How it works
Freelancer equipment coverage exists because homeowner and renters policies were drafted for households, not home studios: most forms exclude property used in a business, shrink off-premises theft to token sublimits near $1,500, and sit behind deductibles that swallow half a stolen lens kit. The instrument that fixes this is scheduled personal property - an inland-marine floater listing each item at an agreed value, priced at roughly five to ten percent of that value per year, settling claims at schedule amount rather than depreciated cash value and often with no deductible at all. This calculator sizes the schedule from your gear and drone values, shows what your current policy would actually pay once exclusions, sublimit and deductible finish cutting, and adds the quiet half of the loss freelancers forget: revenue bleeding while uninsured gear takes nine days to replace versus three under a carrier's replacement service. One incident - a van break-in outside a shoot - routinely produces a five-figure combined loss against a few hundred dollars of annual premium. The budget conclusion is usually blunt: anything whose replacement would stop your income belongs on a schedule, and a working drone belongs there twice, once for hull and once for whatever it lands on.
Formula
floater premium = scheduled value x annual rate | homeowner recovery = max(0, min(value, sublimit) - deductible), zero if business use excluded | downtime saving = (days uninsured - days insured) x daily revenue
Tips
- Schedule items individually with serial numbers and dated photos - claims settle against the schedule, not memory.
- Agreed-value scheduling pays the listed amount; actual-cash-value settlements shave depreciation off every claim.
- Drone work needs hull cover plus third-party liability - a crashed drone's biggest invoice is often the neighbour's roof.
- Client-site theft is exactly where homeowner sublimits fail; floaters follow the gear anywhere it works.
- Revisit the schedule yearly - stale schedules underinsure as replacements get dearer while values drift.
Frequently asked questions
- Does homeowners insurance cover business equipment?
- Usually poorly or not at all. Most homeowner forms exclude property used primarily for business and cap off-premises theft near $1,500 regardless. A $10,000 camera kit used professionally is typically uninsurable under the base form - scheduling it on a floater is the standard fix.
- How much does equipment floater insurance cost?
- Scheduled personal property commonly prices at 5% to 10% of insured value per year - about $800 annually on $10,500 of gear at 7.5%. Photography and audio rates sit at the low end; drones and high-theft categories run higher, and scheduled items often carry no deductible at all.
- Is drone insurance required by law?
- Recreational flyers face no federal mandate, but commercial operators effectively need liability cover: clients demand certificates, and third-party injury claims from a drone strike can exceed six figures. Hull coverage for the aircraft itself is optional but cheap relative to replacing a $2,000 airframe after one hard landing.
- What is an inland marine floater?
- A portable-property policy that follows named items anywhere - studio, client site, vehicle or abroad - paying an agreed schedule value with few exclusions. Despite the name it covers no boats; the label survives from when cargo moved by sea. It is the standard instrument for cameras, instruments and trade tools.
- Should I claim stolen gear on my homeowner policy?
- Rarely for freelance gear. Between the business-use exclusion, the off-premises sublimit and a $1,000 deductible, a $6,000 theft might return $500 - while the claim raises renewal pricing for years afterward. A floater claim settles at schedule value with little friction and leaves your homeowner record untouched.