I was speaking the other day w/ the owner of the shop that's been doing my block prep and he mentioned (as an offshoot of a politically-related conversion) that he was having trouble finding new insurance for his business since his current carrier is no longer doing business policies (or something along those lines).

The agent he's working with to find new insurance before his current policy expires isn't having very good luck. For example, one of the possible carriers used the fact that this shop does machine work on "race engines" as an excuse for refusing to offer coverage.

So, can any shop owners on here offer suggestions as to where he may be able to go for insurance? It really bothers me that he's running into this much trouble considering he's a one-man operation that's been in this area for decades. Thanks.

I had the same issue years ago when i had my shop.....carrier sold out and then premiums doubled.....had a hard time finding anything else affordable so i stopped having insurance....eventually sold all the equipment at a huge loss....and this was a main contributing factor....what i dont understand is what the race work has to do with it.....you cant insure the work..... only the equipment and while that may be expensive it shouldn't be impossible....

Check with Federated insurance.

We use Allied.

Travelers here,we had trouble getting liability for mfg and coverage for the expensive cars that come into the shop.Travelers custom made a policy and was very reasonable.

Funny Bob George said traveelers. They just dumped me because they saw my web site with the race cars even though it was listed on my policy.

I now have a agent who shops my insuarance regularly because of the race car part of the buisness.

Yep....no one would touch mine because of anything to do with "racing". BUT, you can say "performance".
Id be curious if BG uses his " Bob George Racing" name in his polucy. My guess is it may be something else..

I have had prices from $800 - $4500 a year quoted.

I spend $94000. a year for business insurance and our agent shops every year. We have had many companys in the last 25 years.

Then my personal life insurance premium was 4 times higher than my 4 year younger brother because I race dragsters.

Insurance is a rip-off! They take your money for YEARS with no payouts and as soon as you have ONE CLAIM they jack your rates to cover their "loss"....

Insurance companies never 'lose' money!

Lease everything, own nothing and dont insure anything. No lawyer in the country would touch a lawsuit they could get nothing from...Tim

Bundle,home,auto,business and form a Corperation or Limited Liability Company.BGR is not a part of Bob George Ent.LLC.When we switched insurance companys a few years back the agent visited our shop and documented our business.Our race cars are insured by a speciality classic and race car insurer seperate from our business,our business supplies parts and service to motor sports partisipants with a strict customer policy.The problem with trying to incorprate racing as part of the business structure crates a liability that no insurer will want to touch.Business is business,racing is a hobby.A machine shop or any garage type business should not involve racing,however it can be deducted as advertizement.

They'll go after your home equity.

If the business is part of an LLC, then put the home in a different LLC, they become seperate. Or just dont own a home.....or a car, if you own nothing and never will, a lawsuit will get nothing and no lawyer want to get nothing. Tim

The home and auto are seperate policys from the business.By bundling I ment do all you insurance with one carrier as we did except for the classic and race car insurance,not just a single policy.The original OP asked about machine shop and shop insurance not racing insurance.Sorry for not being more clear.

Yeah, I used to see a lot of that at work (Supreme Court of New York, Civil Term) "What the **** do you mean, they filed a lis pendens on my house?"

Need more info on how this is done?
Google "piercing the corporate veil".