Boat Dealer Insurance
Learn about boat dealer insurance coverage, cost, and companies.
Written by
Ann Herro has been writing about insurance and employee benefits for over 15 years. She covers topics ranging from car insurance to healthcare costs.
Reviewed by
Cara Carlone is a licensed P&C agent with 20 years of experience. She has her P&C license in RI and TX and holds CPCU, API, and AINS designations.
Boat dealership owners and operators are exposed to a variety of unique risks that must be covered with comprehensive boat dealer insurance or commercial marine insurance.
Boat dealer insurance is a package of business insurance policies that provide coverage for your inventory and offer liability protection for the numerous ways in which you or your employees may cause bodily injury or property damage to someone else in the course of doing business. Without the right coverage in place, a lawsuit or other incident could cause a potentially devastating financial loss.
An independent insurance agent can help you get the policies you need to protect your boat dealership.
Best Boat Dealer Insurance Companies
Many insurance companies offer business insurance, including boat dealer insurance, but not every insurance company operates in your state. Here are a few recommended business insurance companies that you may find in your area:
- Progressive: Progressive is based in Ohio but offers business insurance across all 50 states. You can look to Progressive for most of your business insurance needs.
- Travelers: Travelers offers highly rated personal and business insurance across the U.S.
- Foremost Insurance Company: Foremost was founded in 1952 and offers a wide range of coverage, including business insurance, in 50 states.
- Nationwide: Nationwide provides business insurance and other popular types of insurance coverage. The company is headquartered in Columbus, OH, and is represented by independent insurance agents in 50 states.
- Liberty Mutual: Liberty Mutual is headquartered in Boston, MA, and has been offering business insurance since 1912. Today the company offers a flexible, multi-line range of coverages designed to meet the needs of any business, regardless of size or industry.
A local independent insurance agent can help you find the right insurance company for your boat dealer insurance.
Save on Business Insurance
Our independent agents shop around to find you the best coverage.
Why Do You Need Boat Dealer Insurance?
Any business that sells new or used boats or regularly rents, trades, or repairs watercraft can be considered a boat dealer. Here are just a few common property and liability risks that boat dealers may face:
- Inventory damage while on a lot or at a marina
- Boat damage during seaworthiness tests
- Bodily injury or property damage during seaworthiness tests
- Damage to or theft of boats during transport on trailers
- Building and contents damage due to catastrophic events
- Business interruption losses during shutdowns
- Truth in Lending and Title Lawsuit claims
Independent insurance agents in your area understand the unique risks boat dealers face. A local agent can help you get the boat dealer insurance you need.
What are some specific risks that boat dealers face?
Like most businesses, boat dealers have both property and liability risks. Some of these risks include:
- Inventory and building damage: Your inventory on hand, showroom, and warehouse can all be damaged by fire, severe weather, theft, or vandalism.
- Seaworthiness tests: Customers who take boats out on the water pose a great threat to themselves as well as other boaters, pedestrians, and watercraft. If a customer causes property damage, injury, or death while operating one of your boats, you, as the dealer, could be held responsible.
- Faulty repairs: If you take customer-owned boats into your possession to perform repairs or maintenance, you could be held liable for damage to them or for faulty repairs that cause injury or death.
- Catastrophic events: Fire, smoke, or other catastrophic events can damage customer boats in your possession. You could be held liable for damage to other people’s property in your care.
- Product liability: A faulty part in a boat that you sell can cause property damage or injure someone. You could be held liable in these cases.
Considering these potentially hazardous scenarios, it's easier to see why boat dealer insurance is a necessity.
What Does Boat Dealer Insurance Cover?
A knowledgeable independent insurance agent can find individual and packaged boat dealer insurance policies that will address the various forms of property and liability risks you face. The following are some basic business insurance policies boat dealers generally need, in addition to specialty policies and endorsements tailored to boat dealers.
- Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance: This provides broad coverage for bodily injury and property damage to a third party caused by you, your premises, or your employees.
- Commercial property insurance: This provides protection for your business property, including buildings and contents, against disasters like fire damage, hail, vandalism, and more.
- Business interruption insurance: This provides coverage for lost income and ongoing expenses like employee wages if you must temporarily cease operations after a catastrophic event.
You may also need the following types of coverage and others depending on the specifics of your business. Many of these policies can be purchased as endorsements to your basic liability or property policies or packaged into a comprehensive commercial marine policy.
- Employee dishonesty coverage: This covers costs associated with employee theft and crime.
- Workers’ compensation coverage: This covers the costs of medical treatment and lost wages for employees who get injured or ill because of their job duties or work environment.
- Product liability coverage: This covers losses or injuries to a user, buyer, or bystander caused by a defect or malfunction of a boat from or at your dealership.
- Commercial auto coverage: This protects vehicles your business owns as well as trailers it uses to transport boats.
- Truth in lending coverage: This protects boat dealers who fail to comply with the Truth in Lending provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
- Engine hours errors and omissions coverage: This protects boat dealers from legal claims specifically related to a boat’s engine.
- Marina insurance: This protects boat dealers that also operate as a marina from damage caused by boats owned or operated by the marina and against damage to boats docked at the marina.
- Title errors and omissions coverage: This provides protection for boat dealers who make an error in title-related paperwork.
- False pretenses coverage: This protects your business if you are unwittingly coerced to release a boat to someone under false pretenses.
Working together with an independent insurance agent is the best way to ensure your boat dealer insurance policy gets completed with each type of coverage your business needs.
Save on Business Insurance
Our independent agents shop around to find you the best coverage.
How Much Does Boat Dealer Insurance Cost?
Boat dealer insurance might cost several hundred to several thousand dollars per year for liability coverage alone. Your costs will likely be higher or lower than average depending on the unique characteristics of your business, such as the location, the number of employees, the value of your commercial property (buildings, inventory, other contents), whether or not you own your building, and many more variables.
The amount of coverage you need and the deductibles you choose also impact your powerboat dealer insurance costs. An independent insurance agent can help you find comprehensive, affordable coverage.
How Can an Independent Insurance Agent Help You Find Boat Dealer Insurance?
In order to find the best coverage for your business, it is equally important to find the right insurance agent. Boat dealers should seek an independent insurance agent with experience in their business and who has worked with insurance companies that specialize in commercial marine coverage.
Together with your agent, you can assess your specific business risks and find the right mix of property, liability, and specialty coverage to protect your assets from lawsuits and claims.