Online personal training insurance is a bit of an elusive beast right now. Personal trainers know they need insurance cover for their face to face training at least but when it comes to online personal training insurance, information is scarce and the actual rules and regulations seem to be non existent.
And that’s because, right now, they are non existent.
The Current State of Online Personal Trainer Insurance
Right now, things are looking pretty bleak. A Google search for online training insurance will pull up a lot of results… for face to face training, nothing for online personal trainers.
Even if you search for “online personal trainer insurance” with quotation marks, you only get 5 results. The quotation marks ask the Google search engine to search for exact instances of those words on a website.
Even if you search for “online personal trainer insurance” with quotation marks, you only get 5 results. The quotation marks ask the Google search engine to search for exact instances of those words on a website.
All of which, including an article from our sister company on How to Get Started as an Online Personal Trainers, yield nothing useful.
So we know that we need insurance for our face to face training and assume we need it for our online training but there are no online PT insurance providers.
Which leads us to the next issue.
Do You Even Need Online Personal Training Insurance?
You’d think that with hundreds of thousands of people becoming a personal trainer, the Internet being around since 1991 and people providing services online for a significant chunk of that time that there’d be some kind of insurance policy for online services, right. Wrong.
I did a lot of searching on Google, where you’d expect to find at least one insurance policy for online services and I didn’t find a single policy for any online service in a dozen search terms and 60-70 pages of Google search results.
There is something called cyber insurance but it only seem to be available for large companies and even then, it’s pretty hard to find.
This seems pretty odd when there are literally billion dollar companies out there proving services online.
After some more digging, I also found that all of the personal trainers within our social and business networks are operating without online specific insurance. And we know some pretty successful online personal training companies.
So to answer the question, do you even need online personal training insurance, it would seem the answer is…
You do, but the service doesn’t exist right now.
I did a lot of searching on Google, where you’d expect to find at least one insurance policy for online services and I didn’t find a single policy for any online service in a dozen search terms and 60-70 pages of Google search results.
There is something called cyber insurance but it only seem to be available for large companies and even then, it’s pretty hard to find.
This seems pretty odd when there are literally billion dollar companies out there proving services online.
After some more digging, I also found that all of the personal trainers within our social and business networks are operating without online specific insurance. And we know some pretty successful online personal training companies.
So to answer the question, do you even need online personal training insurance, it would seem the answer is…
You do, but the service doesn’t exist right now.
What if You Get Sued?
This is a pretty serious topic for a personal trainer, especially a sole trader, because one lawsuit could literally mean the end of business or even bankruptcy.
What happens if you get sued as a result of your online training service?
Honestly, I don’t know. And here’s why: I’ve never found a single case of someone suing an online personal trainer. And neither have any of my peers.
I’m not saying this is an excuse to not cover yourself, because you should. One day, someone will be made an example of and I don’t want it to be you.
What happens if you get sued as a result of your online training service?
Honestly, I don’t know. And here’s why: I’ve never found a single case of someone suing an online personal trainer. And neither have any of my peers.
I’m not saying this is an excuse to not cover yourself, because you should. One day, someone will be made an example of and I don’t want it to be you.
How to Cover Yourself
If there is no specific insurance for online personal training, how does a personal trainer protect oneself?
Professional Liability Insurance
At a minimum, you should at least have some kind of professional liability insurance to protect yourself. It’s more specific to face to face training but in a worst case scenario, it could offer some protection for your online services. Some insurance providers worth looking into include:
Terms of Service
This is the document you usually see linked to from the footer of someone website. A terms of service would waive all liability for anyone who uses your service or uses one of your products.
Get your Terms of Service Template in the Academy
Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy is a statement or a legal document that discloses some or all of the ways your PT business gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a client's data.
Get your Privacy Policy Template in the Academy
Online Training Informed Consent
An online training informed consent form outlines the general objective and procedures of personal training, provides a description of the potential risks and benefits and requires the client states they’re in good health and release all charges against the trainer.
Get your Online Training Informed Consent Template in the Academy
Client Information Agreement
A client information agreement grants you, the business owner, permission to use the clients information and images on your website. It protects you from any claims against using their before and after pics, headshots and names on your website.
Get your Client Information Agreement Template in the Academy
Professional Liability Insurance
At a minimum, you should at least have some kind of professional liability insurance to protect yourself. It’s more specific to face to face training but in a worst case scenario, it could offer some protection for your online services. Some insurance providers worth looking into include:
- The Financial Fitness Group - they provide cover for online training within the UK and you can get a discount as an iPT member
- Insure 4 Sport
- Professional Fitness
- Sports Cover Direct
Terms of Service
This is the document you usually see linked to from the footer of someone website. A terms of service would waive all liability for anyone who uses your service or uses one of your products.
Get your Terms of Service Template in the Academy
Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy is a statement or a legal document that discloses some or all of the ways your PT business gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a client's data.
Get your Privacy Policy Template in the Academy
Online Training Informed Consent
An online training informed consent form outlines the general objective and procedures of personal training, provides a description of the potential risks and benefits and requires the client states they’re in good health and release all charges against the trainer.
Get your Online Training Informed Consent Template in the Academy
Client Information Agreement
A client information agreement grants you, the business owner, permission to use the clients information and images on your website. It protects you from any claims against using their before and after pics, headshots and names on your website.
Get your Client Information Agreement Template in the Academy
What About in the Future?
As of right now, there’s no way to fully protect yourself with online personal training insurance. But that’’s not to say that won’t change.
The best thing you can do now and in the future is make use of the documents listed above and seek legal advice from a specialised lawyer.
Of course, delivering an awesome service, recognising your clients limits, addressing injuries and referring to other professionals should be your foundational course of action against being sued by a client… but you knew that ;)
READ MORE - The Best Personal Trainer Insurance Providers in the USA
The best thing you can do now and in the future is make use of the documents listed above and seek legal advice from a specialised lawyer.
Of course, delivering an awesome service, recognising your clients limits, addressing injuries and referring to other professionals should be your foundational course of action against being sued by a client… but you knew that ;)
READ MORE - The Best Personal Trainer Insurance Providers in the USA
