The insurance limits you choose are an important factor when purchasing insurance for your guns. The right limits help ensure your firearm property is protected as you intended against accidental damage, theft or loss.
However, sometimes picking the right dollar amount is not as easy as it seems. Here’s how to pick gun insurance limits that will meet your needs.
Refresher on Insurance Limits
To start, it might be helpful to briefly recap what an insurance limit is. It’s a technical term with a specific meaning, so starting with the right definition is key:
- A policy limit refers to the maximum amount of money the insurer will pay out as specified under the terms of the policy.
The kind of limits available depend on the type of insurance policy. Limits typically can be general or specific, for a single claim or for a period of time, and for a single policyholder or a group of insurance customers.
For our Firearm Insurance, both general and specific coverages are available. Limits apply per claim and individually for each policyholder. Here’s more about insuring your guns with us.
Unscheduled vs. Scheduled Limits
You have a lot of freedom choosing your gun insurance limits with us. If you prefer general coverage for all of the firearms in your collection, you can choose an unscheduled limit. If you have one or more particularly valuable firearms, you may prefer a scheduled limit.
Here are a couple of examples of how unscheduled versus scheduled limits work:
- An unscheduled limit is a total dollar amount for a whole collection, that comes with a cap of $2,500 of coverage for any one item. Unscheduled coverage works great if you have a number of guns of an average fair market value. If you had five guns which were all worth about $2,000 each, you could choose an unscheduled limit of $10,000 and protect your entire collection.
- A scheduled limit allows you to protect the total fair market value of one or more items worth more than $2,500 each. Scheduled coverage works great if you have one or more rare collectibles or Class III or NFA firearms. If you had two items worth around $10,000 each, you could choose a scheduled limit of $20,000 to protect your investment. Note that when you schedule an item to insure with us, you’ll need to supply a general description of it, but no serial number info is required. That information always stays private unless you need to report a claim.
Scheduled and unscheduled limits can also be mixed and matched for a combination of coverages to suit your needs. If you had several less expensive firearms and a couple collectibles, you could choose a limit for unscheduled coverage and a separate limit for scheduled coverage to protect the entire collection.
FAQs on Gun Insurance Limits
There are a number of questions that come up about gun insurance limits. Here are a few of the most common and some helpful answers to help you pick limits that meet your needs.
What are the most common limits?
Firearm Insurance customers are all different, from single gun owners to enthusiastic collectors. But there are some common gun insurance limits you may consider:
- $5,000
- $10,000
- $20,000
- $50,000
Note that some Firearm Insurance customers pick an exact dollar amount for their limit, while others prefer to round up or down slightly for an easier estimate of the coverage needed. Either way is fine.
What about my accessories?
Firearm accessories these days can also be expensive to repair and replace. Though Firearm Insurance is primarily designed to protect gun property, it can also help protect accessories. When selecting limits for your insurance, this is something to keep in mind.
Under the policy, accessories can be covered for damage, theft or loss up to their fair market value when they were attached to an insured firearm that was also damaged, stolen or lost as part of that claim. This allows you to insure your scopes, rings, mounts, slings, suppressors and certain other accessories along with your firearms under either your unscheduled or scheduled limits.
Do I need to insure all my guns?
Some Firearm Insurance customers decide to insure every gun, while others do not. Being able to choose your own gun insurance limits gives you the most freedom to protect your firearms however you see fit.
What are my guns really worth?
If you don’t know what your guns are worth, you don’t need to haul your whole collection to an expert for appraisal. Instead, consult a resource like the Blue Book of Gun Values in print or online to get a good idea of what each of your items is worth today. Then add up the total fair market value of your collection and choose the gun insurance limits you feel comfortable with.
When do I need to review my limits?
It’s a good idea to review your insurance limits from time to time to make sure you still have the coverage you need. You’ll have an opportunity to adjust your limits each year when you renew your policy.
It’s also good to get in the habit of reviewing your coverage whenever you purchase a new gun or sell one from your collection. If needed, you can adjust your coverage to suit during the year by calling us.
Finally, if you notice the price of things increasing due to inflation, that’s a good sign to take another look at your list of items. Evaluate if you need to increase your limits for individual items or your collection as a whole to ensure you are fully covered.
Still have questions about gun insurance limits? We are here to help. Call us at (844) 401-9444 or visit us online at LocktonAffinityOutdoor.com/Firearm-Insurance for more information.