For most of us, shopping around for something like personal trainer insurance means pulling out our smartphone and typing “best personal trainer insurance” into the search bar. The only trouble is, you’ll face pages of results so how do you tell a good program from a mediocre one? In today’s deep dive, we’ll look at the top requirements that mark a solid personal trainer insurance program so you can find the best value for your career as a fitness professional.
Strength of Coverage
Right up front, you want to see an insurance plan for personal trainers that adequately protects you throughout your career. That takes having the strength of coverage to be able to provide the best level of protection for today’s active trainers. There’s basically three areas of liability that are absolute requirements in personal training—general liability, professional liability, and product liability.
- General liability: covered. There are some common liabilities out there that are grouped together under general liability. One event that everyone’s heard of is slip and fall accidents, which are one of the injuries that would be covered under general liability. Since it covers a lot of different things, you want to make sure you have good-sized limits to make sure you’re protected. IFG includes $1 million for each occurrence, up to a $3 million total per year for each policyholder.
- Professional liability: covered. Working out with clients means a lot of different movements, reps, weights, machines, and more which all have the potential to lead to an accident. When a client is injured while you were instructing them, they can hold you responsible under the premise of professional liability. That’s why our personal trainer insurance plan includes stout limits of $1 million per occurrence and $3 million annual total for claims relating to professional liability.
- Product liability: covered. If professional liability pertains to the instruction you provide, product liability relates to the equipment you use. When something malfunctions during a session, it can really injure someone. That’s why our personal trainer members get up to $1 million to also cover claims related to product liability.
However, we know that just having these three and nothing else is like being good in your core lifts but not being able to do anything else. That’s why a well-rounded personal trainer insurance policy is going to also include added protections.
At IFG, we add-on the protection level with rental damage protection, stolen equipment coverage, and even an identity protection plan.
- Rental damages: covered. Renting space is great for having a dedicated place to build your personal brand but it carries the risk of having to pay to repair damages that occur while you’re there. A requirement to see with today’s comprehensive plans is coverage for damage to rental premises. IFG policyholders receive up to $100,000 to help cover any needed repairs to their leased fitness space.
- Stolen equipment: covered. Robberies by force are unfortunately an all-too-common occurrence and can leave you without all the tools you need to be able to provide a good session. So when this event occurs, know that you can turn to IFG for stolen equipment coverage amounting to $1,000 with a low $250 deductible.
- Identity protection: covered. Our lives rely on digital tools and connectivity now more than ever before which simply means there’s more chances for your personal information to be compromised online. If that ever happens, you’ll have the full support of a dedicated identity restoration specialist to help put back the pieces.
Just like in fitness, being well-rounded takes focus on a lot of different areas. Our team tailored this policy just for the modern fitness industry and professionals like you to be just as strong and resilient as you coach your clients to be.
Diversity of Covered Fitness Programs
Another aspect that doesn’t get talked about enough but has to be a requirement when it comes to finding the best personal trainer insurance is how many different fitness programs are covered under the plan. At IFG, we know that fitness pros usually aren’t going to offer a single program to clients but may, in fact, offer dozens of different routines throughout their work with them to bring about the best changes possible, avoid plateaus, and make breakthroughs happen. This level of transformation is why fitness instruction is such a sought-after and growing field, worldwide.
With our personal trainer insurance, we provide complete coverage for hundreds of different work-out routines, popular group fitness programs, and other types of fitness instruction. We do this so that our members don’t have to worry about whether they can teach a Zumba class in the morning and do a HIIT training sesh with another client in the afternoon. Be careful to note what services are covered under a particular plan when comparing policies.
Reputation is Everything
Another requirement with any personal trainer insurance you’re looking at is to see that they are built on a solid reputation. Just like with training, reputation is earned through effective practices. For personal trainer insurance, that starts with the underwriter. The underwriter in insurance evaluates risk and helps set appropriate pricing so the insurance company can cover its obligations. IFG is proud to have the backing of the Arch Specialty Insurance Company, an A+ (Superior) rated underwriter by the A.M. Best Company.
All of this simply means that your policy is worth something, that the company behind it has the financial stability to be able to pay your claim when you need it. This is a pretty basic requirement for insurance but ratings are all over the place. Make sure to check and know how your personal trainer insurance program rates before proceeding.
Another aspect that shouldn’t be ignored is what actual users say about the program. These days, it’s true that the internet is full of false reviews which is why a third-party review platform is really handy. One of the most respected is TrustPilot, which gets real reviews from real users and posts them on their third party platform. Hundreds of fitness pros have rated us as “Excellent” on TrustPilot with an array of positive feedback. One of the most common praise received is the ease of signing up, as well as truly above-and-beyond customer service, both of which we are extremely proud of.
Added Benefits Boost Value
One of the very best things you can hear with just about any purchase is “free” and this is something our personal trainer insurance policy shouts from the rooftops. That’s because in addition to great insurance coverage and a host of additional protections, our members also get a member benefits plan that’s worth hundreds of dollars all by itself. You’ll find whole libraries of curated content for making your business even better, discounts and deals on leading fitness gear, and even free workout playlists to really get things moving.
All of these additional benefits are included so that as a member of IFG, you get the very best value for your investment in our plan.
Comparing the Costs of Personal Trainer Insurance
One of the most keyed-in aspects of any insurance comparison is going to be cost. And while this shouldn’t be the sole focus of your comparison, it definitely gives you a good starting point to weigh the pros and cons of different plans.
Therefore, one of our last top requirements for personal trainer insurance is affordability. We worked extremely hard from the onset to design a plan that provides great protection, but never more than what’s needed so that our members aren’t paying for something they’ll likely never use. By tailoring our plan just for personal trainers and other health professionals, we’ve been able to develop an extremely affordable, yet stout, insurance plan.
With IFG, you can either pay $179 upfront for an annual plan to get the lowest professional rate or you can opt for the convenience of low, monthly payments. You can see monthly rates as low as $16.41 per month for 12 months depending on credit worthiness. We also open up the full power of our insurance plan for personal trainer students all for just $59 per year while they’re in school.
Ease of Signing Up and Securing Coverage
This may be one of the most under-rated aspects to a solid personal trainer insurance policy but it definitely bears mentioning. There’s a lot of plans out there that want you to fill out page after page of questionnaires just to get quoted, let alone going ahead and getting coverage. Then you have to pick and choose coverage options, add-ons, and other variables just to get the policy that’s right for you.
We know personal trainers are already busy enough so we made an entire, comprehensive policy that’s easy to view online, up front, so you know exactly what you’re getting and how much it will cost. Our super quick online application let’s you get full insurance coverage (with instant proof!) in 5 minutes or less.
