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Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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Posted by deansfba z9 SanFranArea (My Page) on Tue, Mar 13, 07 at 22:15
| Does anyone have any suggestions for companies who sell liability insurance to people whose 'farm' is the back yard? This is harder than I thought... |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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I have a rider on my homeowners policy which gives me liability at my small farm stand and at the farmers market plus product liability. It is only an extra $30 a year. Check with your homeowners first, and if that company can't do it, ask others.
Ann |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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I tried my homeowners first and he wouldn't touch it. Others wanted me to take their homeowners as a condition...which I'd prefer to avoid. The ones I've gotten tentatively are in the $500 range...When you're working with less than a 1/4 of an acre this seems like a lot of selling to pay this off, especially when many agents admit they have never had a claim....
I'm trying with my county farmers bureau now to get their recs.... |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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First, rates depend partially on the state. I only have something like $100,000/300,000.
Some have a million dollar coverage and some farmers markets require that. If I needed that, I'd have to go for a farm policy.
Second, I go through a local agent who has several companies to choose from. I am not sure which one mine is right now. But the agent looks at companies that he works with to find which one(s) might cover what I need.
I'm pretty sure the actual company that covers me is not a national company, but rather just PA or regional.
So, I guess you have to do some homework.
Your $500 figure is what I'd have to pay for a FARM policy that would cover everything...home, farm, farmers markets, etc. for $1 million total. The $500 was a figure I got 2-3 years ago. At this time, I pay either $200 or $250 for the year, for the lower liability limits, including the rider for the farmers markets and my stand.
Ann |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| Does anyone have any ideas on what to do if you're not a homeowner? :( We rent. :P |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| Do you have to carry liability insurance to sell at farmers markets? I'm going to be doing herbs and cut flowers, and possibly mushrooms, at the local farmers market this year. They don't require insurance. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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our farmers market is requiring 1,000,000 liability insurance this year because of all the food claims that have been made regarding vegetables/produce. I did find a business liability policy through a local independent insurance agent that costs $333 a year. So you might want to check with an independent insurance agent. Our homeowners is through State Farm, they won't touch it.
Some markets require insurance, some don't. Ours didn't last year. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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Check with your local countys FARM BUREAU , Their weekly paper AG Alert has ins agents advertising in it.
Youo can find it on line if a member os FB
steve |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| I'm in Indiana, and for the first time in 10 yrs our farmers market are requiring a copy of our auto and business insurance. Auto insurance is not a problem, but finding insurance to cover the farmers market is being a problem. I only sell fruits, vegetables, herbs and plants. Any suggestions on which companies MIGHT cover me. At this time, I don't have farm or homeowners insurance. I own 28 acres. Any help will be appreciated. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| Join either the farm bureau or farmers union and you can get liability insurance for your farm/produce. I do not know the cost. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| Thanks for the info. I'm checking into the farmers union, and will check the farm bureau agent this week. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| I went to an agent for Grange insurance, and found out with sales of $7,000, they could insure me for about $300/yr. the agent also checked out AutoOwners for a policy and came back with $125/yr. both have 1 million coverage. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| I will be baking for my local market in MA. I've been told insurance would cost $350-$500 which seems like a lot for 8 weeks of baking. My homeowners won't touch it either. If the town doesn't require it, should I still get it? |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| >>If the town doesn't require it, should I still get it?<< yes. i recommend a consultation with a CPA and attorney familiar with the laws in your state and county/city, it is well worth the cost.
you may want to incorporate (LLC) your business and separate the business assets and liability from your personal assets and liability. getting everything set up correctly up front will save you much hassle and headache in the long run. you never know if or when your recipe/product/business may take off bigger than you expected. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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A smart insurance company has finally put together an insurance program for all types of farmers markets vendors! The program provides the vendors with group rates for $1,000,000 in general and product liability per occurrence with a $2,000,000 annual aggregate limit and a zero deductible. This will cover the vendors while at all markets that they participate in. Note that there is no limit on the number of markets in which you can participate. The only requirement is that all such markets must be listed on your application for coverage to be provided. The cost of the policy is $350 per year for vendors that generate less than $100,000 total annual sales at the markets listed. For those vendors that generate in excess of $100,000 in annual sales, the cost of the policy will increase at a rate of approximately $5 per thousand of sales.
