Being a fitness instructor is a rewarding job which demands the highest levels of dedication. It takes weeks, months, and even years of intense physical activity to motivate and inspire your clients to perform at their best.
This means there is always a risk of injury and accidents occurring, which is why you need fitness instructor insurance.
Even if you take the utmost care and always conduct risk assessments to avoid such situations, we understand things can still go wrong. Whether you are working at a studio in a gym or sports centre or out in the open, a client could get injured, your equipment could be stolen or you could be injured.
Specialist insurance protects you in the event of these things happening and ensures you can carry on working with your clients. Insure4Sport provides flexible fitness instructor insurance which can be tailored to suit your needs.
Please note: If you’re unable to train clients in person, you’re covered to train classes of up to 30 people in live, or pre-recorded, online sessions.
What insurance do fitness instructors need?
Our fitness instructor insurance includes the following cover options:
Public Liability insurance
Accidents such as injury and property damage can happen when you’re instructing clients, even despite careful planning and preparation.
You could be demonstrating how to perform an exercise and a class member could injure themselves while attempting it. If they hold you responsible for their injuries, they could make a costly compensation claim against you.
Another scenario could be that you are training with a client when either you or they inadvertently damage equipment belonging to the gym or fitness centre. Again, if you are held accountable, you could end up facing legal action.
That’s why all fitness instructors need Public Liability insurance.
Public Liability protects you if a claim is made against you for injury to another person or property damage during a session.
Insure4Sport offers up to £10m of Public Liability cover, depending on your requirements.
Professional Indemnity insurance
Providing clear and accurate advice is what makes you a successful fitness instructor. However, even the most experienced fitness instructors can occasionally provide incorrect advice, which in turn can lead to accidents. For this reason, you need Professional Indemnity insurance.
Professional Indemnity cover is designed to protect you if a client claims against you for an injury they feel was caused by negligence.
Insure4Sport provides £1.5m Professional Indemnity free of charge when you include Public Liability on your fitness instructor insurance policy.
Sports Equipment insurance
As you know, fitness equipment often doesn’t come cheap, and you probably rely on a range of valuable items to give your clients the best service.
If your equipment was lost, damaged or stolen without equipment insurance, you would have to pay out of your own pocket to repair or replace it.
Despite taking the utmost care of your equipment, several factors can lead to incidents happening. For example, if new or inexperienced clients are using your equipment for the first time, there’s the potential for it to be damaged accidentally. If you leave it in your car, there’s the potential for the car to be stolen or for someone to break in and steal your equipment.
To protect yourself against these scenarios, Insure4Sport provides Sports Equipment cover. This compensates you if the equipment you use to train clients is lost, damaged or stolen. What’s more, it will be replaced with a brand new item if it’s less than a year old and your claim is successful.
Insure4Sport offers up to £50,000 Sports Equipment Cover, with a maximum value for one item of £2,500. What’s more, we offer free cover on the first £250 worth of equipment. This means for example, if you wish to insure £750 of equipment, you will only pay for £500 worth.
Personal Accident insurance
When you’re leading a fitness class, it’s not just your clients who are at risk of suffering injury.
Whether you suffer broken bones or something more serious like permanent disablement, it makes sense to protect yourself with Personal Accident Cover in case you get injured on the job.
Insure4Sport provides Personal Accident cover of up to £50,000, which includes up to £500 towards the cost of physiotherapy and up to £250 towards the cost of dental treatment if this is required. This cover also compensates you if you suffer accidental death, permanent disablement, loss of limbs or loss of sight resulting from an accident during one of your sessions.
Loss of Earnings insurance
If your injury leaves you unable to train for several weeks or even months, we also offer Loss of Earnings cover up to £750 per week for up to 52 weeks if you take out Personal Accident insurance. This provides financial support if you’re unable to work for more than 14 days due to the severity of your injuries.
Employers’ Liability insurance
Being a fitness instructor can be more than a single person job, especially if you’re growing the number of sessions you’re running each week. However, if you employ other fitness instructors, this presents its own set of potential risks.
As would be the case with a client, if one of your employees injured themselves at work and held you responsible, you could be on the receiving end of a costly compensation claim. That’s why, if you employ people, by law you’re required to have Employers’ Liability insurance.
How much does fitness instructor insurance cost?
Insure4Sport’s Public Liability cover for fitness instructors starts at £1.5m of cover*. If you use your own equipment to train clients, we advise adding Equipment cover to your policy for £250 worth of equipment, which comes at no additional cost.
However, if you need additional cover, we also provide Personal Accident insurance. When you take out Personal Accident insurance, you will also have the option to take out Loss of Earnings insurance.
For a more accurate cost for our fitness instructor insurance, get an instant online quote.
Can payments be spread through the year?
