How to Choose the Best Event Insurance Provider

Event insurance isn’t just a policy you buy and stash away to tick off a box. It offers incredible financial protection and peace of mind. And if you choose your event insurance poorly, it can have severe, real-world consequences: denied claims, hidden exclusions, and inadequate coverage.

Let’s go over what to look for in an event insurance provider, how to compare top options, and what pitfalls to avoid.

Why Choosing the Right Event Insurance Provider Matters

Hosting any event comes with risks. A single accident, cancellation, or lawsuit can devastate. Insurance protects you by compensating you for expenses and losses, but not all event insurance providers are created equal. Choosing the wrong one can leave you exposed, bad.

Bad event insurance policies are essentially fraudulent. They don’t cover what you think they cover, but they certainly imply they do. The exceptions are vague. In fact, a scalding red flag for any insurance is if the insurer says that payouts are guaranteed.

Key Factors to Look For

Financial Strength

AM Best and other financial strength rating sites can help you make sure that the event insurance provider can actually pay claims. If a disaster occurs, such as a major medical liability incident, the insurer may need to pay out multiple millions of dollars. A strong financial strength rating ensures the insurer can grant you the insurance payout.

Claims Reputation

No matter how good an insurer’s policy is, if their claims process is horrible, it’s probably not for you. Before buying event insurance, look at reviews, claim approval rates, and turnaround times. Even reading this event insurance guide is a great start.

If you choose a new event insurance company with no ratings, you could snatch an excellent deal with superior coverage, or you could end up getting ghosted by the insurance company.

Coverage Options

Event liability: Event liability insurance covers the event host or organizer’s main liability risks. If an attendee gets injured or your staff members break the venue property, event liability insurance can protect you from lawsuit expenses.

Event cancellation: Events can get cancelled for too many reasons. Thunderstorms, aviation strikes, key person sickness… What happens to all the losses and non-refundable deposits? Event cancellation insurance protects you from cancellation or postponement losses.

Liquor liability: Are you serving any alcohol at your event? Even if it’s free, you need host liquor liability insurance. It can cover liquor-related incidents that occur at your event.

Property and equipment: If you are bringing expensive equipment or property to the event, it’s a good idea to obtain specialized insurance for them. Note that some event insurance policies will cover special event items, such as wedding attire.

Customization

The ability to tailor policies to specific event risks is a valuable one if you have any special event risks or needs. Insurance companies often let you pick add-ons and different policies so you can choose the most suitable one for your event. An add-on can be a few dollars or more expensive depending on what coverage you want.

Comparing Top Insurers

Breakdown of leading providers

Major insurance carriers often offer wide ranges of insurance products for everything under the sun: literally. You can get policies for skydiving, sports competitions, weddings, international travel, cars… Major carriers come with the benefit of convenience and reliability.

On the other hand we have niche event insurance companies that provide highly specialized policies. If you need to cover any specific risk, niche event insurance is much more suitable.

In between major carrier policies and niche ones are the specialized but still popular insurance policies. For example, many people choose wedding insurance that only covers one type of event: weddings.

We highly recommend Eventsured. Eventsured policies are great for events such as weddings, sports competitions, corporate events, and festivals. Eventsured is favored by many event hosts because of its:

• Transparent pricing
• Same-day coverage
• Solid financial strength
• Ability to name “additional insureds”
• Live and online customer support options

Plus, Eventsured does not come with the commonly seen $25 and $500 deductibles amongst event insurers. Its legitimate $0 deductible is useful if you’re worried about smaller expenses piling up.

Questions to Ask Before Buying

Before buying, it is a good idea to compare different insurance providers by getting free quotes, reviewing policy terms, and reading customer testimonials. Here are some questions to ask when comparing event insurance policies.

What risks are covered, and which are excluded?

Coverage details and exclusions are the main things you need to know before purchasing an event insurance plan. Make sure you know what is covered and what isn’t.

Many exclusions are standard across event liability and cancellation policies. For example, most wedding insurance plans don’t cover cancellations due to cold feet.

How does the claims process work?

Most insurance companies let you file event insurance claims using an online client portal or through a mobile app. You are expected to notify the insurer of incidents and file claims promptly. There may be a time limit for filing claims after the incident.

When you file your claim, you will need to supply the insurer with proof of the incident and losses. Photographs, police reports, receipts, medical bills, and other evidence can support your claim.

