Hello. I’m Ron Philleo with Philleo Agency Insurance. Being from Wisconsin, where there’s over 6,000 named lakes, and we are on Lake Michigan, we’re very familiar with boat insurance. If you own a boat, this video will help you determine what coverages you need. One of the most important coverages for boat owners is liability coverage. Liability coverage is the coverage that’s going to protect you in case you injure somebody or damage someone’s property while you’re boating. Now, seeing as how boating accidents tend to be severe, we recommend that you carry a lot of liability coverages. Usually, minimum coverages we recommend are minimum of a half a million, but certainly we offer higher coverages than that. Good idea to carry a lot of liability coverage when you’re boating, because these accidents do tend to be severe.
The next coverage that is very important to boat owners is the physical damage coverage. The damage for the boat itself, in case it’s damaged in a fire or a theft or a sinking or a collision, hail damage, those types of things, that’s what the physical damage coverage will protect you against.
Now, first what we need to do is determine the value of the boat itself. The boat, the motor, the trailer–that’s considered a package. And a good agent should be able to help you determine the value of your boat. Once the value’s been determined, then you decide on your deductible. The higher deductible you take, the lower your premium will be. But remember, you’re responsible for the deductible portion at the time of a claim.
So we have liability coverage and the physical damage coverage. There’s also coverages for added-on personal equipment. If you leave a lot of equipment on your boat or if you’ve added additional equipment to your boat, you’re going to want to make sure you protect against that as well. And a good independent agent should be able to help you discuss that and decide what coverages are going to be best for you.
There’s several other coverages involved with boating as well, some of them you may or may not need, and there’s other determinations on types of boats and what the boat is used for that will determine on how much you pay for a boat-insurance policy. If you need help with that, here at the Philleo Agency, we do a lot of boat insurance. We’re very familiar with that, and we’d be more than happy to help you. Give us a call here at the Philleo Agency if you need help with your boat insurance, and make sure to check out our other videos here at philleo.com. Thanks for watching.