Premiums are paid annually and once coverage is extended, the premium is fully earned and non-refundable. Coverage is provided by an A rated insurance company.
The policy will also name the market as an additional insured so that in the event of a product liability or general liability suit where both parties are named, the market is covered.
Visit their website www.campbellriskmanagement.com for more information and vendor insurance applications, or call or email the person below for more information. Larry Spilker
Campbell Risk Management
800-730-7475 ext 203
lspilker@campbellrisk.com |
Here is a link that might be useful: Farmers Market Vendor Insurance
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| We have found that it is often difficult for markets & vendors to find affordable general liability insurance. So, this year our company has launched the Farmers Market Insurance Association of America, where participating markets and their vendors receive a 50% discount on their insurance. It costs $19.50 per year for a market to join the Association. This entitles the market to a discounted rate of $300/year (<1,000 attendees per day), and a portable vendor policy is $225/year. All the vendors in a market must show evidence of coverage (not necessarily sold to them by us) and use the Farmers Market Toolkit to monitor compliance. It only takes about 5 minutes to receive the emailed .pdf insurance certificates with $1,000,000/$2,000,000 coverage. For more information, go to http://www.farmersmarketinsurenow.com/market-signup/ or give me a call. Chris Terman
(877) 520-8363
chris@farmersmarketinsurenow.com
www.farmersmarketinsurenow.com |
Here is a link that might be useful: FarmersMarketInsureNow
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| Larry and Chris, your prices are still alot higher than what I got for 1M coverage. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| note larry and chris both sound like the insurance scam that caught a few farmers down here a couple years ago...only now they are online instead of on the phone. |
RE: Liability insurance for selling at farmers markets
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| I received the following message from Christie Welsh who is sort of the FM liason with the OH. St. Extension Service: Thanks, Sharon, for weighing in. Greg, as to your question, which I notice you also posted on FMC's facebook page, I wanted to chime in and respond. There are more and more enterprises geared at serving the farmers market sector just about every day, it seems, and we at FMC are often in the position of 'scoping them out.' We do this not necessarily with a goal of endorsement, but because it's due diligence to be able to respond to questions like yours. In some cases, companies seek our input about the strengths and weaknesses of their business models-- a service we can provide, obviously, only on a very limited basis. This was the case with Farmers Market Insure Now, with whom I've personally had several phone and email conversations, as have members of the board of directors. There were initially some concerns about aspects of their general liability policy, which we spelled out and which were ultimately addressed by the company. Based on our analysis, they are "legit," and the policy coverage, on paper, comparable to others out there. However,their rather unique model (involving membership in a FM Insurance Association where "All producers in the market must have a liability policy" to be eligible for the 50% discount) might understandably be a turnoff for some markets. Other markets already requiring producer liability coverage may find their compliance monitoring toolkit helpful. As Sharon suggests, there are MANY MANY insurance brokers out there, and in the end, a market or farmer will go where they feel the policy best meets their needs and with whom they have a good working relationship. Relationships are what we're all about in this movement, right? ;) For the record, the insurance webinar powerpoints (and registration links to upcoming webinars) are at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org/information-marketplace. Deb Connors from the City Market in Kansas City shared some of her producer compliance checklists in the most recent webinar this Monday, and those are available in our resource library at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org/resources. Thanks to everyone for the lively discussion! Stacy
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Stacy M. Miller
Executive Director
Farmers Market Coalition
stacy@farmersmarketcoalition.org
Office: 410-667-0583
Cell: 304-685-2669
www.farmersmarketcoalition.org
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Farmers markets are good for everyone. Join us to make them even better. Mike |
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