We all know that insurance is pretty indispensable for yoga teachers nowadays. But with all the options out there for yoga insurance plans, how do you know if you’re actually getting a great value for what you’re investing in a new plan? Here, we’ll cover our top 5 tips for scoring the best value on a yoga teacher insurance policy.
The Cost vs. Coverage Equation
No brainer but one of the most important aspects of yoga teacher insurance is the coverage that you actually receive. Insurance doesn't do you a whole lot of good if you can’t actually use it so you need to make sure that the coverage that's included is actually going to provide real protection. Once you figure out what's included coverage wise you need to weigh this against how much the policy costs.
Use a cost-to-coverage ratio: Cost versus coverage gives you an apples-to-apples ratio that you can use to compare your options. Now, there are definitely bottom-of-the-barrel plans that provide minimal coverage, and cost very little. Conversely, other plans provide enormous plan limits and can cost a ton but 9 times out of 10, it's going to be way more coverage than a yoga teacher ever needs. Finding that sweet spot in the middle takes looking at cost vs coverage simultaneously.
Make sure liability is covered: With beYogi, we include protection for the three most common types of liability in general liability, professional liability, and product liability coverage. Think of these as the “Big Three” as the majority of your risks and accidents as a professional yoga instructor are going to fall within these three categories. That's why you see beYogi plan limits with a $2 Million per occurrence and a $3 Million annual aggregate for general and professional liability.
Additional protection: With the “Big 3” taken care of, you create a sort of baseline for any yoga insurance policy worth its weight. But you can't really stop there to get total protection these days. Today's risks require enhanced safeguards. That’s why we also include coverage like rental damage protection, stolen equipment coverage and even Identity Theft Protection—all to provide 360 degrees of career protection.
The best part? All of this coverage and all of these protections come out at one of the most competitive rates around. Plus, you have multiple options for how you want to pay for a new plan. You can get low monthly payments, a single annual rate, or pay even less when you buy a 2 year term all at once. With so much flexibility, our plans prove max coverage and affordable rates really can go hand-in-hand.
Compare Yoga Insurance for Max Value
Next up, you really need to do a little bit of comparison shopping using the above cost vs. coverage mindset. You start looking at different options, look at what they provide and how much it costs and think about your unique situation in yoga.
We know that comparing your choices and doing a bunch of clicking back and forth It's not that much fun. That's why we include a comprehensive comparison of the top yoga Insurance programs out there and publish it right to our site. You can check out the core features of our plan and weigh them side-by-side against other leading programs. Maximizing value is all about understanding your options and choosing a plan that gives you the best return for the investment you're making. Think of this like an investor. You're putting in money into this plan and you need to see some sort of benefit. It needs to include complete career protection as a professional yoga instructor, be provided at an affordable rate, and include additional benefits all in one.
It’s All About the Benny’s - Check the Included Benefits
Yoga insurance benefits are where you can really ratchet up the value for what you receive when you decide to purchase a policy. If you're comparing your options, you'll notice that insurance companies are all over the board with what they offer their members for benefits.
Some plans say they offer benefits but then you get into the program and realize it's stuff that you'll never even use. We didn't think that was too cool so went in a different direction and included a member's benefit plan that's worth over $1,000 all by itself. We've secured exclusive offers and discounts from leading yoga related gear and accessories providers, include a free website that you can customize and start getting your name out there online, huge libraries of curated content with new articles coming out all the time about meeting poses, sequences, business tips, career building, and so much more.
Our entire philosophy is about supporting yoga professionals through every walk of their career and beyond. Our plan provides real protection today, benefits you can use from day one, and continues protecting you even after your policy expires. In our book, that's what modern insurance needs to provide in order to provide max value to members.
The Accessibility Factor
Getting into the nitty-gritty of yoga teacher insurance may seem like a good way to help you get to sleep if you're struggling one night. But you really do need to do a little homework before you decide to go with one policy over another. There are several key aspects to an insurance plan with their structure and setup that can make them really accessible and easy to use when you need it or can make it especially burdensome.
These include aspects like:
Occurrence form coverage: a really important part of yoga insurance that you'll rarely hear mentioned is occurrence form coverage. This is a type of policy that says the term can expire but you can still go back and file a claim even years later. As long as the event happens when the policy is active, it doesn't matter how long you take to file that claim you can still have access to the plan's benefits.
Portability: portability is a provision in an insurance policy that says you can move states, change employers, start your own yoga practice, or whatever other change you need to make with where and how you offer services and your yoga insurance plan follows you. Without portability, if you change jobs you might have to pay an additional fee or even risk not being covered at all. beYogi’s portability provision allows you full and complete coverage in all 50 US states.
Instant coverage: instant coverage is another crucial aspect of accessibility in yoga insurance. After you fill out a quick online application (no long questionnaires ever!) and check-out, you're instantly covered and can access all of your plan documents. For most people, the entire application process takes under 5 minutes. You could be on your way to a yoga retreat across the country and get full coverage from your phone in just a few minutes' time. As well, often landlords will want to see a Certificate of Insurance which you would be able to provide in mere moments.
Streamline online member portal: it might not seem important until you try to do simple things like access your plan documents, renew your policy, or talk to an online specialist, but online accessibility through a streamlined membership portal is so important. You will save yourself so much stress and aggravation by ensuring the yoga insurance policy you're going with is supported and easy to access that you can get into from anywhere you have an internet connection.
Count Covered Modalities
Rounding out the top five tips for getting the best value on a yoga teacher insurance policy is another simple concept that will absolutely make or break the insurance plan you're looking at. Make sure to check out the covered modalities of each plan as is often the case there will only be a limited number of core covered modalities.
If you teach anything outside of that, you're either going to have to pay an additional premium or you might not be covered for that activity at all. Something like acro yoga, SUP yoga, or live streaming yoga classes may be considered “specialty modalities'' by some plans and would trigger having to pay more or risk doing the activity without coverage with some plans.
At beYogi, we totally went in a different direction and cover literally hundreds of different yoga modalities all simultaneously under one all-inclusive plan. We understand that yoga teachers might employ several different styles even within a single session and want our policyholders to be confident and provide the very best session for their students using whatever style is desired.
Bring It All Home With Instant Coverage in a Few Clicks
The ultimate value in a yoga insurance plan is going to be decided based on what you get for what you pay. Maximizing that value equation takes great coverage, affordable premiums, comparison shopping, looking at plan benefits, ensuring access, and making sure you can practice the yoga style you love with absolute confidence.
