Yoga Teacher: Are You Insured?

The business of Yoga -growing as it has- is no stranger to insurance for teachers and studios.  So I decided to do a little research. I asked in Twitter to see what yogis do.  Got 4 responses from teachers of yoga telling me they use the Yoga Journal insurance (yes, through the magazine).  That seems to be the most famous one, at least among the people that follow me on twitter.

Nice class size

Talking to James about it he clarified a point which I would have never thought about, good thing to have a business person around.  He said: suppose something goes wrong, does Yoga Journal have one, two, or three million to pay?

My guess is no. The magazine is probably just breaking even as it is.  Then, he continued, there must be a parent insurance company behind them and all Yoga Journal does is market and package their services.  The one that would pay in case of a problem is the parent company, the 'underwriter'.

Lloyds of London Building, impressive

Please note that this post does not, under any circumstances, constitute legal advise. You must do your own research.

That being said, here are my findings.  There are three major companies out there that offer insurance. Well, actually there was a fourth one but they did not pick up the phone when I called on Monday at 9:30 AM so they are out. And there are a few others (see comparison chart below) but I focused on these three:

1) YOGA JOURNAL and 2) IDEA 

Both of these have Philadelphia Insurance as their parent company.  This means that, should (Patanjali forbid) something go wrong, it is this company that is ultimately responsible for processing the claims.

Both YJ and IDEA also package their insurance within a variety of services, for example, you 'join them', become a member and hence get a discount in their insurance among other services like the magazine for a year, streaming videos to watch, discount on yoga products, etc. See here.

Their cost is on a scale (i.e. if you have less than 6 students per week is one price, if you have more is more expensive), but they do cover you if you travel overseas to teach for less than 30 days or so, you need to read the policy in full, of course.

You can also get your insurance directly with the parent company.

3) MASSAGE MAGAZINE

Then I spoke with Massage Magazine Insurance, based out of FL.  Their underwriter is Lloyds of London,  the biggest insurance company in the world.

They offer a service for US$159 per year with no limit of size classes, the insurance goes with you everywhere (not internationally unless it is a military base).  And there is no membership for anything.

You can see all their terms here

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE DECIDING:

• Get clear about who is actually insuring you so you feel confident that if something happens the insurance company can respond.

• Make sure you understand the difference between general liability (trip and fall), product liability (i.e.: someone gets hurt by the smell of an incense) and professional liability (i.e.:malpractice)

• What other services do they offer?

• Policies vary and have a certain amount per occurrence and an amount as an aggregate.  Be sure you understand this.  The first one is if something happens once, the second one is how much they would be willing to pay in a year.

• Do your own research, read the documents, and get insured.

Here is a comparison chart, see full version here

Yoga Insurance Pages for the ones mentioned:

IDEA (Philadelphia Ins)
Yoga Journal (Philadelphia Ins)
Philadelphia Insurance
Massage Magazine  (Lloyds of London)

Are you insured? Have you had any experiences regarding insurance?  Please share with us!