a once a year pub to keep up with? I wouldny even know where to begin. Havent owned a current blue book in years and I cant figure out how to look at finished auctions on GB to see what things are actually going for.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

This has got me wondering about up to date gun values. Is the blue book still a good source or is the market to fast for a once a year pub to keep up with? I wouldny even know where to begin. Havent owned a current blue book in years and I cant figure out how to look at finished auctions on GB to see what things are actually going for.

You have to have a GB account to view the completed auctions. It's not too hard to sign up for, but I think you do have to provide a credit card number (against which they do a test transaction for some small amount to verify, but it gets reversed).

 

[Degtyaryov]

I’m with progressive and they likewise had a cap of $2500. I’ve thought about looking for extra coverage but I don’t think it’s worth the extra hassle or expensive for me at this time. Made sure to get pictures and a list of all my guns and serial numbers in case I need to make a claim. Always best to have proof.

 

[DadSmith]

I switched from State Farm personal articles policy to Collectibles Insurance Services this year. It was a bit cheaper, but more importantly, no serial numbers given. I did not feel comfortable with a company knowing everything I had (they asked for numbers with every new firearm I wanted insured).

I read about them. Do you feel confident that they will live up to their end?

 

[Mongo59]

This has got me wondering about up to date gun values. Is the blue book still a good source or is the market to fast for a once a year pub to keep up with? I wouldny even know where to begin. Havent owned a current blue book in years and I cant figure out how to look at finished auctions on GB to see what things are actually going for.

The books don't take to mind the sudden craziness like we have unfortunately seen as of late, but do a good job considering it covers so many geographic areas and trends.

I personally use the 'Standard Catalog of Firearms' as it does a good job with most of the variants of a model. For instance, it lists (with prices) 97 different variants of the Remington 700. I have my wife buy me a new one for Christmas each year and give my old one to my brother and he passes his on to a friend and so on.

 

[Bugzilla]

A GOOD, well hidden safe, bolted to the floor, would stop 99.9% of Indiana burglers from stealing your guns. AND, it is a one time expense.

This, hidden or not, and a hidden wall storage or other hidden storage. Don’t keep them all in one place. As others mentioned I don’t trust giving the insurance company all of my gun info. When they come for your guns, that is another database, along with the doctors asking if you have any weapons, they will use. I am only considering theft protection as if there is a fire, I’ll have greater concerns. But I currently have nothing to loose since that tragic boating incident. But for perspective it would also depend on the quantity and type of collection you have.

 

[tsilveus]

I read about them. Do you feel confident that they will live up to their end?

The reviews were solid but not perfect. No insurance company pays every time. I just felt better after I did it. I also took off and out of my cars, the tracking device state farm has for better rates. Not worth the $150 a year for a company to always know my whereabouts and driving habits.

 

[DadSmith]

The reviews were solid but not perfect. No insurance company pays every time. I just felt better after I did it. I also took off and out of my cars, the tracking device state farm has for better rates. Not worth the $150 a year for a company to always know my whereabouts and driving habits.

Wow I didn't even know they did that....
Major invasion of privacy. I guess there are people who agree with it though.

 

[maxwelhse]

Wow I didn't even know they did that....
Major invasion of privacy. I guess there are people who agree with it though.

Honestly the program makes a lot of sense. if you're a safe driver, and can prove it, you should pay less in insurance premiums.

If you could guarantee that information would never go anywhere but the insurance company, I'd consider it myself. Since no one can really make that promise, nope...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Honestly the program makes a lot of sense. if you're a safe driver, and can prove it, you should pay less in insurance premiums.

If you could guarantee that information would never go anywhere but the insurance company, I'd consider it myself. Since no one can really make that promise, nope...

Progressive has something similar I believe. I'm a safe driver, but much like Sammy Hagar, "I can't drive 55." So no, I'm not signing up with State Farm's deal either.

 

[maxwelhse]

Progressive has something similar I believe. I'm a safe driver, but much like Sammy Hagar, "I can't drive 55." So no, I'm not signing up with State Farm's deal either.

Ehhh... For nearly a year I've worked from home. I go out about once a week for food and then it goes back to the driveway. I could drive the speed limit for ~80 miles a month.

I also wouldn't put it in all of my vehicles.

Anyhow, like you, I'm not gonna do it at all, but I can see the appeal.

 

[DadSmith]

Honestly the program makes a lot of sense. if you're a safe driver, and can prove it, you should pay less in insurance premiums.

If you could guarantee that information would never go anywhere but the insurance company, I'd consider it myself. Since no one can really make that promise, nope...

I'm a safe driver but I'm not going to be spied on to prove it. My driving record should be plenty.

 

[maxwelhse]

I'm a safe driver but I'm not going to be spied on to prove it. My driving record should be plenty.

Eh... I'm partially willing to game their system to take their money. Like I said, I've been driving like 900 miles a year for the last year-ish and I have multiple vehicles.

I'd also say 90% of people posting in this thread already drive vehicles that can be tracked.

 

[Hkindiana]

I figure that I have saved over $50,000 in insurance cost over the last thirty years by just investing in some good safes

 

[DadSmith]

I figure that I have saved over $50,000 in insurance cost over the last thirty years by just investing in some good safes

Safes are not fire proof unless you build a firewall around and under them with some kind of fire proof/resistant door to shut them in.

 

[STFU]

I switched from State Farm personal articles policy to Collectibles Insurance Services this year. It was a bit cheaper, but more importantly, no serial numbers given. I did not feel comfortable with a company knowing everything I had (they asked for numbers with every new firearm I wanted insured).

^^This!

I have been with Collectibles for over 5 years and the rates have only gone up a few dollars per year.
You do not need to furnish a "Schedule," serial numbers, makes, models, or any other info.

PM me if you want more info or the agents name I have dealt with.
(And yes, he does answer the phone.)