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Helping people to unlock their musical talent is a rewarding experience – but being a music teacher can carry some risks.
Our specialist music teachers’ insurance could help protect your business against mistakes made in your work. Despite your best intentions, a student could trip over a cable during a lesson, or recommendations you provided could cause financial loss for your client, which could potentially lead to a costly claim.
Our music teacher insurance allows you to have the peace of mind to be able to enjoy teaching your pupils how to play and read music, while knowing you are protected for the lessons you provide.
Cover at a glance:
- Public liability and professional indemnity cover up to £5m
- Protection for injury claims during lessons or performances
- Equipment cover optional
- Suitable for freelance and school-based teachers
What is music teacher insurance?
Our music teacher insurance will help you feel confident that you are protected against a wide variety of eventualities – whether that’s an allegation of poor teaching practice, or the theft of equipment that stops you from doing your work, or an injury a student sustains whilst under your tutelage.
Our range of insurance policies, including professional indemnity insurance and public liability cover will respond to cover legal fees incurred and compensation awards you could be liable for should a client make a claim against you.
Cover starting at
£5 a month*
*Price based on an music teacher requiring £1 million of public liability insurance.
Why do music teachers need insurance?
Your musical instruments are more than just tools – they’re central to how you teach and your livelihood. Music equipment insurance could protect against theft, loss, and accidental damage, so you’re not out of pocket. From violins to pianos, amplifiers and microphones, recording equipment, to laptops, ensuring you have the appropriate level of insurance is a worthwhile consideration.
Insurance for private music teachers can cover you in the event of incidents such as a pupil injuring themselves when playing an instrument, or a client alleging negligent teaching due to a pupil’s lack of progress at learning to play instrument or learning to read music.
These instances can result in claims against you, even if you feel you’ve done nothing wrong. Our music teacher insurance policies will respond to cover you for the cost of defending a claim.
What insurance do music teachers and private tutors need?
Whether you teach piano lessons from your home or travel to your clients premises, obtaining the appropriate level of music tutor insurance helps protect you from unexpected risk, so that you can focus on what you’re passionate about. Below are examples of how each type of cover could prove invaluable:
- Public liability insurance
If a student trips over a cable in your studio or you accidentally damage a client’s property during a home visit, music teacher public liability insurance can help to cover legal costs and compensation claims. - Professional indemnity insurance
This protects you if a student or parent claims your teaching caused them financial loss, for example if they believe poor exam preparation led to missed opportunities. - Equipment cover
Instruments, laptops, and teaching materials are essential to your work. Musical equipment insurance helps you recover quickly if they’re stolen, lost or damaged. - Legal expenses insurance
From contract disputes to tax enquiries, legal expenses cover gives you financial support to cover legal costs should you need to defend yourself. - Cyber and data risks insurance
If you store student details or take payments online, this cover helps to protect against data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.
Each policy can be tailored to suit your teaching style, whether you work from home, travel to where your students live, or teach your music lessons online.
Example policy documents
If you have an existing policy with us, please sign in to view your policy documents.
Below you will find examples of the documents provided.
Do music teachers need public liability insurance?
If you teach music to students in person, either at your home or theirs, you should consider obtaining the appropriate level of public liability insurance. It provides protection against claims arising from injuries, damages to students or members of the public resulting from the work you’ve carried out, and can also assist with any compensation payments.
Do music teachers need professional indemnity insurance?
Ensuring you obtain the appropriate level of insurance is a worthwhile consideration. Despite your experience, skills and best intentions, there’s always a possibility that a client could decide to make a claim against you. For example, a disgruntled parent or unhappy student may decide to make a claim against you, alleging bad teaching methods, or citing poor grades in exams. Professional indemnity insurance can help to cover you against such claims, along with associated costs incurred as a result.
Build your music teacher insurance policy by choosing your cover
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Public liability and professional indemnity insurance
Public liability insurance for music teachers and professional indemnity insurance offers comprehensive protection against the cost of defending you against allegations of professional negligence (such as failing to provide an acceptable level of music tuition to a client) and if unsuccessful, the cost of damages awarded against you.
In addition, it covers the cost of defending your business (including damages awarded against you if unsuccessful) if someone is injured, or their property damaged, which arises from you going about your business. Examples of claims include:
- Parents or guardians challenging your tuition because they feel you did not adequately prepare their child for an exam and taking legal action to try to cover the cost of test fees or any extra tuition required.
- Claims made for compensation after a student trips over a cable while visiting your home for a music lesson and suffers an injury.
