As most o f you know I am winding down my business but will still be active hobby wise.
I had been with American family ins. for 28 years. They had ALL of my insurance personal and business. To try and shorten this story up a bit, I was forced into changing companies two years ago.
The independent agent I went with on a recommendation was less than honest.
Where I am having an issue is getting adequate coverage for the tools and equipment.
The current company is balking at insuring my "accumulation" at anything over 20K. I currently have a separate company covering things ~50.00 a month. not horrible but wondering what others do for coverage. I may be an exception as their is a decent amount that needs to be covered like 6X +.
But if a lifelong mechanic retries and brings his 300K box full of Snap off tools home, how do they get it covered? To me it's no different than jewelry, guns paintings etc. But i am being told this amount of tools is outside the norm and the HOME insurance companies shy away from covering them>
SO, ask the "bored" LOL

Most people do nothing and then have a tantrum along the lines of "What do you mean, you only cover $1,000 worth of tools?"

Yes, insuring $300k of tools is outside the norm for your typical homeowner's carrier. If you have $300k of coverage for $50/month, I would keep that and spend your time/energy elsewhere. I wouldn't spend my time shopping around for a homeowner's carrier that will give me a $300k endorsement for my tools. Maybe you get lucky, but how much do you value your time?

You most likely won't get anywhere with the normal home owner insurance places. Contact an insurance broker and see what they can line up for you. I had zero luck with my home owner insurance for stuff like that so I worked with a broker who got a few quotes from different companies. The broker is important since they know who to call and they speak the language.

Actual coverage is a bit more than half that. Thanks for your input

I had a rider on my homeowners insurance for my tools. When my garage burned down I had to buy new tools then send in the receipts and was reimbursed for every tool I bought. It ended up being around $15K. I also got $5K for my brochure collection, it was every brochure that I could find from the 50's until the late 70's. The only thing I didn't get reimbursed for was my NOS and used parts, that hurt...

Consider going “self insured” where you put so many $ per month into a separate account.

The insurance industry has always been subject to up and down cycles where their estimates of future claims are either high or low.
They are going through a minus period beyond their control, since “market interest rate” has become “government desired interest rate.”

Charlie Munger who has outlived the expected life tables at 99 started his career as a weatherman, and advised his partner Warren Buffet to buy GEICO Insurance, used to issue billions of $ of “Catastrophe Bonds” 25 years ago in the Re-Insurance market because he judged the bond interest level made then profitable, but stopped doing so 7 years ago.

Insurance situation in the USA bad,
with Florida and California particularly unfavorable to the insurance buyer

lol it's $300k worth of tools. How much would he have to put away to even get close to replacing that?

$300k, probably way more thanks to inflation. If he put away $1k a month, it would take 25 years to get close.

Got any useful advice?

Partially agree. You're basing that off a case of total loss (unlikely), where as a theft is likely to only result in a partial loss (not -$300k). Hedging this bet is why insurance companies hire actuarial science statisticians to calculate probability. In reality, OP is much more likely to eventually end up with money in an account unused in twenty years vs ever needing it to cover anything, if you go strictly off data.

Funny I asked my Erie insurance agent this two days ago. I misread what my shop was insured for then asked her about tools. My shop is over 150 feet from my house. I have a combined 165000.00 for contents. The 36-28 shop was insured for 65000.00

Have you checked with your current provider to see if they will increase your limit of coverage? If not, I would start there.

Homeowner's insurers are not equipped to properly underwrite such a risk, nor are they interested in doing so. That's why there are limits to coverage for things like tools, guns, fur coats, jewlery, etc. If someone has far more $$$ in items like those than the typical homeowner, the exposure exceeds what they would want to insure.

Your are correct again. And yes I have checked with the homeowners Ins. and they really are waffling on covering that amount. that is what prompted me to post the question. using the 300K worth of Snap on tools that the owner accumulated over his career as an example.
It would be a lot easier for someone to steal those vs empty my shop out. So how do they get coverage? I'm thinking a lot don't realize or think about it until they find out they're underinsured

Up to 25K is doable for Additional cost, over that they start waffling calling it commercial (which it was to a point).

The other issue is my shop is literally 5 ft from the house. 25 years ago, no problem. Today? I can't get house insurance with this type of business so close to the house. So I've basically shut the business down which I was ready to do anyway. So the house insurance is OK but the tools and equipment currently are insured through another company.
Silly me thought, i just have them add a "rider" for the T&E, A bit more expensive than who I'm going through. hence the post and question

I'd hazard a guess that most people in your situation don't have any coverage at all beyond the basic amount provided in their policy. You're far ahead of them by having what you have.

Short of having commercial insurance/business insurance, I think it would be tough to find someone to underwrite this risk.

that is pretty close to what I had before. The problem surfaced when I changed companies two years ago. The first year all was OK, so I thought. When the independent agent was found to have outright lied about things to both the insurers and myself at renewal time this mess bubbled up to the surface.
So I no longer have garage keepers business insurance as the Home insurer won't cover the house as it is to close to te shop.
The homeowners does not want to cover the T&E
So they are insure through a separate company. What a flipping mess. I miss my agent of 25+ years

Not many people can say this but I’ve had Erie car insurance for 51 years
Erie home insurance since 1984.
I’m not one to jump ship.

Perhaps I should modify my post to say:
Self insurance is an option that like most money issues, is not taught in high school.
Find a local financial advisor and ask them to locate for you a specialized advisor who can educate you on self insurance options, of which there are many.

Another option is to ask the local public library to find a book you (or spouse) could check out and read in a first step.

You can repair vehicles yourself,
or you can pay companies to repair your vehicles.

You can insure property yourself,
or you can pay companies to insure your property,
or you can do some of both.

Nor was I until forced to as my agent of 26 years retried and i went through 4 with the same company before throwing the towel in due to rate hikes. I had Home, 4 cars, business, life, workmen's comp and a few other policies with near ZERO claims. Only hail which was beyond my control as was the dishwasher pump taking out the kitchen floor. I was rewarded with a 35% hike for that. The new agents were never available, wouldn't return calls most times and so I bailed.
I can guarantee you they made a lot of 💲💲💲💲💲 off me but that didn't matter.
If I decided to go self insured I can almost guarantee you a tornado will come ripping though here leveling the place and taking the cars with it . or it'll suddenly burn to the ground. that's my luck on some things which is why i don't gamble or play in the stock market

The corny TV show “Hee Haw” was educational:

If it weren't for Bad Luck I’d have no Luck at all....

insurance numbers tell story

https://tippinsights.com/crippling-home-insurance-price-surges-squeeze-american-homeowners/

Florida’s “Hidden cast iron pipe damage” story is even worse

LOL that article.

Why do you LOL at the article? My insurance jumped 82% on the house this year with no claims. I shopped around a lot and found I was better off to stay with my current insurer. We may have even discussed it at some point and if we did I apologize for not remembering your response
An 82% increase seems a bit outrageous yet I'm not hearing a lot about it which again seems puzzling. Your input please

EDIT: I just called out State dept of insurance and they were about as helpful as Uncle Joe Maybe the guy I spoke to is on the same med's ?