Avemco vs. AOPA Renter's Insurance?

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jcepiano

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jcepiano
Hi folks,

I'm about to get my PPL and need to have renter's insurance to carry passengers at my flight school after my exam. I see Avecmo and AOPA seem to be the two front runners. Does anyone have suggestions/experience about one versus the other? I fly Cessna 172R/S and will generally be flying recreationally with friends/family.

Thanks!
 
Avemco writes the insurance, AOPA just sells it...poorly

Some of my students have gotten some bad info from AOPA in regards to renters insurance, nothing but good things from AVEMCO.
 
The flight school I work at uses and recommends Avemco to renters. No one has complained to us about Avemco.
 
I use AVEMCO myself and they have been nothing but straight forward and I think have good rates. Nothing but satisfaction here. I like being able to deal directly with the insurance company. Wh yaviation insurance is so broker-centric I do not understand.

David
 
Avemco is very expensive compared to other aviation insurance providers. That's been my experience as a low time pilot.
 
skynewbie said:
Avemco is very expensive compared to other aviation insurance providers. That's been my experience as a low time pilot.
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They have always been similarly priced to AOPA for my students :dunno:
 
AOPA is a brokerage....your not buying AOPA insurance, your buying the best quote returned to them.

And for what it's worth, the quotes I got from AOPA were the same as other brokers. Avemco was the highest by far. I'm currently with Global Aerospace for my Archer.
 
I have Avemco non-owners, but Im going to replace it with AOPA because AOPA's per person limit only applies to your passengers, whereas Avemco's per personal applies to any person involved in an incident. The prices are about the same.
 
skynewbie said:
Avemco is very expensive compared to other aviation insurance providers. That's been my experience as a low time pilot.
Click to expand...

Depends a lot on the pilot and airplane. My experience has been that for the low time pilot in a typical 4 seat GA single, Avemco is hard to beat. Start moving up to higher performance/more exotic aircraft and Avemco gets downright stoopid.

I've had an overall good experience with Avemco, although I am about to get rid of them in a couple of weeks.
 
Before I was an owner, I bought Avemco renters insurance. Purchasing was easy and straightforward and reasonably priced. When I bought my first plane, quotes from everyone else were about the same price... for the couple I could get at all since it seemed like nobody was really interested in selling insurance to a newly minted ppasel buying a first plane -- even a lowly 40 yr old Cherokee at the time, so I just stayed with Avemco since securing a policy was as simple as a phone call and a credit card. After owning and flying the Cherokee for a year, all of a sudden I was considered so much more insurable that the other firms' quotes were about half of Avemco so I naturally switched... to AOPA. After 2 years, insurance dropped another couple hundred per year thru another broker. When I bought the RV-6 Avemco was still several hundred more than other brokers. I'm with NationAir now and very pleased with the coverage levels and prices they offer me.
 
Avemco:

- direct writer, doesn't use agents
- offers non-owned multi-engine coverage
- sublimits are 'per person' so they apply to someone outside of the aircraft. Other insurers have 'per passenger' sublimits.
- coverage 'stacks' with coverage on any aircraft that you own 20% or less. It may increase your available coverage considerably on something like a club plane.


AOPA Insurance Service Aviation (AOPAIA)

- AOPAIA is a broker like any other broker. some of their agents are knowledgeable, some are not.
- they mostly sell AIG (Chartis) aviation insurance.
- the Chartis non-owned policy does cover multi-engine, but limits it to particular aircraft types (they will cover PA34, PA31 but not PA30, go figure).
- the Chartis policy offers endorsements that include things like reimbursed SAR flying that may be excluded under the wording of other policies.
- the Chartis policy limits don't 'stack' with other coverage available.
- the same Chartis policy is available from other agents (Falcon, aeromarine etc.) at the same price.


CV-Starr also offers non-owned coverage. They do multi-engine and they offer a 200k sublimit on the liability portion. Just like Chartis, they are available through brokers.

There was a company called 'Aggressive' out of TX that offered non-owned with attractive terms. They stopped writing new business a while ago.
 
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Neal Howard said:
After owning and flying the Cherokee for a year, all of a sudden I was considered so much more insurable that the other firms' quotes were about half of Avemco so I naturally switched... to AOPA. After 2 years, insurance dropped another couple hundred per year thru another broker. When I bought the RV-6 Avemco was still several hundred more than other brokers. I'm with NationAir now and very pleased with the coverage levels and prices they offer me.
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I found that Avemco will considerably discount their owned policy if you give them the opportunity to compete for your business. For our partnership, there were other reasons not to stay with them, but they aggressively competed on price to keep our business.
 
Walboy said:
I hear this all the time, but in my experience this statement simply is not true. To the contrary, Avemco's quote has been without exception higher for the four or five times I responded to their mailer at renewal time.

I have had nothing but prompt, courteous, professional service from AOPA.
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No, avemco writes policies, AOPA doesn't. Call them and ask if you don't believe me.


For a zero time student getting renters insurance on a standard issue 30k trainer, both are right around the same price.

I also had some misinformation given to a few of my students by AOPA sales, called back and spoke to the sales guy, he stood behind his misinformation, last time I ever recommend them.

Now for higher end and odd ball stuff, avemco isn't the best, but that's not what this topic is about, it's just about renters insurance.
 
weilke said:
I found that Avemco will considerably discount their owned policy if you give them the opportunity to compete for your business. For our partnership, there were other reasons not to stay with them, but they aggressively competed on price to keep our business.
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When I asked Avemco for a quote on my RV-6 I didn't go back to see if they'd haggle for a better quote. Maybe next year I should let them know they were way out of line with their competitors prices and see if they are willing to counter offer a better deal.
 
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Avemco was DOUBLE what others were asking for my amphib.......BUT this topic is about Renters Insurance and on that front avemco is the go to place.
 
James331 said:
Avemco was DOUBLE what others were asking for my amphib.......BUT this topic is about Renters Insurance and on that front avemco is the go to place.
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Not surprised. As I said earlier, they do not compete well on the specialized stuff.
 
I'm switching my non-owner policy from Avemco to AOPA because AOPA does not have a low liability limit for non-passengers, whereas Avemco does:

perperson.png


The single engine rates are about the same, Avemco charges more for multi-engine non-owner policies.

Frankly, when you ask any question of the from How does [AOPA Product] compare with [non-AOPA product] you bring out the AOPA haters in droves.

Keep that in mind.
 
Weilke is correct re. AOPA, Chartis, and Avemco. Some other posts in this thread are bad info.
 
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