Cover for your gear, wherever the work takes it.

Your gear is the business. The camera, the lenses, the lighting, the audio, the laptop you cut on. It is the most valuable thing you own, and it does not sit still. It lives in a bag, in a boot, on a train, on a beach, on someone else's set. Which is exactly where things get dropped, soaked, or lifted.

Lose it and you do not just lose the gear. You lose the shoot, the deadline, and the client who needed the files on Friday. So this is the cover most worth getting right, and the one most creators have wrong without knowing it.

Here is how equipment insurance actually works, in plain English.

The short answer

If you get paid for your work, your home contents insurance almost certainly does not cover your gear. The moment it earns money, most home policies treat it as business use and quietly stop applying. So the cover you actually want is one of two things:

• All Risks for the gear that travels with you.
• Business Contents for the gear that stays put, in a studio or office.

Most shooters need the first, and some need both. They are opt-in sections, so you pick what fits how you work and skip the rest. There is no single policy that bundles everything in by default.

The home insurance gap

This is the one that catches people out. You insured the camera on your home contents years ago, kept paying the premium, and assumed you were fine. Then you started getting paid for shoots, and without anyone telling you, that cover lapsed for the gear you use for work.

Most home policies exclude business use, or cap it so low it is meaningless for a real setup. So if your camera is stolen on a paid job, a home insurer can decline the claim outright. The fix is not a bigger home policy. It is cover built for working gear.

All Risks vs Business Contents

The difference is simple: where the gear is.

All Risks covers accidental loss, theft and damage to the gear you take off-site, and you set where it applies, in the UK, across Europe, or worldwide. This is the right home for anything that travels: cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, the editing laptop.

Business Contents covers the equipment, stock and contents at your premises, a studio, an office, a unit. If you shoot on location, you lead with All Risks. If you also hold gear or stock at a fixed base, you add Contents for that.

One thing to avoid: the small "tools" allowance some policies mention is built for a tradesperson's drill, not a fifteen-thousand-pound camera setup. Don't rely on it for production gear. Insure the real thing under All Risks.

What "all risks" actually covers, and the small print that matters

All Risks does what it says: it covers accidental loss or damage, not a short list of named perils. A lens that takes a knock, a rig that goes in the sea, a bag that vanishes from a location. Theft is covered too, subject to sensible security, so don't leave the gear on show in an unattended car and expect a clean claim.

Two things make the difference at claim time:

• List your gear honestly and insure it for what it costs to replace. Under-insure to save a few pounds and you get a short payout when it counts.
• It settles on a reinstatement basis, so the point is to put you back to work with the gear replaced, not to argue you down to scrap value.

Public liability, while you're at it

Insuring the gear protects you. Public Liability protects everyone else. The moment you shoot around the public or on someone else's property, there is a way to injure someone or damage something, and venues and councils will ask to see cover, usually at £1m or £2m, before they let you set up. It is a separate section you add, and most shooters working on location carry it.

So what do you actually need?

A typical shooter's stack looks like this:

• All Risks for the gear that travels. The core cover.
• Business Contents, if you also hold gear or stock at a studio or unit.
• Public Liability, the day a venue or client asks for proof, or you shoot around people.
• Cyber, if your footage, files and client work all live online and a breach would stop you dead.

You buy the ones that match how you actually work, and you skip the rest. If you want the wider picture for your trade, the photographers and videographers cover lays it out, and the content creator insurance guide covers the rest of the creator stack.

What it costs, and how claims work

We are not going to hide the number behind a form. What you pay depends on the value of the gear you list, where you need it covered, and how you work. There is a £25 admin fee, and that is the only one. No mystery add-ons.

Getting covered is three steps: answer a few quick questions, see your price, and you're covered the same day. No forms in the post, no waiting on a callback.

caremate™ builds your quote in minutes, in plain English, no broker hold music. Cover is arranged with Kovrilo and underwritten by established insurers, so it pays out when it should. And if your gear ever goes missing on a job, a real in-house team handles the claim directly, so you can get back to work instead of fighting a call centre.

Where careless™ fits

You bought the gear and you earn with it. You don't need a lecture on perils and exclusions, you need cover that follows the gear wherever the work takes it, and a straight answer when something goes wrong.

That is the idea. The gear's covered on location, in transit and abroad, the venue gets its certificate, and if the worst happens there's a real person sorting the claim while you reschedule the shoot. See your price in a few minutes, no obligation: get a quote, or start with All Risks cover.