Yes, if you have an annual policy which is more than £50, you can pay for this on a monthly basis. We don’t charge additional costs for monthly payments, unlike some of our competitors, and our monthly payments are arranged through our partner Premium Credit Limited. You are required to pay an initial 20% deposit, with the remainder being split over nine equal monthly instalments.
What does fitness instructor insurance cover?
Will I be covered if I train participants online?
If you train participants online, your Public Liability insurance will cover you if you’re providing a face-to-face session or an online live session such as via Skype.
Following these sessions, if you provided training schedules for them to follow and an injury resulted from this advice, this is covered under Professional Indemnity insurance, which is limited to £1.5m.
However, we will not provide insurance if you never see or interact with your participants – for example, if you pre-record sessions which are then viewed on demand.
Which sports and classes are covered?
Our fitness instructor insurance covers the most popular sports, activities and classes around. These include everything from aerobics and boxercise to spinning and Zumba, and even some that you may not be as familiar such as buggy fit, friskis and svettis.
View the full list of sports we cover here
Which sports and classes are not covered?
Unfortunately, there are certain activities we can’t insure. Please check our sports we don’t cover for more information. If you can’t find your sport or class on the list, email us at admin@insure4sport.co.uk, or call us on 0800 158 5530 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5:30pm) and we’ll be able to advise you.
Can I be covered for more than one activity?
Fitness instructors can receive cover for over 400 sports and activities on a single policy, for more information please visit our Multi-Sports Cover page.
I am a newly qualified fitness instructor; will this affect my insurance premium?
Not at all, as long as you hold a qualification recognised by the UK National Governing Body for the Sport.
Are there restrictions on where I train?
We currently don’t place restrictions on where you train. However, if you’re running sessions in public spaces, you may need to request permission from the relevant authorities.
Wherever you choose to train, we strongly recommend that you conduct a full risk assessment before teaching all classes or sessions.
Can I be covered to teach outside of the UK?
Yes, simply add ‘Worldwide cover’ to your policy. This cover means you are protected when running personal training sessions abroad. Unlike some insurers, our Worldwide cover does include the USA and Canada.
Am I covered to offer nutritional advice?
Yes, you are covered if the nutritional advice you are giving is part of your fitness instructor qualification.
Am I covered for instructing children?
Yes, we can insure you as long as you have the relevant fitness instructor qualification.
Do I need a first aid qualification or certificate to take out a policy?
No, you can get a policy without one but it wouldn’t hurt to have one if you’re going to be running classes as it could reduce the chances of a claim being made against you should an accident happen.
Making a claim
We understand that making a claim can prove stressful. That’s why our aim to is to give you clear, helpful information that will make the process as simple and worry-free as possible. For more information, please check out our FAQ page.
What should I do if I need to make a claim?
If an incident occurs and you need to make a claim, please contact one of our claims advisers on 0333 400 7541 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5:30pm) as soon as you can. If you’re calling outside of office hours, leave us a message and we’ll get in touch the next working day.
You’ll find further details for making a claim are included in your policy documents.
Will I have to pay an excess if I make a claim?
You only need to pay an excess for Loss of Income, Sports Equipment or Personal Accident claims that involve hospitalisation, emergency dental or physiotherapy.
Is sports equipment replaced on a new for old basis?
Yes, your equipment will be replaced new for old if they are under a year old, subject to satisfactory proof of ownership. If your equipment is over a year old, it will be replaced on the indemnity value of that equipment at the time of damage or loss.
Public Liability Insurance covers you for third party injury or damage to property.
Professional Indemnity Insurance protects you from legal action following advice given.
Provides financial support should you receive an injury whilst carrying out the activity which you are insured and you are unable to work. The maximum benefit period for this cover is 52 weeks. There is an excess of 14 days on this section.
Personal Accident Insurance (sometimes referred to as Sports Accident Insurance) ensures that should an accident occur whilst carrying out the activities for which you are insured you will be entitled to compensation.
insure4sport provides a benefit for Accidental Death, Permanent Disablement, Loss of Limbs and Sight up to £50,000. Plus there is cover in place should you require Physiotherapy or Emergency Dental Treatment. We will also financially compensate you should you require a hospital stay or break a bone.
Provides protection against loss of, theft or damage to your valuable sports equipment should the unthinkable happen. Cover for items less than a year old is on a new for old basis. A Single Article Limit of £2,500 and a £50 excess applies to all claims. Sports equipment excludes bicycles and bicycle accessories. This cover is however available through our bespoke bicycle product “Cycleplan”. Please visit www.cycleplan.co.uk for further information.
Employers Liability insurance will enable you to meet the cost of compensation for your employees’ injuries or illness whether they are caused on or off site. If you are a business or employee people this is a legal requirement.
If you employee volunteers you should still select the option but leave the wage roll values clear.
Participant to Participant Liability provides cover if one of your participants/players injures another participant/player during a sport where tackles, scrums, mauls, or throws are permitted (e.g. football or MMA). If you’re a coach or instructor, and you are deemed liable, then you will be protected.
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