Farmers depend on technology-driven mobile equipment that is not only costly, but vulnerable and expensive to repair. And as complexity in mobile equipment continues to rise, so have coverage gaps—giving Hartford Steam Boiler a reason to enhance its farm insurance.
PRODUCT: Farm equipment and machinery breakdown coverage
COMPANY: Hartford Steam Boiler, part of Munich Re
BEST RATING: A++ (Superior)
AVAILABILITY: Coverage is available through independent and exclusive agents and brokers appointed with HSB’s reinsured client insurers, as well as through partner property-casualty farm writers.
FOCUS: Farmers depend on technology-driven mobile equipment that is not only costly, but vulnerable and expensive to repair. And as complexity in mobile equipment continues to rise, so have coverage gaps—giving Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) a reason to enhance its farm insurance.
“We’re the first to offer breakdown coverage for mobile farm implements like spreaders, seeders and tillers for mechanical, electrical and electronic failures,” says Rebecca Galovich, vice president of personal lines underwriting and product management at HSB. “A speck of dust can short out a microscopic circuit controller. A firmware failure can make equipment stop working for no apparent reason.”
The enhanced product comes on the heels of a survey conducted by HSB and the North American Equipment Dealers Association, a leading agricultural equipment trade group, designed “to find out more about what equipment is most essential to today’s farmers and how they are using it,” Galovich says. The survey included questions about equipment life, repair costs and emerging electrical and electronic risks.
HSB currently insures 300,000 farms and has insured equipment breakdowns since 1866. Galovich explains that the new coverage for mobile equipment and optional implement enhancements rounds out the company’s offerings for technology-intensive precision farming.
HSB’s farm product already covers the breakdown of computers and communications systems that control farming systems, including animal feeding, processing, distribution and environmental control systems. Galovich also points out that its farm equipment breakdown coverage includes almost all GPS technology. “Data from sensors on mobile implements is collected and often automatically synched via Bluetooth with the main farm business computer whenever within range,” she explains. And the new enhancement extends equipment breakdown coverage to all cab electronics used to control farm implements—not just those linked to the GPS devices.
The new coverage also extends income loss to poultry and hog contract growers when equipment failure causes livestock deaths and expands to include renewable energy equipment, such as wind turbines and solar and methane digesters for the extra cost of buying energy from alternative sources. “Farmers depend on agents and brokers” Galovich says. “By offering new coverage for emerging and unmet needs, agents and brokers can become an even more essential partner in the financial futures of farm clients.”
UNDERWRITING: Farm owners equipment breakdown coverage pays for losses including direct physical damage to covered equipment; lost farm income arising from a covered breakdown; expenses to limit loss and speed recovery; loss value of spoiled products; and materials due to breakdown. Equipment breakdown covers risks standard farm owners policies don’t, including mechanical breakdown; electrical short circuits; centrifugal force; boiler overheating, cracking and bulging; pressure vessel bulging cracking; and collapse. Equipment breakdown covers a wide range of equipment: pumps for irrigation and farm animal water supply; generators to power farm machinery and for back-up power; farm refrigeration units, boilers and pressure vessels; heating and cooling systems; farm water heaters; mechanical equipment; electrical distribution systems; heating and cooling systems; computers and electronic equipment; and stationary farm machinery, engines and motors.
MINIMUM PREMIUM: Not applicable.
TARGET: U.S. farms of all types and sizes with equipment subject to breakdown, such as boiler and pressure vessels, mechanical equipment, electrical, air conditioning and refrigeration, production equipment and renewable or alternative energy. “The introduction of our coverage for implements may be especially appealing to crop and dairy farms, especially those with large acreage,” Galovich says.
COVERAGE TERRITORY: All 50 states.
CONTACT: Rebecca Galovich, vice president, personal lines underwriting and product management; The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, part of Munich RE; OneState Street, P.O. Box 5024, Hartford, CT 06102; 860-722-5252.
Ronimarie Acord is an IA contributor.
