Do you need personal trainer insurance?

Working with clients to achieve their goals can be incredibly rewarding, but it doesn’t come without risks. Whether you’re working from your clients’ living rooms, the local park or renting space as a personal trainer or fitness instructor, it’s important to have the right insurance cover in place. 

Whether you’re buying insurance for the first time, or in the process of renewing, working out the right business insurance as a personal trainer needn’t be a case of no pain, no gain.

In this guide, our business insurance partner Superscript outlines the key considerations you should make when purchasing insurance for your personal training business.

Why is it important to get the right personal trainer insurance?

There are two main reasons you should make sure you have the right coverage, and that your personal trainer insurance is tailored to the unique needs of your business:

1. Claims – having the incorrect cover is the number one reason a claim may be unsuccessful. Having the right personal trainer insurance and limits will result in a very high likelihood any claim will be successful, should you need to make one

2. Costs – related to this, purchasing unnecessary covers or choosing higher limits than your business needs will mean you are paying more than you need to for your personal trainer insurance.

Here is our 5 step plan to follow when purchasing insurance for your personal training business:

1. 1. Decide when to take out personal trainer insurance
      
   2. Pay attention to covers and limits
   3. Research your chosen insurer
   4. Provide accurate information about your business
   5. Update your cover regularly

1. Decide when to take out personal trainer insurance

It’s never too early to get cover in place as a personal trainer. As soon as your business is liable or exposed to risk you should consider insurance. You could be exposed to risk even before you start taking on clients and running sessions. For example, if you’ve purchased exercise equipment, you may want to buy cover before you start trading officially. 

There is some flexibility in how you can set the start date for your personal trainer insurance. If you know you’ll need cover soon, or will be moving from another provider you can buy your policy now and set a date in the future for your cover to start. 

2. Pay attention to covers and limits

Covers

Business insurance is made up of many different types of covers which represent the specific risks you are protecting your business against. 

Some covers are broad and apply to most businesses including personal trainers, such as public liability, which covers claims made against your business due to injury or property damage inflicted on a non-employee.

Other covers are more specialist. For example, if you offer pre and post natal training to your clients you may need to consider medical malpractice cover. This protects against claims for medical negligence if a client believes they’ve suffered physical damage from a treatment or piece of advice you gave.

It’s important to only purchase covers that apply to your business in order to avoid overpaying for your personal trainer insurance. Likewise, omitting relevant covers will leave you open to being underinsured in the event of a claim. Whilst some insurers bundle up their covers, Superscript’s flexible business insurance allows personal trainers to tailor quotes to provide a policy. 

If you’re renting space for your personal training activity you may find that the owner requires you to have some level of cover in place to take on the lease.

Limits

Once you’ve decided on your personal trainer insurance coverage you may also need to choose what limits of cover you require. In simple terms limits are the maximum amount your policy will pay out in the event of a claim. Choosing the correct limit is another way to make sure your personal training business isn’t over or underinsured, generally the higher the limit you choose the more you’ll pay. 

In some instances industry bodies or associations will require certain limits of liability for you to work with them.

Excess

Lastly, you should also take note of the excess you are willing to pay within your personal trainer insurance policy. Excess is the amount you will pay towards making a claim, generally if you choose a higher excess you may pay a lower premium.

3. Research your chosen insurer

Now you know when you want your personal trainer insurance to start, and what cover you require, you’ll need to choose an insurer. Like with any purchase there are a number of factors you should consider when choosing an insurer, and a little bit of research often pays off down the line. 

Here are some things you should check when choosing an insurer:

Reviews – as with any purchase, reading reviews from customers like you is a helpful way to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an insurer, as well as gain an objective sense of how trustworthy and reliable the insurer is.

Regulation – insurers in the UK are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and you should be able to find evidence of this on an insurer’s site. The financial strength of an insurer will also give an indication of their ability to pay claims.

Contact and support – it may be useful to understand how you can contact your insurer, particularly if you’d like the ability to speak with someone directly as some providers only offer online options.

Products – as outlined in this guide, some insurers will bundle up policies while others offer more tailored cover, so checking the insurer can meet your specific needs as a personal trainer is important. It’s also important to understand any fees that may be applied if you take certain actions, such as canceling early.

4. Provide accurate information about your business

Providing accurate details when setting up your personal trainer insurance policy will ensure your cover is relevant and can be relied upon in the event of a claim. To complete a quote for insurance you’ll typically need the following information:

Your business type – is your business set up as a sole trader, limited company or partnership?

What your business does – what type of work do you carry out in the fitness industry? Are you looking for insurance for a personal training business or a sports massage business for example

Your business turnover – how much money do you expect to receive for your work over a 12 month period?

Where your business operates – does your work cover the UK only or will you be working in other locations too?

Your employees – if you have any.

Whether you have cover in place currently – and if you do, your renewal date if you know it.

There may be some other information required to get the right insurance cover as a personal trainer, depending on what your business does.

5. Update your cover regularly

Once your personal trainer cover is all set up it’s easy to forget about it until the next bill or renewal. However, to make sure your personal trainer insurance remains valid and you’re not overpaying it’s important to review and update cover regularly. 

Some common changes in your personal training business that would require you to revisit the coverage you have in place are if you increase the types of services you offer clients, add new employees or launch into new markets. These are all factors that will impact your insurance and could leave you underinsured if not reflected in your existing policy.  

Checking cover regularly and updating if required is a good habit and needn’t take long. With Superscript there are no fees for making changes and purchasing via a monthly subscription allows you to adapt your policy as your business grows. 

Remember, business insurance is tax deductible

If you’re in the process of doing your accounting or filing a tax return, remember insurance for businesses, including personal trainers, is tax deductible.

All business insurance premiums are considered as an ‘allowable expense’ by HMRC, along with accountancy and legal fees. This means that you can write off the cost of your premium against your taxable income when completing a tax return. You’ll just need to remember to keep a record of your payments as proof.

About Superscript

Superscript’s flexible monthly cover gives small businesses and self-employed professionals the freedom to adjust cover as things change. Get covered in 10 minutes, starting from just £5 per a month. 

Learn more using the link below.

Get a quote from Superscript Directly

Find out more on our Superscript Personal Trainer Business Insurance page