Four Questions You Need To Ask About Personal Trainer Insurance

WHO NEEDS PERSONAL TRAINER LIABILITY INSURANCE?

The short answer? Every personal trainer. If you train clients in any capacity, you are at risk of an injury-related lawsuit. As such, you need personal trainer insurance. No matter how safe you make your workplace, and regardless of how much care you take to prevent accidents, there’s no way to completely avoid the potential for injury or property damage while on the job. As long as this possibility is present, you are at risk. As long as you’re at risk, you need to be insured. Think about this example:

You’re working with a client at your gym or studio, and they trip and fall over a jump rope that they’d used earlier, and they break an ankle. Did you know that this can be grounds for a lawsuit?

Alternatively, something like this could happen:

You make a home visit to a client, and during the course of your workout, a piece of equipment knocks a painting off of the wall. Again, this is something for which you can be held liable.

The following are questions you need to ask about your current situation, and the steps you can take to make sure you’re protected in the event an accident occurs.

1. Am I Covered Already?

Every personal trainer needs to be mindful of the potential liability they face. Depending on your current situation, coverage may or may not already be in place. Some things to consider: Does my gym cover me?

It’s not uncommon for personal trainers working in a gym to have some sort of coverage in place. Note that coverage provided by your gym may not extend outside of the gym, so if you conduct home visits not authorized by the gym, you could then be at risk.

Does my gym’s coverage protect me?

If you aren’t sure if the gym you work for covers you, or what the limits of that coverage are, ask. Not all plans are created equal—you need to make sure that you’re protected in case something goes wrong.

2. In Which Ways Does Personal Trainer Insurance Protect Me?

Personal trainer insurance functions primarily to protect you from liability should the following occur: Injury

If a client gets injured as a result of your services, you can be held liable. This can include damages in a lawsuit and the cost of medical services.

Illness

If your services cause or aggravate an illness in a client, you may be held liable here as well.

Damages

While working with clients, and especially while working with them in their homes or while renting gym space, you run the risk of damaging their property, or the property of others. If this happens, you may be held liable for the cost of the damaged items.

3. Am I Required to Have Personal Trainer Insurance?

It is often the case that, rather than providing insurance for their personal trainers, gyms and studios require they purchase their own policy before they can start working. If you’re new to the industry or thinking of changing locations, make sure you know what is required of you in regards to insurance. For example, many gyms require you to purchase a policy and add them as an additional insured. This essentially includes them on your policy and protects them from your negligence if a lawsuit is filed. If a client is injured and decides to sue, they likely won’t stop at suing you; they’ll try to sue the gym as well. With Canopy, you can add unlimited additional insureds to your policy for just $30.

4. Do the Benefits of Personal Trainer Insurance Outweigh the Costs?

Canopy’s personal trainer insurance policies start at $129/yr. An injury-related lawsuit can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars—or more. If you aren’t currently insured, right now, you are at risk of being on the hook for the entire cost of one of these lawsuits. The truth of the matter is this: accidents and injuries are unlikely, and with any luck, you won’t have to deal with any lawsuits. Each year, however, thousands of personal trainers find themselves out of luck. Just google “Personal Trainer Lawsuit,” and you’ll find article after article detailing lawsuits that were brought against personal trainers. Most of these lawsuits were settled for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of them resulted from injuries that could happen to any of your clients at any time, regardless of how safe and detailed you are. As such, purchasing personal trainer insurance should be seen as a must.

PURCHASE A POLICY TODAY!

Canopy’s personal trainer insurance policies start at $129 and are available for purchase online. You can get covered today in 10 minutes or less. As soon as you’ve purchased your policy, your documents will be available and you’ll be ready to get to work!