Commercial · industry practice
Health & wellness.
Group fitness, personal training, yoga, massage, mental health, alternative wellness. Liability profiles vary by modality — we match the policy to the practice.
What it is.
Gyms, studios, therapists, clinics, alternative wellness. Liability profiles vary by modality — yoga and pilates are different from CrossFit, which is different from massage, which is different from mental health counseling. Modality-specific professional liability matters more than headline limits. Sexual abuse and molestation coverage where applicable is non-optional in any operation working with vulnerable populations.
The lines in your policy.
Each one is its own knob. The carrier's default rarely fits a real life.
What a claim looks like.
Three anonymized files. Numbers are illustrative.
Pilates studio's pulley fails; client tears rotator cuff during class. Defense + settlement: $48K. Professional liability paid. GL alone wouldn't have responded — injury came from instruction, not premises.
Therapy practice's email account compromised; 84 client records exposed. HIPAA breach response + notification + state regulatory matters: $94K. Cyber with HIPAA endorsement paid in full. Without HIPAA-specific cyber, regulatory penalties would have been uncovered.
Gym member injured on treadmill — equipment malfunction. Settlement reaches $340K. GL per-occurrence at $300K (default) leaves $40K + defense costs uncovered. We'd recommend $500K-$1M minimum on gym GL.
How to read a health & wellness policy.
The four things worth looking for on the dec page, in the order we read them.
The first page tells you who's actually covered, on what address, and under whose legal entity. A surprising number of policies have the wrong name, the wrong address, or a missing additional insured, and you don't find out until you file a claim. Cross-check it against your driver's license, your title or lease, and any contract that requires you to be insured.
Policy limits are abstract until you stack them against the assets they protect. A $300k liability limit feels generous in isolation; against a $1.2M home and a college fund, it isn't. Walk down each numbered line on your dec page and ask: if this were the cap on the worst day, would I be okay?
Page one shows you the base form. Pages four through twelve show you what the endorsements added, and, more importantly, what they took away. Water-damage exclusions, roof-payment schedules, named-storm deductibles, scheduled-valuables caps. These small numbered forms decide more claims than the headline limits do.
Carriers re-rate, re-form, and re-endorse policies at every renewal. If you keep last year's dec page, a side-by-side read takes ten minutes and tells you which limits drifted, which sublimits got cut, and which endorsements quietly disappeared. It's the single most useful habit in personal insurance.
Frequently asked questions.
What modality-specific professional liability do I need?
Depends on services offered. Yoga + pilates have their own forms; massage has body-work-specific exclusions; mental health needs HIPAA-aware policies; personal training is different from CrossFit. Match the policy to the modality.
Do I need abuse + molestation coverage?
If you work with minors, vulnerable populations, or in close-contact modalities (massage, mental health, youth fitness), yes. Often excluded from standard GL; addable as endorsement at specialty markets.
How do HIPAA penalties interact with cyber coverage?
Standard cyber may exclude regulatory fines. HIPAA-specific cyber endorsement covers HIPAA breach response, OCR investigations, and HIPAA penalties. Critical for any HIPAA-covered practice.
What about my existing waivers / liability releases?
Liability waivers help but don't eliminate exposure. Most jurisdictions allow waivers for ordinary negligence but not gross negligence or recklessness. Insurance + waivers + documented safety practices is the right defense-in-depth approach.
Want a second read on your health & wellness policy?
Send us your declarations page. You'll get it back marked up, in plain language, with the gaps and the over-coverage flagged, yours to keep, no obligation to switch.
or phone (913) 408-7280
We're an independent broker. We represent you, not the carrier , paid by the carrier we ultimately place with, but accountable only to the person whose name is on the policy. Read more about how we work.