Getting the Most Out of Your Equine Insurance- Part 3

By: Evan Kaplow, Kaplow Insurance Agency

Since you’re insuring your horse to protect your investment, you don’t want that protection to end unexpectedly. That’s where guaranteed renewal comes in. Let’s look at this important endorsement to your equine mortality policy.

Guaranteed Renewal

Another endorsement that we believe is very important in an equine mortality policy is guaranteed renewal. This means that the insurance company will guarantee to renew your policy for at least 12 months from the date of expiration.

The issue of renewability can become a real concern if your horse faces an injury, illness, or disease during the current policy insured period. Without guaranteed renewal, your insurance company may be unwilling to renew coverage due to these health issues, or the coverage will only extend for a short period of time after the renewal date, such as 30 to 90 days.

If you’re a horse owner, you don’t want to be put in the position of having an exclusion placed on the mortality policy when that excluded condition is likely to affect the animal in the future.

For example, if your animal suffers a colic surgery with a re-sectioning (a piece of intestine is removed) and the horse recovers nicely, most insurers will renew your coverage for an additional 12 months and provide coverage if that animal should die from colic. Your renewed policy will have a major medical exclusion for colic, however. The mortality portion of the policy will still cover the horse if it dies of colic.

The 12 months go by, and it is time to renew the policy again. Since the horse’s intestine was re-sectioned, most, if not all, insurers will then place a full exclusion applying to both the mortality and major medical coverage and not give coverage back for the remainder of the horse’s life. Other health problems where you will see exclusion for the remainder of a horse’s life might include laminitis, cancer, wobbler’s syndrome, EPM, among others.

Kaplow Insurance clients have access to a guaranteed renewal product that provides continued coverage on the mortality through the horse’s age of 16, with no veterinarian examination needed, no matter the condition of the animal. This product is much more comprehensive and eliminates the animosity of a potential exclusion on the policy.

Stallion Accident Sickness Disease Coverage

A policy endorsement that specifically applies to stallion owners is stallion accident sickness disease coverage. This endorsement provides coverage in the event the stallion is unable to breed mares or get mares in foal as a result of an accident, sickness, or disease.

However, if the stallion is unable to breed or get mares in foal, and there is no accident, sickness or disease evident that can be attributed to the cause of the problem, the stallion owner will not have a payable claim.

Fall Of The Hammer Coverage

Purchasing a horse at auction is an exciting and often stressful time. Insuring your new purchase should be at the top of your to-do list. Kaplow Insurance has worked to make this process easier at sales such as the NSBA Kaplow Insurance Breeders Championship Futurity Yearling Sale, the Reichert Celebration, and the Congress Super Sale.

This temporary and limited policy applies to all sale horses that change hands and begins when the gavel falls, protecting the purchase price of the horse for 24 hours or until the horse leaves the fairgrounds, whichever comes first. Horse purchasers have the opportunity to purchase full mortality, major medical, and guaranteed renewal policies at a reduced price while at the sale.