Insurance is complicated. If you don’t have the time to decode all the legal jargon, that’s understandable. To help you find the answers you need as quickly as possible, we’ve compiled this list of the most common personal trainer insurance questions.
Still can’t find the answers you need? Don’t sweat it. Get in touch with us and a licensed, non-commissioned agent will be happy to help you.
Common Personal Trainer Insurance Questions
What is Personal Trainer Liability Insurance?
Personal trainer liability insurance is designed to protect you and your business from the financial consequences of claims and lawsuits related to your work. It can help pay for things like client medical bills, legal fees, or property damage if your business is liable.
Liability insurance is intended to cover injuries and damages done to others, like your clients or rented gym space. It does not apply to harm or injury you experience.
Additional Resources:
Do Personal Trainers Need Insurance?
Is Personal Trainer Insurance Required by Law?
Does the Gym’s Insurance Cover Me?
What Kind of Insurance Do Personal Trainers Need?
What is a COI?
Do I Need Insurance if I Use Liability Waivers?
What is Personal Trainer Liability Insurance?
Personal trainer liability insurance is designed to protect you and your business from the financial consequences of claims and lawsuits related to your work. It can help pay for things like client medical bills, legal fees, or property damage if your business is liable.
Liability insurance is intended to cover injuries and damages done to others, like your clients or rented gym space. It does not apply to harm or injury you experience.
Additional Resources:
Do Personal Trainers Need Insurance?
Yes.
Personal trainers need liability insurance because:
- Most gyms and employers require you to have it
- Without it, you’ll likely be responsible for paying any claim and lawsuit costs on your own
- Claims and lawsuits can be expensive to pay out of pocket, and may include things like:
- Medical bills for client injuries
- Legal, attorney, and/or court fees
- Property damage repairs/replacements
- Insurance shows you’re responsible
- Insurance provides peace of mind, for yourself and your clients
Liability insurance is intended to cover injuries and damages done to others, like your clients or rented gym space. It does not apply to harm or injury you experience.
Additional Resources:
Is Personal Trainer Insurance Required by Law?
No — it is not required by federal law. However, it may be required by your city, county, or state. Plus, most employers will require you to have your own before officially hiring you.
Does the Gym’s Insurance Cover Me?
If you are a full-time W-2 employee, the gym’s insurance may cover you, but only while you are working at their location. If you do any training on your own, the gym’s insurance won’t cover you.
However, if you’re classified as an Independent Contractor (someone who gets a 1099 tax form, not a W-2 tax form), you’re typically not covered by the gym’s insurance. Or if you are, it’s very limited coverage.
Never assume a gym, studio, or fitness facility will cover you for accidents and client injuries. Always check with the gym about its staff liability insurance policies.
What Kind of Insurance Do Personal Trainers Need?
At a minimum, personal trainers need general liability and professional liability insurance. These are the coverages that apply to the majority of potential incidents, and the types that most studios and gyms require personal trainers to have.
General liability covers third-party claims, aka, injuries or accidents that happen to other people. This includes bodily injuries and property damage. Our general liability policy also includes coverage for:
- Personal and Advertising Injury
- Products Completed Operations
- Damage to Premises Rented to You
- Medical Expenses
Note: What each type of insurance covers is outlined in the “Coverage Questions” section.
Professional liability covers claims related to the advice you provide as a CPT. For instance, if a client says the exercise program you created for them causes them to injure their back, professional liability could cover the cost of medical bills, lost wages, and legal fees.
What is a COI?
COI stands for Certificate of Insurance. It is sometimes also referred to as an ACORD COI, which is essentially a branded version of a Certificate of Insurance. COIs serve as proof that you have insurance if you need to provide it for your clients or gym.
Do I Need Insurance if I Use Liability Waivers?
Yes.
Liability waivers are important to have as an extra layer of protection. They can reduce your chances of getting sued, but they don’t guarantee complete legal protection or replace liability insurance. If you do experience a claim or lawsuit, waivers can’t help you pay for them — liability insurance can.
