Wings, Wheels and Water

What is Liability Insurance?

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Confused about what liability insurance is?

Aviation liability insurance is pretty confusing. Actually not just aviation insurance, all insurance can be confusing.  So i thought id share a little bit of information.

Typically, liability coverage, in an aviation insurance policy, will be for property damage and bodily injury.  The following definitions were taken from various policies and simplified as best as possible.

“Property damage” means any physical damage to “tangible” property.  This coverage does not cover the aircraft itself, any of your own property or property that you are in charge of.  This is just for the property belonging to others that was damaged by the accident.

Liability also covers “bodily injury”, which is pretty simple.  This means the physical (bodily) injury to or the death of a person.

There is another coverage included or added.  This coverage is called medical payment (med pay).  This is the amount that the insurance company will pay for a persons immediate medical expense such as an ambulance ride after the accident, emergency room visit, etc. This coverage is usually in amounts such as $1,000, $5,000 or maybe $10,000.

Here is a quick video rundown of liability in aircraft insurance.  Hopefully it will help clear a few things up. If not or you have more questions feel free to contact me.

youtu.be/ubnnZsz1f-U

Don’t let your aviation insurance lapse!

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Aviation insurance lapse?

Don’t let your aviation insurance lapse or expire just because you are not flying or the cost of your insurance. With the corona virus issues in the country, many pilots have parked their aircraft.  Which is fine in some cases, but it might not be the best for everyone.

There have been changes happening daily in aviation insurance underwriting for the last year or so.  One of which is the aviation insurance premiums are increasing.  We have see 10% to even 100% premium increases (depending on the plane and pilot).

But it’s not just the premiums increasing, the underwriting requirements are also changing.  Depending on your aircraft and your age, if you let your coverage lapse, you might not get quoted again. Aviation insurance is not an automatic renewal, you need to start over each year.

If you have a unique or low production aircraft you might have difficulty getting a company to quote the aircraft.

This is also especially important if you are close to 65 years old or older!  Make sure you contact us (or your broker) before you let your insurance expire.  There are aviation underwriters that will not quote new business for pilots older than 65.  Once you cancel or let a policy expire, you become “new” business. At that point, the insurance underwriter that you let expire does not have to take you back.

There are options to keep the coverage in place even if you are not flying.  You could keep ground not-in-motion coverage on the hull to protect it from fire theft and storms.  Or you can reduce the coverage to liability only.

The idea is to keep the policy in place and not have the risk of not being able to get coverage in the future.

Questions, contact SkySmith at – ins@skysmith.com or 515-289-1439

insurance lapse

Aircraft Insurance Round-table Discussion

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I was invited to participate in a  Aviation Insurance Round-table discussion with a few of my colleagues.

The discussion was about what we, as aviation insurance brokers, are seeing in the aviation insurance marketplace. This includes increases in premium, pilot age issues and difficulty obtaining insurance.

Thanks to Larry Anglisano and the Aviation Consumer Magazine and Kitplanes Magazine for hosting and putting this together.

 

To listen to the complete discussion, click here.