Liability Protection 101: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Insuring Your Dance Studio
Liability Protection 101: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Insuring Your Dance Studio
What do you need to know to properly insure your dance studio? We gathered some of the top questions that dance studio owners and teachers have when it comes to insurance for their business. Thanks to the Jim Weissman and the experts at Insurance 4 Pole Dancers, we’ve compiled a helpful list of answers for you so you can fill your classes and focus on dance education for your students.
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What are the basics?
Insurance for Pole Dancers offers a complete line of insurance for individuals & businesses. We specialize and understand the special circumstances of the Pole Dance industry but can fulfill the insurance needs of any business.
For the Pole industry, we offer two different liability policies, one for individual instructors working for someone else and one for Studio that have one or many instructors.
We can cover aerial activities up to 10 feet on our basic policies and have a product for those that need coverage for higher activities.
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Are students covered if they have an accident?
Students at a covered facility will be covered as long as both the Instructor and Studio are covered and comply with the policy requirements which include use of waivers, safety mats, absence of alcohol and adherence to height limitations. This is not an all inclusive list of conditions that are required.
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What can I expect to pay of my insurance premium and can I pay it off monthly?
Premiums on both liability policies are issued on a fully earned when issued basis. It is standard in the industry for those types of policies to be fully paid before issued as the insurance company cannot cancel the policy if the client does not complete payment.
Our other policies such as workers compensation and business property coverage can be paid in installments. The period and amount of these payments vary between companies so if a specific payment method is needed the client should let us know when applying.
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Are independent contractors covered under my policy?
If you are a independent contractor your instructor policy covers only you. If you have a studio policy then your W2’ed employees are also covered at no additional charge. If you in turn employ independent contractors (1099’ed) they are not covered by either of our policies and one of the conditions of our policies is that you are responsible to have required a certificate of insurance from them prior to their performing any services for you.
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What if I have an independent contractor teach at my studio, but they don’t carry their own liability insurance?
That is a violation of the terms of the policy for you to allow them to teach at your studio and could void or limit your insurance coverage. You are responsible to require a certificate of insurance from them prior to their performing any services for you.
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What if I want to bring in guest instructors for workshops; does my policy cover the workshops?
This is just another form of independent contractor. You are responsible to require a certificate of insurance from them prior to their performing any services for you.
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If I add aerial hoop, silk, hammock, etc. how will that affect getting insured?
If you are willing to limit the height accessed by your students so that the lowest part of their body is 10 feet or less than all of those activities can be covered for one additional premium of $100 per policy period. This coverage can be added to an existing policy at any time however the premium is not pro-rated.
If you need coverage for greater heights we have several resources to provide that coverage however there is no fixed price for those and each case is underwritten and priced at the time of application according to the individual circumstances.
Please note that you are only covered for activities listed on your application or those which you have notified us of afterwards. If you initiate a new activity during a policy period you need to email us the details and ask that this activity be added to your policy. You will get an email or new certificate for your policy, depending on the activity added, for your files so you can establish that additional coverage was granted.
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Are private parties covered under my policy?
Yes, with the normal limitations as mentioned above including the absence of alcohol.
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Does my policy cover off-site performances or events?
If you or your studio do a performance or demonstration that you are not compensated for and are not charging admission to, as a means of advertising, that would be covered.
If you are compensated, or charge an admission fee then it would usually require an event policy.
We advise clients to call and ask us several weeks prior to the event as sometimes it can be hard for them to correctly classify the event and whether it requires separate insurance.
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What is an additional insured?
An additional issued is an entity that has an interest or right to be assured that you have valid insurance and its limits. They receive a certificate of insurance as proof showing the limits and expiration of the coverage and if you have the type of policy that could be canceled they will receive notice if the policy is cancelled.
The most common example of this is a landlord for a studio or the studio an independent contractor performs services for if an individual.
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Do I need property insurance?
Besides usually being required by your landlord, it only makes sense when you invest a good sum of money in equipment or build-out to ensure that it would be replaced should something happen to the building or you are the victim of vandalism or theft.
As with any insurance, you purchase coverage for those events which could cause a loss beyond what you feel you can or want to self-insure.
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Will I have coverage for the mirrors or my new dance floor or fitness/aerial equipment?
Not under the basic liability policy, that would be property insurance.
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Does the policy cover my employees?
Those employees (Individuals for which you withhold tax and give a W2 to at the end of the year) are covered under our studio liability policy and subject to the same rules and limitations. Our individual policy only covers the owner of the policy and is only issued to individuals, not entities (corporations, LLC’s and partnerships).
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How much insurance do I need?
That is individual to each clients needs and situation. As with any insurance you purchase coverage for those events which could cause a loss beyond what you feel you can or want to self-insure.
This is something that should be discussed with each of your advisors (Lawyer, Accountant, Insurance) as it is a result of the rest of your business financial plan.
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What does the liability insurance cover? (Commercial General, Legal Liability to Participants, Professional Liability, etc.)
This is not a question that can be fully answered in a few sentences. The coverage and exclusion pages of our policy are several pages long. There is a brochure for each product on our website that gives a plain English explanation of what is covered and excluded.
We offer each of these types of policies and they each cover different aspects of being a Pole Dance professional.
Our basic polices are best described as a Professional Liability policy. We can offer any other coverage a studio or instructor wants through additional polices.
For more information about insurance policies with Insurance 4 Pole Dancers, visit: http://insurance4poledancers.com/i4pd/