Why Choose beYogi Over Yoga Alliance Insurance?

Yoga Alliance presents themselves as the largest nonprofit association formed to represent the yoga community. Their website details a commitment to positive community activism, leadership in the yoga community, and resources to further yoga teachers and schools’ positive impact within the community. Through membership, Yoga Alliance provides their own “credentials”, based on an honor system, for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT), Registered Yoga Schools (RYS), and Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Providers (YACEP).

However, these credentials are not a prerequisite to teaching yoga and Yoga Alliance’s website states they are not a credentialing service; rather, they act as more of a directory. In fact, many yoga brands offer their own credentials - HotSpot Yoga 200 hour training certification and YogaWorks 200 hour certification being among them. Yoga Alliance doesn’t actually offer insurance themselves either, rather, their yoga liability insurance offering is carried out by an entirely separate company - Alliant Insurance Services. As part of membership with Yoga Alliance, members are offered a discount on Alliant’s professional liability policies.

Yoga Alliance actually doesn’t have their own insurance policies but includes a discount on professional liability insurance as part of the benefits they offer for membership into their professional organization.

Yoga Alliance acts as a promoter for the yoga community but relies on Alliant Insurance Services to provide members with an option for obtaining professional liability insurance. Membership with Yoga Alliance comes with an honor-system “credential” as a RYT, RYS, or YACEP. However, their site states they are not actually a certification service and certification is more of a directory. Within that membership, Yoga Alliance offers discounts on everything from yoga gear and apparel to travel, and yes, professional liability insurance through Alliant Insurance Services.

Yoga Alliance’s membership has an annual premium, an application fee, an annual membership fee, and charge additional premiums for some modalities. Members can choose between part-time and full-time distinction with different limit options available for each but will pay a $50 application fee and $65 in annual dues at each membership level. 

Part-Time (8 hours or less)

1. $225 (with fees): $1 Million per occurrence, $2 Million annual aggregate
2. $237 (with fees): $2 Million per occurrence, $4 Million annual aggregate

Full-Time (9 hours or more)

3. $240 (with fees): $1 Million per occurrence, $2 Million annual aggregate
4. $261 (with fees): $2 Million per occurrence, $4 Million annual aggregate

No. Alliant Insurance Services is an entirely separate company from Yoga Alliance. Alliant is a distributor of diversified insurance products and services. By becoming a member of Yoga Alliance, members are provided a discount on Alliant’s professional liability insurance policies.

Yoga Alliance is a professional membership organization that promotes yoga and lists the availability to be “credentialed” as a RYT, RYS, or YACEP. However, Yoga Alliance’s website makes it clear they are not actually a credentialing service but the credentials act as more of a professional directory rather than a professional designation.

beYogi’s part-time rates apply to those practitioners working less than 10 hours per week. Yoga Alliance defines part-time as working eight hours or less per week.

Yoga Alliance offers a claims-made policy with a 90-day tail. This means the incident and the claim both have to occur when the policy is active, or within the 90-day tail after expiration, in order to be covered by the policy’s provisions. With beYogi’s occurrence form coverage, a claim will still be covered at any time as long as a claim falls within the term the policy was active. For example, if your policy expires December 31st and six months later a former student claims your services back on December 1st caused them injury, this claim would still be covered with occurrence form coverage with beYogi but would not be covered under Yoga Alliance’s 90-day tail window.

beYogi’s Leading Pose Library covers some of the more traditional and/or popular poses with proper form and technique, so you can find the perfect way to pass along the skill to your students. As part of their member benefits, Yoga Alliance does not provide a pose library but as a benefit to members offers discounts on a variety of categories of products and services such as yoga gear, professional liability insurance, travel, applications, business services, and yoga apparel. They also provide access to live and on-demand workshops and the chance to win scholarships.

Yoga Alliance, through Alliant Insurance, offers general and professional liability policies with two sets of coverage limits, available at different price points: 

• a lower-cost plan with limits at $1 Million per occurrence and $3 Million annual aggregate 

• a higher-cost plan with limits at $2 Million per occurrence and $4 Million annual aggregate 

beYogi avoids the confusion by offering a single set of robust limits within our policies’ general and professional liability provisions - a $2 Million per occurrence and $3 Million annual aggregate all at one great, low price.

Yoga Alliance only includes three basic modalities at their base rates - kids, hot yoga, and yoga therapy. For the eight other modalities they cover, an additional premium is required. If you practice a modality outside this limited number, you may not be afforded coverage. With beYogi, our members enjoy the coverage for more than 350 different modalities and counting. We want members to be free to try something new or employ multiple practices when that regimen is what’s best for the client.

No, Yoga Alliance through Alliant, does not currently provide a student yoga instructor insurance plan. beYogi loves that we’re able to help foster the next generation of yogis so affords the same protection as our professional-level plans for students for just $60 per year while they’re in school.

A recent Pew Research Center study found that 8 out of 10 Americans now own a smartphone. We all reach for our phones any time we want to explore what’s around us. With the incredible ease of access that smartphones bring, droves of potential customers are searching Google for the specific suite of services that your practice affords. A website offers the chance to draw in those people and convert them into students by coming across as a knowledgeable source within the field. Websites are easy to set-up and maintain and afford lower costs than traditional print and paper distribution. Your website’s online forms will also provide good amounts of data to help build out your CRM tools. beYogi’s policies come with a free, professional website because we want you to have an array of tools available at your disposal to help your business thrive.

Yes, both beYogi and Yoga Alliance/Alliant Insurance offer policies with nationwide coverage. This means that no matter where you decide to practice with the 50 US states, you’ll enjoy coverage under the provisions of your policy in addition to whatever benefits your carrier affords.

With beYogi’s incredibly robust membership portal you receive instant proof of coverage. Alliant Insurance policies through Yoga Alliance estimate at least half an hour to generate a certificate of insurance.

No, Yoga Alliance does not include identity theft protection with their professional liability insurance policies. At beYogi, we decided to beef up our already robust coverage limits with added protection from identity theft. In today’s world where credit card details and social security numbers can be compromised in an instant, we decided to give our members one additional peace of mind with $25,000 worth of identity theft protection.