Jacki C started this discussion ·
I canceled my insurance policy this March after I moved to a different town until I was able to find a place to teach again. When I called about reinstating it, I was told the underwriter for pole instruction dropped everyone this summer. I was wondering if anyone has any insurance companies to recommend?
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There are 2 that I know of, one is http://insurance4poledancers.com/i4pd/ and Aerial Amy has another one but I cannot remember who it is.
Jacki C ·
Thanks for the leads Chemgoddess!
firebird ·
Might want to check if the above or any referrals are licensed to sell policies in your state (assuming u r in USA), and that the policy is backed by an A-rated ins company (can check on AM Best). I just got a new policy (considerably less expensive than some others out there) with Veracity Ins (go through a group called Alternative Balance Therapies) -- found out about them from a "pro" pole dance/fitness instructor/competitor/performer as she has this policy too (which BTW, for those of you who care, does NOT exclude coverage for teaching in shoes of any sort). However I highly recommend also looking into a company called Anthony Insurance, found them online at some website called something like dancestudioinsurance.com (might not be exact url so be prepared to search), but they quoted me rates that are even LOWER, and yes cover pole. I didn't pursue them further to find out about whether shoes where excluded (or any other limitations for that matter) only because I had already proceeded with urchasing the Veracity Ins policy (good customer service by the way, esp Chris -- male) and very quick and efficient with all their responses and everything, much better than I've see with some other pole instruction ins companies I've dealt with... Lastly for all the back & forth abt whether K&K is covering pole fitness these days (based on a pervious LONG thread about this on SV -- which I *highly recommend* you go search & read through -- where it seems people keep getting new responses from the company about whether or not the still cover pole instruction) the answer as of this post is YES, HOWEVER athletic sneaker-style shoes are the only kind of footwear they allow to be used in a class where they'll cover any claims -- using any shoes other than this will nullify your coverage. Barefoot is the other option. But as much discussion & debate as I had with 3 diff underwriters @ K&K about this, some where iffy, but thelast person I spoke with was firm on this issue. Oh one more tip, for those who liked Philadelphia Ins thru IDEA, I spoke to an agent and also confirmed with some stuff I found online, that they are back to covering pole, only now you DON'T have to be a member of IDEA to purchase policy (& that membership alone could make it a pretty costly option), however while I didn't probe much deeper into them to make absolute sure, it *sounded like* they were taking the same stance as K&K on the whole "strictly fitness" approach (read: NO STILETTOES accepted). Since some of the studios I teach at (& on personal preference & principle) shoes are important part of the experience & learning, I really needed coverage to include the use of stillettoes. However, if not an issue for you then you have a few more options, so work the market & beware of just falling to the 1st gimmicky policy you run across. If you are like me and DO use/teach with the shoes, then I beg you all to PLEASE PRACTICE & TEACH MAXIMUM SAFETY on those things -- please, we need to build a history of no incidents/claims in order to keep having companies willing to cover this field with the stilleto option, and at a reasonable price! I worry about whAt might have caused to scare away these insurance companies that once-offered-it-then-now-don't. As it is, we are already battling that "stripper" stigma out there (yes, still: I went like 2-3 rounds via email with one K&K underwriter about this being referred to as "adult entertainment" that they didn't want to cover, and me of course arguing that it wasn't, etc... Ugh I have no time for that BS)... Anyway, more than anything else, I think liability insurance is the bane of a pole instructor's existence, so good luck with this. Funny, because I **just completed** this whole saga of a search for a new PL insurance policy, and was planning to post about my experience & findings on this here on SV soon anyway, so this post showed up at quite a perfect time.
RikkiL ·
Firebird, thanks for the info! When going through Alternative Balance Therapies, did you select dance or fitness? Also, is pole specifically mentioned on your policy?
RikkiL ·
Actually, nevermind. It looks like they only cover instructors and not studios. :/
firebird ·
Oh not sure abt whether or not they cover studios. I'm just an independent instructor so that's all I was looking for, but they for sure cover pole (though it won't specify that on your certificate, they told me to just select dance & fitness -- u can check off all boxes that apply). In fact 1 studio I work at needed cert to specify that, and they were great about adding exactly the wording that I needed. Turned it around real quik too.
