Do First Time Yoga Teachers Need Liability Insurance?

Your first year teaching yoga can seem daunting. You're prepared, of course. You’ve learned so many great techniques in yoga teacher training and through hours of practice, now you finally get to do the thing you've dreamed of–guiding your own students down their practice path and on their yoga journey. 

As you start your new career as a fresh yoga teacher full of dreams and potential, yoga teacher insurance is generally (and rightfully should be) at the forefront of your to-do’s. Though yoga insurance might not be the most exciting topic out there (especially at the beginning of your career), it is one of the most necessary and important. And starting out from the beginning with proper coverage can save you a lot of time, money, and heartache later on in your yoga career.

But how do you know what to look for in a quality insurance plan? And further, why do you need yoga insurance to begin with–is it really that important? 

Today’s spotlight is directly shining on all of those questions. We'll talk about why yoga insurance is so vital for new yoga teachers (because you do need it!) and we'll begin with the specifics you might need look for in order to make sure a policy you're looking at will adequately protect you (and your career) from the start.

Ways that Liability Insurance Benefits New Yoga Teachers

Your first year in yoga is a really exciting time. You may have just completed your 200-hour RYT training and are eager to impart the wisdom you’ve obtained with your students as they walk their unique yoga paths. Insurance for your yoga practice may be at the forefront of your new career or it may be something you haven’t really considered. 

In any case, the benefits of securing yoga teacher insurance are many, so we’ll highlight a few of the biggest ways that yoga insurance benefits your new career in yoga.

1. Yoga Insurance Provides a Safety Net

At its core, insurance is a safety net for the “what-ifs” that can happen to anyone at any time in their career as a yoga teacher. Often, accidents could have in no way been anticipated and are simply an unfortunate chance occurrence. As a leader in yoga teacher insurance, we’ve helped our members in so many ways after a claim event that we’re hardly surprised anymore by how an event unfolds. 

When an accident or injury occurs during the course of your yoga instruction, you can be held liable for someone else’s losses. That liability is what stems the term ‘liability insurance’. With yoga liability insurance, you’re getting a policy that covers the specific perils faced by a professional in the health and wellness industry. Your insurance policy provides financial protection in the event a claim event is leveled at you. Taking it further, beYogi even covers legal defense fees when they’re necessary. 

In a day where lawsuits are commonplace, covering the costs of a claim and any necessary legal defense fees means our members don’t have to worry about a potential claim impeding their ability to continue doing what they love. Without the safety net that yoga instructor insurance provides, you’d be left paying the costs of a claim completely out of your own pocket. When you start adding up all the potential costs of an accident - medical bills, hospital stays, rehab, lost wages, and more - having a safety net is vital.

2. Yoga Insurance Brings Peace of Mind

The art of yoga helps bring peace and wellness to those who get serious about following the yoga path. As an instructor, you’re helping your yoga students towards their own peace or “shanti” every session that you have with them. Students relax, become present, listen to their bodies, and let go during a yoga session with a skilled instructor. If you’re in a state of constant worry over how you’ll cover yourself if someone gets hurt under your care, invoking your students towards peace of mind will be difficult to say the least. 

Securing insurance coverage helps take a huge burden off your shoulders. With professional liability insurance, you’re covering accidents and damages that might occur during the course of your instruction. General liability covers a more broad scope of accidents that can happen in or around your place of business. These two coverages are the backbone of a great yoga liability insurance policy but there’s so many other coverages that help provide a 360-degree shield so that professionals can practice in confidence.

Yoga Teacher Insurance Gives You Access to Additional Benefits

Yoga insurance that only covers you for accidents but provides no additional benefits may not be the best value, especially if a claim never occurs. At beYogi, we treat our yoga insurance coverage as a total career support system. That means we provide a huge list of additional benefits with our policies so that members truly get the maximum value for their investment with our insurance plan. 

Our insurance plan comes with whole libraries of professionally-curated e-books, webinars, articles, and more from proven leaders in the field of yoga. We provide yoga teacher training materials and tips, specialty topics like anatomy, planning and sequencing, and even advice for succeeding with a yoga business. 

