Insurance Renewal

This week I’ve spent a decent amount of time doing some of the mundane, definitely not glamorous tasks that are part of running a farm. Every few years redoing our insurance coverage is a giant hassle. Most years it is just a couple of pages of paperwork to sign and that’s it, but some years these pesky insurance companies feel the need to be thorough. Obviously they do not understand or care that I am busy. They want to review our board contract, they want pictures of every building from all sides, they want pictures of the fence, they send an inch thick packet of paperwork to fill out about the horses, the farm, things that happen regularly around the farm, etc. I realize information needs to be updated and all, but I find this type of thing extremely boring and tedious. So of course I avoid dealing with it until the last possible minute. I always justify procrastination by saying that I work better under pressure.

Trudging around the farm taking pictures of all sides of each of the three barns, six run-in sheds and six miles of fence felt like a serious waste of my time. Not to mention that I then had to download all of the pictures, then attach them all to an email and send them. (I am fully aware I am whining so no need to point it out). Anyway I decided to make things easy on myself and took only two pictures of each building, I took them on the diagonal so I could get two sides in each picture. I took exactly four pictures of the six miles of fence. It felt like an exercise in stupidity since all of the fence is the same, all four board wood fence with the exception of a couple of cross fences done with Horseguard.

As I waded through the massive stack of forms that needed to be filled out one thing that did make me pause and think for a minute was the question about the value of all items stored in the buildings. As I started rapidly listing various pieces of equipment, etc. the horse blankets made me pause and think for awhile. Exactly how does one value 100+ used horse blankets, many of which have clearly seen some use?? Things that make you go hmmmm.

I was thinking I should probably get some quotes from a couple of other insurance companies since we have not shopped our policy in a few years. Between the general liability, the CC&C (care, custody and control), and then insuring the buildings, contents of the buildings and all of the equipment our insurance premiums are a rather large expenditure. I must admit I am now having an internal conversation with myself after wading through all of the paperwork – “do I really need to spend the time answering the same questions over and over and over?” I know, a rather pathetic internal dialogue to be having with oneself yet I am admitting to having it. I have not yet come up with a firm answer for myself . . .

I hope everyone else has been doing something far more interesting with their time than insurance renewal paperwork!

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Hemi and Apollo