Howard 7/5/09
Can anyone suggest an insurance company fo liability? Be well, Howard
attaboy 7/6/09
Howard,
We use an art framers guild/coop called CAPX in southern CA. They are insured through an agency, CNA, which is, ultimately, the Hartford Co. We are not in CA, but joined when we worked out of San Diego. So maybe you can look at Hartford directly or search your vicinity for a cooperative of frame shops.
This insurance is not precisely for our work, but they understand what we do and have agreed to include us. It covers art work in our possession primarily, but also includes some liability for our work.
good luck,
scott and yvonne
atlas fine art service
supporting a world of art
405 848 7407
geigermountmaking@gmail.com 7/6/09
Re: [mountmaking-forum] Re: Insurance
Hi Howard
We use Ventura Insurance for our fine arts liability/bailee insurance. It took a bit of explaining about what we do as mountmakers before they would write the policy, but that was many years ago. At the time, they only had policies that fit framers, conservators, and art shippers/storage.
Our policy is mostly a bailee's policy, which covers works at our studio. It does provide some professional liability as well, but that portion of the poolicy seems written for conservators. I think its mostly a low demand/poor understanding about what we do that makes getting good liability insurance difficult.
As more mountmakers become concerned about liability, maybe it will become good business for the art insurance companies to cater a policy that better fits our needs.
Feel free to contact us if you have questions or need Ventura's info.
Best regards and good luck,
David
-- Geiger Mountmaking and Design, Inc 2407-2413 Third Ave 1R Bronx, NY 10451 718.742.3422 t/f 917.531.8126 m
Suzi McG 1/26/10
Hello all,
Can any of you independent mounties recommend someone for general liability insurance. I was recently informed that my policy provider is no longer going to offer coverage for what we do. I'm not sure if it was their decision or the underwriters. Regardless I thought I would see who some of you have insurance with.
Thanks, Suzi McGarraugh
nick fennel 1/26/10
I'm with Hartford. Try them.
Denise Fordham 1/26/10
I also use Hartford. But the closest category they could put me under was interior design. Cheers Denise Fordham
justin marshall 1/26/10
I do have ins. through my company Unified Fine Art Services . Ben Spurgin Insurance Agency Justin Marshall
nick fennel 1/26/10
Not that I'm an expert in this area. Not at all. As I understand it, general liability insurance is just that, general. It will not cover stuff like damage to objects under your charge, etc. Say the sprinkler system in your building goes off and wrecks something. Usually, a general liability policy will not cover that. You can, however, buy these add on things to address the risks for whatever specifics you are concerned about.
Loulou 1/27/10
From Louise H. Freedman, Boston Creative Inc. d/b/a L.H. Freedman Studios, Salem, MA FYI...The Hartford can be VERY difficult as they don't understand the Conservation or mountmaking field at all. We have had them for both general liability with a separate binder for personal, art, and business articles under our care or ownership since I went into business for myself, in 1980. My Husband and I merged our businesses in 1990. After 30 years with not a single incident, in either the studio or on many museum projects, we moved to a new site out of our Boston location to Salem MA. A climate controlled studio, with custon designed space which turned out to have a lab above us ( which the business, Perkin Elmer, denied existed). Negligence on their part caused a an explosion, and fire in the middle of the night in Nov. Of 2006 with sprinklers and firehoses that rained down on us for four hours through a heavy concrete ceiling, that had a heavy wooden floor with air space in-between... And you can imagine the rest. The water gather all the contaminants from the lab, and they rained down on us. Emergency crews worked for a week pumping out water and slime, and then a conservation crew was hired to do the object clean-up. A huge flithy mess! The large Corporation above us was privately insured, so Hartford fought us tooth and nail to collect, and we had to hire a "Public Adjuster" to collect a fraction of our damages, and then it took one year to clean up the mess. The kicker was that Hartford tried to cancel us afterwards!, after 35 years of insurance with no incidents EVER. If our agent hadn't gone to bat for us for two months, we would be without insurance. None of this was in any way our failt of course. Insurance comanies are in the business of gambling, amd hate yo lose . Somy word of advice is, if they are trying to cancel you witjout a valid reason after being a good client, I would fight it! Get your insurance agent to challange the decision. They count on people not thinking they can challange them. Good luck! And if anyone knows a better insurance company, please let me know. Hope that is helpful info. Fortunately, we had only Moved into the new space a couple of months earlier, and many of our personal objects were still wrapped in polyethylene. Most of our tools and equipment were lost, but they did pay for replacement of tools, not the private conservation treatments needed for our personal collection.
Good luck, hope this is helpful to all. Louise Cell: (617)-320-7798