Additional Resources:
Personal Trainer Coverage Questions
What Does Personal Trainer Insurance Cover?
Personal trainer liability insurance is built to handle third-party bodily injury and property damage claims, aka physical injury, harm, or damage you unintentionally do to other people, places, business entities, and things.
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Professional liability |
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You can also customize your policy with optional coverages, including:
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Diet & Nutrition Coverage |
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Who Needs a Personal Trainer Policy?
If you provide any of these services, you need personal trainer insurance (and yes, Insurance Canopy covers these scenarios too):
- Virtual or online training
- In-person training in your home
- In-person training in the client’s home
- In-person training in public spaces like metro parks
- In-person training in gyms/studios/other fitness facilities
- Training both in-person and virtually at the same time
- Training in multiple locations
- Teaching multiple modalities/types of training
Insurance Canopy covers a wide range of fitness instructors, including (but not limited to):
- CrossFit trainers
- Dance teachers
- Golf instructors
- Group exercises instructors
- Gymnastics coaches
- Personal trainers
- SilverSneakers instructors
- Pilates instructors
- Spin instructors
- Sports coaches
- Sports officials
- Water aerobics instructors(in shallow water only, up to four feet)
- Yoga instructors (no aerial yoga)
- Youth fitness instructors
- Zumba instructors
Additional Resources:
What Isn’t Covered?
Personal trainer policies do not cover:
- Injuries to yourself or a family member
- Harm you cause intentionally, knowingly, or on purpose
- Fraudulent and other illegal acts
- Products you sell
- Commercial buildings
- Permanent fixtures within a building you own
- Your personal non-business related property
- Claims you were aware of about before the policy began
- Cars, trailers, and vehicle accidents (you need commercial auto coverage for this)
- Employee injuries (you need workers comp coverage for this)
- The sale of nutritional, medicinal, or herbal products
- Dietary and nutritional work for medical professionals or those working in medical settings, schools, or professional sports teams
Training styles or types of fitness that personal trainer policies do not cover include (but are not limited to):
- Aerial arts
- Aquatic fitness or any other activity in open water such as ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, ocean or sea and similar
- Certified Athletic Trainers affiliated with organized sports or athletic team(s)
- Law enforcement, public safety, or military training programs
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), boxing, wrestling and similar full-contact sports
- Medical professional services
- Operations or services involving an equine (horses, donkeys, mules)
- Pole dancing, pole fitness, and exotic exercise
- Swimming instructions, lessons, or teaching
See the full list of excluded training styles: Covered and Excluded Fitness Training Styles
Does Personal Trainer Insurance Cover Online or Virtual Training?
Yes.
You do not need multiple policies for in-person and virtual training, one personal trainer policy covers both. So, if you decide to do both in-person and virtual, or switch from in-person to virtual or vice versa, the same policy will still cover you.
Is Equipment Covered by My Policy?
If you or a client accidentally damage a gym’s or someone else’s equipment, that can be covered on a standard policy. However, base personal trainer policies do not cover equipment you own and use for work. You need to purchase Gear and Equipment Coverage for that.
Do I Need a Separate Policy for Each Thing I Teach?
No.
One policy can cover every fitness style you teach, as long as it falls under a type of fitness Insurance Canopy insures.
For example, if you teach dance, Pilates, and HIIT classes, one fitness policy can cover you for all three things. But if you teach dance, Pilates, and pole dancing, your policy would only cover dance and Pilates since pole dancing instruction is an excluded business class.
Can I Insure My Employees or Spouse Under My Policy?
No. Personal trainer liability policies are designed to cover other people, not you, your family, or employees.
However, you can get insurance for employee workplace injuries with workers compensation insurance.
Does My Policy Cover Me If I Get Hurt?
No.
Personal trainer liability insurance is made to cover other people if they get hurt because of something related to your training work. It is not designed to cover your own injuries. You need health insurance to cover your own medical expenses.
Liability insurance only covers third parties. Third parties = others
What’s the Difference Between General Liability and Professional Liability Coverage?