As a member of beYogi, as soon as you secure coverage you receive access to an incredible assortment of member benefits. In addition to the above, members also enjoy discounts from all the best names in yoga and a free professional website to advertise their services online.  

These three ways that yoga insurance benefits yoga instructors are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Whenever an unfortunate event occurs, our team jumps into action to help our members navigate the road to returning to normalcy. We see our insurance not so much as a product, as more of a superior level service that we get to provide every day.

What Yoga Instructor Insurance Covers

Yoga instructor insurance covers a lot more than just accidents and injuries that can occur during the course of business. Although these are serious events that require adequate protection..

beYogi provides additional protections that help protect today’s yoga teachers from the types of threats facing modern professionals. Highlights of our yoga insurance policy include the below and more.

beYogi Yoga Insurance Coverage Snapshot:

• General Liability: insurance for general liabilities provides financial protection from the losses stemming from a wide range of accidents and/or injuries, hence the name “general”. Because this covers a wide range of scenarios, the coverage limits for general liability are high - typically in the millions with a high quality insurance plan. 

A general liability claim can be as simple as a yoga student tripping over your front door mat and injuring themselves. This type of accident is why general liability is also referred to as “slip and fall” insurance. 

• Professional Liability: you’ll also hear professional liability insurance called “malpractice” insurance. Malpractice simply means “bad practice” and this insurance relates to third-party claims for accidents and/or injuries that happen during a session. For example, you may have a student that pushes themselves too far to make a certain pose and they wind up injuring themselves. Since the event happened while you were actually teaching yoga, a claim like this would fall under professional liability coverage. As with general liability, these types of accidents are common for yoga professionals, which is why we include all the way up to $2 million to cover each occurrence.
• Product Liability: product liability coverage provides a safety net when someone has an adverse reaction to a product you used to conduct business. For example, changes in the health climate have made us all have to be more aware than ever to keep a place of business as safe as possible. You may find yourself using new products to help keep everyone safe, but even this can have some scary and unexpected consequences if someone has an allergic reaction.

When severe, allergic reactions can lead to analyphixis - a potentially life-threatening condition. That’s why beYogi includes all the way up to $2 million to cover claims pertaining to product liability.

• Identity Protection Plan: As we rely more and more on staying connected, we unfortunately also open ourselves up to cybertheft. That’s why we include up to $25,000 in identity restoration services should your identity be breached.

All these coverages are designed to provide the best level of protection possible. Especially for first time yoga instructors, these protections are vital to long-term success in the field.

Top Questions From New Yoga Teachers

Okay, we know this isn’t an “FAQs moment” but we wanted to touch on a few of the more common questions we’ve received over the years from new yoga teachers.

1. Do I need my own insurance if my yoga studio already covers me?

Most yoga studios are required to carry a basic level of insurance in order to operate. The trouble is, limits may be low and you may be a part of a shared aggregate. This means that the coverage amount may be depleted by other members on the policy before your claim, leaving you having to cover any shortfalls yourself.

2. What if I only teach 1-2 classes per week?

No matter how many classes you teach, there’s always the risk of an accident or injury occurring. Even the most practiced yogis, with years of experience, can still have an unexpected event unfold at any point in their careers. This point makes yoga insurance a vital tool for any professional yoga teacher. Added bonus, beYogi offers a part-time yoga insurance plan made just for instructors that teach 10 hours or less per week.

3. What are “Additional Insureds”?

Simply put, these are entities such as landlords or a government entity that are added to your insurance policy. This is typically done when that entity wishes not to share any liability with you. For example, if a yoga teacher is renting space for their yoga studio, it makes sense that the landlord wouldn’t want to be held liable for any incidents occurring from the yoga teacher’s negligence.

Still have questions about yoga insurance? Talk over the entire policy with a helpful agent.

Getting Yoga Teacher Insurance Online in Minutes

At the end of the day, the best insurance coverage for yoga teachers is a plan that provides great coverage, an accessible policy, and solid benefits - all at a great price. Come see why so many yoga professionals trust beYogi yoga insurance to cover every step of their yoga careers. 

Fill out a quick online application, check out, and enjoy immediate yoga insurance coverage through beYogi today.