With summer just around the corner, communities and organizations of all types are starting to prepare for their various summer events. In doing so, they are booking all sorts of talent, including face painters and body painters. In order to participate in most of these events, the organizers require face and body painters to have specific liability insurance in case a participant makes a claim against them. What many face painters and body painters don’t realize, however, is that all liability policies aren’t equal. The following are three main points to consider when selecting a policy for your face painting or body painting business.
Look at coverage and exclusions
Many policies have very similar coverage limits, but often the details of what is and is not covered vary significantly. Even in policies meant for insureds like face painters and body painters, specific kinds of paints can be excluded! One main exclusion to look for is regarding FDA-approved paints or paint ingredients. If the paints you are using are not FDA-approved or do not have FDA-approved ingredients, then coverage is void, which means you bought an insurance policy for nothing. If you also include balloons or henna in your work, then make sure those are covered as well.
Teaching is another aspect of many face and body painters that is overlooked by insurance policies. If you teach, then you need to have professional liability included in your policy. Without professional liability coverage, you will not be covered if a claim happens as a result of your instruction. Your policy should have general liability and professional liability included to ensure complete coverage.
The BWI policy includes coverage for henna and all paints—no FDA restrictions. Professional liability is also included for those who teach or train in face and body painting. Balloon work is excluded.
Consider pricing
One of the main differences between us and the majority of our competitors is that our policies are extremely affordable. We are able to do this by simplifying the process of getting your policy, and by cutting out the middleman. Often times when an individual is purchasing insurance for some sort of specialty business, it requires an underwriter, an insurance agent, sometimes a wholesale insurance broker, and the insurance carrier. As a result of that process the insured is often required to pay fees and a higher premium to cover the amount of work required by each company involved.
The Bodywork Insurance Program was developed specifically to cut out the middlemen and bring insurance options from the insurance carrier directly to the customer. Because you don’t have to deal with three or four different companies on the way to the actual insurance product, the price is cut significantly without sacrificing service or coverage.
Don’t share limits
What many individuals with group insurance policies don’t realize is that they are, in reality, “sharing” their coverage limits. While the practice of group policies is a common practice to help reduce the cost to the insured, sharing limits means you are getting less coverage than you think. As a way to illustrate this concept, if your policy states that you have a $3,000,000 general and professional aggregate limit, and another insured individual who “shares” your policy were to make a $500,000 claim, there would only be $2,500,000 left for you to claim if necessary. Over time, the $3,000,000 theoretically could be reduced to nothing leaving you with no coverage, even if you never had a claim.
On group policies where you do not share limits, regardless of what happens with the other people who participate in the group policy, you always have the same amount of coverage and only your own claims change the available limits. This means you only have to worry about yourself, no one else.
BWI policies do not share limits. Each policyholder has $3mil Aggregate and $2mil Per Occurrence limits, plus more. Check out our Coverage Details page to view all the limits available to you.
Our face and body painter insurance policies are designed to give you confidence, comfort, and peace of mind. We accomplish those goals by providing the most affordable, comprehensive insurance product on the market, with the added benefit of instant coverage through our online portal.
To learn more about our policies, visit our website or call us at 1-888-568-0548.