The primary difference between general and professional liability insurance lies in their scope of coverage. In other words, what actually caused the accident?
General liability is designed for bodily injury or physical damage that happens in or around your training, like a client falling and breaking their wrist after tripping over a dumbbell.
Professional liability insurance is designed to cover injuries and accidents resulting from your advice or instructions. This means things like mistakes in your directions, errors in your judgment, or a failure to provide proper instructions (also known as negligence).
Additional Resources:
Am I Covered in My State?
Insurance Canopy personal trainer policies cover you wherever you work. If you buy a policy when you live in New York, and later move to California, your policy will still cover you after you move. You’ll need to update your policy information but you won’t need to buy another policy and your rates won’t change.
Insurance Canopy fitness policies are not currently for sale in Missouri. So if you live in Missouri, unfortunately we cannot cover you at this time. If you live in any other state and occasionally work with clients in Missouri, you can still be covered by our personal trainer policies.
Additional Resources:
Does This Policy Cover Me Outside the United States?
Yes, your policy is good in the U.S., Canada, and may cover you for business services you provide when you temporarily travel for business. Contact one of our dedicated insurance agents for specific questions regarding your travel plans.
Costs and Payment Questions
What Do Coverage Limits Like “$1M per Occurrence / $3M Aggregate” Mean?
Coverage limits are the total amounts your policy can pay. An “occurrence” limit is the max amount your policy can pay for any one incident. An “aggregate” limit is the total max amount your policy can pay during the entire policy period.
$1M and $3M in this example mean this policy has a $1 million per claim maximum, and a $3 million total policy maximum.
Additional Resources:
How Much Does Personal Trainer Insurance Cost?
The standard personal trainer liability policy costs $15/month or $159/year.
If you add any optional coverages to your policy, the cost will go up. However, the majority of Insurance Canopy fitness instructors only pay $15/month.
Additional Resources:
Are There Payment Options?
Yes.
You can pay monthly or annually. Typically, annual plans are cheaper for a 12-month period than paying month-to-month. For example, Insurance Canopy’s monthly rate of $15 equals $180 for 12 months. Our annual policy is only $159, which equates to $13.25/month (a savings of $21 over 12 months).
Note: When you pay monthly, your initial payment will include a 25% down payment with small setup fees and taxes. After that your recurring monthly payment would be $15.00/month for the following 10 months.
How Much Do Add-Ons Cost?
Insurance Canopy offers a range of optional coverages to customize your personal trainer policy. Here’s a breakdown of what we offer, coverage tiers, and cost.
| Add-On | Coverage Option | Cost |
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Gear and Equipment Coverage |
Tier 1: $2,000 in coverage (includes $100 deductible) Tier 2: $5,000 in coverage (includes $100 deductible) Tier 3: $10,000 in coverage (includes $100 deductible) |
Tier 1: +$1.33/month Tier 2: +$5.55/month Tier 3: +$10.67/month |
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Cyber Liability Insurance |
Tier 1: $100,000 in coverage Tier 2: $250,000 in coverage
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Tier 1: +$8.25/month Tier 2: +$12.50/month
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Sexual Abuse and Molestation (SAM) |
Tier 1: $10,000 in coverage Tier 2: $25,000 in coverage |
Tier 1: +$10.33/month Tier 2: +$14.46/month |
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Diet & Nutrition Coverage |
One option listed |
+$6.83/month |
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Additional Insureds |
One additional insured Unlimited additional insureds |
+$15/year +$30/year |
Policy Management
How Soon Can I Get Coverage?
Insurance Canopy offers same-day coverage, so if you need to get covered today you can. During the checkout process you can select your start date for today or a few months out.
You should receive your policy confirmation documents a few seconds after your payment has been processed.
How Do I Get a COI?
Log into your online user dashboard. Under the “Download Documents” section and click on “Proof of Insurance.” You can download, print, or email your COI to additional insureds.
Find answers to more questions about additional insureds, managing your policy, and filing claims on our general Insurance Canopy FAQ page.
