Inventory insurance

[rumi69]

Hello folks, I have been trying to get insurance for my inventory without success.  The rate that they quote me is fine but then I MUST take the liability insurance, which is like 3-4 k a year.  All I want to do is insure my inventory against theft or fire.  I live in Quebec, Canada.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

Canadians are notoriously over insured.  Floods, fires, landslides in your area? If not, what are you insuring against? House fires are caused by someone deliberately doing something. Theft?

Oh. I just looked. You do not have thi stuff in yer house, do you? Those generators are worth money.

I have run into the same thing with home insurance. I was covered for $170K for $320 in  MB. In ON, for a $200K house, I have to buy all the upgrades and be insured for $750,000. That costs $960.

[rumi69]

My house insurance does not cover me for my business.  I have to take something separate.

[reallynicestamps]

I doubt it would be useful for you, specifically, but we insure our (collectibles) stock through Hugh Wood Insurance International, a British firm with offices in Toronto.

They cover both collectors and dealers, including shipping, shows, travel, shoptheft, water damage, etc.

They are the insurers for the American Philatelic Society. While stamps are somewhat smaller than your generators, they can be much more valuable, or at least expensive. 

Are you talking to your household insurer or did you ask your supplier who he uses as an insurer? Specialists can be cheaper for better coverage because they really understand the risks they are covering.

[ricarmic]

Same as reallynicestamps, I also use Hugh Wood in Toronto (I'm also stamps). However, I had to move to Hugh Wood because my inventory is at multiple locations. When I had it all in one place, my house, my insurance company (Intact) would cover the inventory only, because I did not have customers coming to my house. If you do not have customers coming to your house and are only mailorder you may be able to do something similar, although my example above was years ago so things may be different now.....

[nuvistors]

Should you not be mentioning that most of these radios you are listing need a special DOT license to operate in Canada.

If they will give you one !

[pierrelebel]

"I have to buy all the upgrades and be insured for $750,000. That costs $960."

Most insurers in Ontario offer discount for a wide variety of reasons.  If you are eligible to all the discounts, it reduces your premium quite subtantially.

We received our renewal invoice the other day and noticed we are getting discounts for:

Long term policy discount

Mortgage free discount

Mature citizen discount

Claims free discount

Preferred construction discount

Multi line discount

Preferred Postal Code discount

Current Evaluation discount

You may want to talk to your agent and see of you could qualify for some of these discounts.

[i*m-still-here]

I  looked into it as well and gave up quickly.

It depends on what you want to insure, but I do antiques and the first requirement was that itemize every piece with the cost of purchase.

Yikes!

My cost of purchase has nothing to do with market value.

I didn't bother.

[pierrelebel]

"My cost of purchase has nothing to do with market value."

That is quite true. Insurance will generally insure for replacement cost.

However, you still need the information (individual and total cost) for income tax purposes.  You cannot calculate profit unless you have individual cost accounted somewhere.

[i*m-still-here]

Good point.