a salwater hobbist insurance company???

[brokereefer617]

thats right, a rich friend of mine and i are thinking about it. We would be covering equipment. what do you guys think ? ideas ?
lmk
thanks

 

[rottface4]

Ok idea. I think your normal insurance policy will cover equipment as well.

 

[alvieman]

Home owners will cover theft, lighting strike, fire, etc. However in the case of owners screw up, or tank crashes due to stray voltage on equip, your own neglegence, etc, it's not. As I cant see ANYONE willing to cover your own screw up due to ignorance or anything. Really the only reason I could see for this would be for faulty equipment killing your tank, however this could prove difficult to verify from a business perspective. Also fairly easy to manipulate the equipment to fault out and then commit fraud. Seems relatively risky to me IMHO. Would be nice though!! lol

 

[GMaquarium]

what would you cover? Theft (because I loose sleep at night thinking someone will break in and take my tank), electrical fire caused by aquarium gadgets getting wet (if its wired right and you have fire insurance for the house it will take care of it), health of fish and corals (well thats just stupid)?

I think I may be missing it

 

[FaviaFreak]

i think what he is saying is...if your tank crashes and you loose all of your livestock then you would have insurance for the dead livestock, if your tank or sump should accidentally crack, if your light fixture pendants break or die on you, if your pump, protein skimmer, reactors, vortechs, die, if your favorite $300 wrasse jumps out of the tank, if your heater malfunctions and stray voltage wipes out your entire tank...this hobby is expensive, I totally understand but I have a few questions, in case of a claim what do you plan to do as far a making sure it's a legit claim? or do you plan on having guranteed replacement cost no questions asked on the insured items? if not you would need an adjuster to determine if it is a legit claim, that would mean lot's of travel if this intends to be a domestic type of insurance

 

[alvieman]

just doesnt seem like an incredible viable possibility, WAY too many variables and just WAY too easy to commit fraud. Great thought but I just dont see this as being an intelligent investment opportunity business wise, just seems far too risky.

 

[ReefDoctor]

Not gonna happen

If you do you will go broke

 

[returnofsid]

If you plan on offering insurance to replace livestock, sign me up!!! As has been mentioned above, I just don't see this as being a viable business venture for you. I highly doubt you'd even get anyone to financially back such a venture.

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

Not gonna happen

If you do you will go broke

Well he said rich friend, maybe he wants to share his money to fellow reefers.:bigsmile:

 

[Kate]

I can see it, if you have a fire! I've discussed that with my husband! You can't just up and carry your tank outside, if the house catches! That's why you take pictures and video, and put them online! So you have proof!

 

[TCK Corals]

My renter insure my fish tank. I put a value on it and incase of fire they will reinburse me.

 

[eagleeyez5]

I think it could work, but have pmed the solution to the starter of the thread.....if you see my name in lights in the future, you will know that my idea worked.....

 

[eagleeyez5]

here is the email that I sent him.

You could offer it through maintenance companies, and have them sell it to their customers, then process the claims through the maintenance company, do random checkups and require pictures and video when the policy is started, as well as video of each addition to the tank, plus a follow up video of dead animals and broken equipment before paying a claim. Then if a maintenance company has too many claims, cancel or raise their insurance. You could even pay the maintenance company as if they were an insurance agent.

Keep me posted as to how you would like to move forward with this idea.

 

[reefboy]

I run a Fishtank maintenance company I would be interested in this but rates would have to be reasonable for this to fly.

 

[eagleeyez5]

Exactly, the way I would see it working is to offer it to a customer as an added expense to your services. This would allow you to sell it and make a profit off of that sell, at the same time, passing the expense on to the customer as a protection for unforeseen disasters that may occur...

The trick will be to present it in a manner that will put the customer's mind at easy, but being careful to not make the customer think that you as the maintenance person is not capable of providing your services. This could be done by explaining a few of the things that 'could' go wrong, but doing it in a manner that will not scare the customer. The easiest sells that you will have will be the people who have had a disaster and have had to pay for it out of pocket.