- Claim for damages made after you drop a musical instrument belonging to a student and cause it to require repairs.
Professional indemnity and public liability insurance for music teachers is therefore generally considered an important part of an overall package of cover. Cover tends to range from £1m to £5m.
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Employer’s liability insurance
Employer’s liability insurance is a statutory requirement for any business with employees. This covers you for injury or illness suffered by any staff you employ as a result of the work they carry out.
An example of a claim would be:
- A student strikes out at a staff member, prompting a personal injury claim for compensation.If your teaching business has any employees, you need this cover.
Cover is provided for £10m.
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Legal expenses insurance
Commercial legal expenses insurance covers the costs of defending you as a director or officer of your company against allegations of wrongful acts and any damages subsequently awarded against you. Cover is also provided for the legal costs and expenses of defending actions for disqualification as a director, investigations and extradition proceedings. Limits range from £100,000 to £5m.
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Directors and officers insurance
Directors and officers insurance covers the costs of defending you as a director or officer of your company against allegations of wrongful acts and any damages subsequently awarded against you. Cover is also provided in respect of the legal costs and expenses of defending actions for disqualification as a director, investigations and extradition proceedings. Limits range from £100,000 to £5m.
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Office insurance
Office insurance covers your office buildings, office contents and computer equipment against accidental damage (including theft) whilst on your business premises. You can also choose to cover your business equipment (such as laptops and mobile phones) on a worldwide basis, and insure your business against loss of income and/or additional trading expenses following events such as damage to your property.
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Occupational personal accident insurance
Occupational personal accident insurance provides a weekly payment if you are unable to work due to temporary total disablement (subject to a 14 day deferment period).
In the event of loss of limbs, sight, speech, hearing, permanent total disablement or death, a lump sum would be paid out.
If you would struggle to maintain an income following an occupational accident (i.e. one sustained while you are working as a teacher), you should consider having occupational personal accident insurance to help ease the financial burden.
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Cyber and data risks insurance
Cyber and data risks insurance can help you to recover data, inform clients of a data breach and, should a situation arise, pay ransom demands. Music teachers will tend to hold confidential data about their students – including contact and payment details, and their grades and exam results – so may well wish to obtain cover that can protect this.
How it works
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How much does music teacher insurance cost?
At Markel Direct, we offer music teacher insurance from £5 a month for £1 million worth of public liability cover*. When it comes to insurance, the cost varies from business to business depending on;
- The size of your business - your turnover and whether you have any employees
- The level of cover you choose
- The types of projects you work on and the equipment you use.
To get a clearer idea of how much you’ll pay, simply get a quote online.
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Frequently asked questions
These frequently asked questions are designed to help you and include questions relating to policy cover, pricing and ‘technical’ terms.
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What's the difference between professional indemnity and public liability?
Professional indemnity insurance would cover you for claims made against the professional advice or work you’ve carried out. For a music teacher, a professional negligence case might cover allegations against the quality of tutoring given for an exam. Public liability insurance, meanwhile, covers injuries or illnesses suffered by third parties through your work. This might mean dropping or damaging a musical instrument.
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Do I need insurance If I am a private music teacher only teaching part-time
Yes, part-time music teachers can certainly benefit from insurance cover. Whether you teach once a week or full-time, having cover such as public liability or equipment insurance helps protect you from unexpected costs or claims.
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Do I need music teacher insurance if I teach remotely?
Yes, insurance is still a worthwhile consideration if you teach remotely. It could cover issues like professional indemnity, cyber risks, and equipment damage – all relevant even if you’re teaching online from your home.
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I teach several different types of music - will I be covered?
Yes. We don't restrict the types of music you teach, so whether you teach the piano, guitar, violin or act as a singing coach, our policy can cover you as a music teacher.
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I teach lessons at different venues - is this covered?
Yes. Regardless of where you teach - for example, at home, a rented premises or your student's house - you'll be covered under our policy.
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What limit of cover should I choose?
Many clients and industry bodies with regulatory requirements will require you to have a minimum level of cover for you to undertake a contract, so it's worth checking this before you arrange cover. If you're unsure, give some thought to a worst-case scenario and the likely costs involved in putting your mistake right. We offer a range of limits on insurance, so you're sure to find the right cover for your business.
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How are Markel Direct regulated?
Markel Direct is a trading name of Markel International Insurance Company Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Find out more on the Financial Services Register.
We are a division of Markel International, a Lloyd’s of London market insurer that wrote gross premium totals of £2.4bn in 2023
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