I insured through Costello for years (they're the SSA's broker of
record, not the actual carrier). When I went on the SSA Board of
Directors back in the late 80s, I learned that the insurance company
itself had begun to insist on a letter from a doctor for older pilots
despite that not being necessary per the FARs. Costello didn't appear
to be fighting it on the SSA's behalf. It put us in the odd position
of representing to the FAA that soaring pilots should continue to be
allowed to self certify their medical fitness but our own SSA
insurance saying something completely different. After this came out,
the Board directed Costello to push back and all was eventually put
right, but I was somewhat annoyed with the whole affair. At the next
SSA convention, I described the situation to the Avemco rep there and
he laughed: "I can't believe you (i.e., the SSA) are sending us all
your best risks (i.e., older, more careful and experienced pilots)." I
got a better quote and switched to Avemco, where I insured happily for
quite a few years. More recently I started worrying about Avemco's
$100K per person limit vs. $1 million per accident and asked if they
could provide the higher limit per person. They said not, even if I
were willing to pay more. So somewhat regretfully, I switched back to
insuring through Costello.

However, they, like Avemco, have been great to deal with. The SSA's
group policy is slightly less flexible than Avemco was regarding
winter storage--Avemco allowed me to stop and restart inflight
coverage it when I wanted, even more than once during the winter if I
didn't get carried away. The SSA policy requires me to pick stop and
restart dates in advance. But otherwise it's been seamless. Actually,
both outfits have been good to work with: polite, responsive, and
helpful. I can heartily recommend both. I understand the reason for
the new policy regarding contest coverage and in today's litigious
climate I can't disagree. As I recall, Avemco has a nice pro-rate
premium clause that would allow an insured to terminate a policy mid-
term in order to switch carriers fairly easily, although Dave Nadler's
post indicates that might not be necessary.

I'm a free-market proponent so I endorse having some competition even
if the soaring market is a tiny one. The fact that it is so small
makes it less likely that any carrier will be as flexible as an
individual pilot might want them to be regarding specific insurance
needs. I haven't heard any horror stories about claims with either the
SSA group policy or Avemco.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
USA