I just had a broker try and find a better rate for me on my Duo. No luck. Quotes came in roughly 20% higher than Costello.

I would prefer a higher deductible than the group policy has. One complaint Costello was making at the Convention 2 years ago was that smaller claims were driving costs up and those claims tended to be avoidable. Canopies left open and slamming closed, wings dropped off riggers and such.

Seems to me that having $100 deductibles makes it more likely that someone will file a claim against a $1500 repair. I was OK with a $1000 or $2000 deductible, but that didn't help.

Comparing the quotes I got back, they were roughly equivalent to the insurance cost of a Complex airplane of the same value. Even though the cost of repair on a damaged glider is likely to be far less.

A gear up landing on a glider may cost several thousand dollars, but nothing like gear up in a power plane. No engine teardown, no prop replacement. The other underwriters just don't have any other data to go off it seems so they put gliders into the same basic expense category as power.

I may look into LL Johns next year.


On Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 9:09:15 AM UTC-8, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 9:46:55 AM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Friday, December 18, 2015 at 8:59:12 PM UTC-5, wrote:

I have decided to take what amounts to a 32% saving and go with the AOPA. ...if I go back to Costello they will raise my rates 25% more than what I WAS paying under the SSA program...

32% is huge. But is there anything that prevents a 40% premium increase in the second year? Is this a 'teaser rate'? Please report back to this thread in the coming years.

Theoretically speaking, SSA has leverage to negotiate future rate increases with the underwriter in coming years, because SSA can switch the SSA policy to a new underwriter if it is economic. So the premiums should be relatively stable for accident free customers.

I suppose that AOPA would have even more leverage with their underwriter but I understand that AOPA derives income in exchange for marketing the policy. Kinda like AAA makes money from insurance sales. Does SSA get a kickback for marketing the SSA policy?

AOPA has much bigger leverage than SSA.