Are add-ons available

Check your insurer’s policies and options to see if there are good add-ons for your event. If your event has high risk in a particular way, make sure the associated risks are adequately covered. For example, outdoor winter events need to cover weather-related cancellations and liability risks.

Common add-ons that can be helpful include:

• Weather coverage
• Liquor liability
• Event cancellation
• Sports competition coverage

What’s the deductible?

Most event insurance plans have a deductible, even if it is very small. Deductibles discourage policyholders from filing claims for excessively small expenses. This is important for insurers because if they need to assign an agent to deal with claims for $5 plates, they start losing too much money, yet raising insurance premiums to match the risk is rarely worth it for customer satisfaction. You can still choose low or no deductible, but it could significantly increase the premium.

It’s best to choose a deductible that makes sense for your budget. That way you have a reasonable event insurance premium.

If you want a $0 deductible event insurance policy, Eventsured’s insurance products are good to consider. Their $0 deductible plans still remain affordable and useful.

Is there 24/7 support?

If there is an event emergency, expert support can make a huge difference. Professional crisis management and insurance agents can help you decide what the next best step is and whether choices you make will impact your claims process. Many of the best event insurance companies will offer hotlines you can call with experts on standby to assist you with your emergency.

Another factor to consider is if you hate online support that is bots. Real people support can feel more sympathetic, meaningful, adn helpful. You can choose an event insurance company that has representatives who are friendly real people.

Bundling Options for Multiple Events

Some insurance companies let you choose a bundle or multi-event insurance policy. It’s convenient and can offer savings, but it’s not for every event organizer.

Let’s go over the pros and cons of multi-event event insurance.

Cost savings from insuring multiple events under one policy

If you’re a company with many conferences a year, a sports event host with multiple events in different places, or otherwise expect to host several events in a year, multi-event policies can be great. Their convenience helps you reduce your workload throughout different events.

The downside is that if your events are wildly different or not happening, multi-event policies can be a waste. Some bundles might not be more cost-effective depending on the insurer.

When bundling makes sense

If you’re a corporate event planner, a wedding planner, annual festival host, or other organizer that routinely plans events, bundling is a good choice. You are probably familiar with the event risks and know what insurance coverage you need. This makes it easier to choose an insurance bundle.

How bundling affects flexibility and coverage

If you choose an insurance bundle, it can be cheaper but also less flexible. Say you have a special event coming up—you might need to buy extra insurance to bridge the gaps in your existing bundle.

Recurring events tend to benefit the most from multi-event insurance policies. You become more familiar with your risks and can take advantage of cheaper event insurance bundles.

Red Flags to Avoid

Vague or hidden exclusions

Exclusions should be clear and understandable. You need to know what sort of problems are not covered so that you can make an informed choice regarding whether the policy is right for you. Insurance can’t prevent all risk for your event—it can only mitigate a substantial amount.

Extremely low premiums

Event insurance that is far too cheap (e.g. $10 for a day of coverage) is a red flag. Insurance companies take on risk when they sell insurance products. They anticipate certain payouts they will need to grant, and base the premium on numerous factors. If the event insurance company randomly offers extremely low premiums (with guaranteed payouts) this is probably a scam and you will never hear from that insurance company again.

You can expect quality event insurance to cost at least $50 a day (unless you’re opting for extremely limited coverage on purpose). Policies tend to range from $70 to $200. The premium varies based on event type, size, location, the presence of alcohol, and duration.

Poor customer service or hard-to-reach claims teams

Customer service is important for any service, because it is crucial for any real emergency or problem. You want a claims team and customer support team that are easy to contact.

Reachable customer support is even more important if you are hosting an event internationally or at late hours. A 24/7 global support hotline is ideal since a lot of event incidents are time-sensitive. The better and faster you handle the crisis, the easier it is to recover, both financially and reputation-wise.

Lack of transparency in policy terms

If the terms of the policy are confusing or vague, it is not a safe policy to buy. You want an insurance provider that clearly defines terms. If you ask any questions, the insurance agent should also be happy to clarify and explain the policy.

Conclusion

The best event insurance provider balances financial strength, good claims processing, and customization options. Event insurance should be affordable without sacrificing coverage security.

To ensure you’re getting the most out of event insurance, compare multiple providers, read the fine print, and ask the right questions before committing.

Choose a provider that aligns with your event type and risk tolerance today. Our top pick for event insurance is Eventsured. You can get covered in minutes and feel comfortable with their friendly, reliable customer support. Their event insurance policies, with AM Best A++ Superior ratings, start as low as $63.