San Leandro, CA Oakland, CA Insurance for Motorcycles, ATV’s, Boats and More

Last weekend, I was on a friend’s boat and he told me that his boat was stolen a few years ago. It turns out some youth’s stole the boat for a joyride and abandoned it about a mile down the river.  The boat was recovered but the motor was not.  The police believe the motor was stolen at the place where the boat was abandoned!  One my friend replaced the motor, he tried to get insurance through the marina where his boat is kept.  The marina agent told him that he could not insure the boat because of the previous claim.  How frustrating!

This is not uncommon and is a good reason to buy insurance for your toys with your home or auto insurer.  This way when and if you have a claim, there is supporting business that would likely prevent your insurance from cancelling your policy.  When my friend bought his boat insurance through the marina, the policy premium was about $500.  The claim for the motor was about $5,000 or about 10 times the premium.  If he had a $5,000 claim but his home, cars and boat insurance combined is close $5,000 in premium for the year.  In this case, the insurance company has only a claim of one times the premium.

 The same concept goes with other toys such as Motorcycles’, ATV’s, Golf Carts, Jet Ski’s and more.  Ironically, toys are more likely to be stolen than many other types of property, so you want to make sure that you cover these items properly.  Additionally, you will be sure that you have the proper liability insurance coverage for those toys.  It may be prudent for you to have an Umbrella policy when you have a lot of toys, and the Umbrella premiums are generally lower when you buy them from the insurance company that has the primary coverage.