Your flight school has an insurance policy. But do you actually know what it covers?
Most flight school owners look at the premium, see a number they can live with, and move on. That is exactly the problem. Beth Clark has spent eight years as an aviation insurance specialist at Marsh McLennan Agency working with flight schools across the country. She has seen the claims. She knows where the gaps are. And she sat down with Tim Jedrek on The Aviation Business Podcast to walk flight school owners through what they need to know before something goes wrong.
This article covers the key takeaways from that conversation.
Who Is Beth Clark and Why Does Her Background Matter
Beth Clark is an Aviation and Business Insurance Specialist and Manager, Unit and Account Executive at Marsh McLennan Agency, the 5th largest insurance agency in North America. She has nearly 19 years of experience in insurance, with the last eight focused entirely on aviation.
Her path into the specialty is worth knowing. Her grandfather served in the Air Force and later worked on space shuttles at Thiokol after he retired. Beth earned her student pilot license at 14 and flew hot air balloons in Park City, Utah, later competing at the largest hot air balloon festival in Europe in Lorraine, France.
She did not start in aviation insurance. She came up through business insurance and transitioned into the aviation specialty after working on an FBO and a charter operation. She recognized that aviation insurance forms and policies are fundamentally different from standard commercial coverage, and she went deep. Her own description: “I am probably what you call an insurance nerd. I like to read forms. I like to read policies. To me, they are a puzzle.”
At MMA, Beth has direct access to 14 different aviation-specific insurance markets, and can work with carriers that specialize in flight schools, FBOs, drones, ag spraying, charter operations, rotor wing, and more.
The Insurance Programs Every Flight School Needs
If you are starting a flight school or reviewing what you currently carry, Beth’s framework for coverage starts with four categories.
Aircraft and fleet coverage. This is your hull and liability policy. Hull coverage protects the physical value of your aircraft. Liability covers bodily injury and property damage to third parties. The type of aircraft you operate, whether piston, turbine, or multi-engine, determines which markets Beth can approach and what terms are available.
General liability. Your premises liability policy covers people walking on your property, students in the building, and your general business operations. Some general liability policies also include professional liability coverage for your CFIs, depending on the carrier and the form.
Workers’ compensation. Whether your instructors are W-2 employees or 1099 contractors, workers’ comp is a coverage you need to address. The structure of that coverage depends on how your CFIs are classified and how your school operates.
CFI professional liability. This one can live in two places. Some carriers put it on the fleet policy. Others put it on the general liability side as a products liability and errors and omissions endorsement. Beth’s position: there is no better or worse option. What matters is that the wording is right and that your CFIs actually have the protection they need, regardless of which policy it sits under.
What Underwriters Actually Look at When Pricing Your Policy
Price is the first thing most flight school owners ask about. Beth broke down what carriers are really evaluating.
Part 141 vs. Part 61. A Part 141 school operates under FAA-approved training course outlines with more structure and oversight. Underwriters find that attractive. They may offer higher liability limits and more competitive pricing for a Part 141 operation compared to a Part 61 school, because the structure reduces the perception of chaos in the operation.
Loss history. A clean claims record gives underwriters confidence. If your school has not had a significant incident in five years, that is a lever you can use in your favor. It can justify a conversation about increased deductibles in exchange for lower premium.
Aircraft type and age. This is where a lot of owners get it wrong. The assumption is that older aircraft are cheaper to insure because the hull value is lower. Beth pushed back on that directly. The hull rate on an older aircraft is often higher than on a newer one, because parts availability is lower. If a 1974 Cessna 172 is grounded for six months because you cannot source the part you need, you have a loss of use problem on top of the repair claim. That older aircraft may end up costing more, not less.
Third party rentals. If your school rents aircraft to people who are not enrolled students, underwriters see that as a higher-exposure situation. You have less control over who is flying, and the claims data supports their concern. Beth explained that removing third party rental exposure from your policy, or at least building a structured checkout process your underwriter is comfortable with, can move your premium in the right direction.
CFI Liability: Who Is Actually Covered and When
This is one of the most misunderstood areas in flight school insurance. The answer depends on who is in the aircraft, whose aircraft it is, and what the policy forms actually say.
If a CFI is working under your school’s umbrella, teaching in your aircraft and operating under your school’s policies and procedures, they are generally covered under the school’s policy. This holds whether the CFI is a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor, as long as they are operating in the course and scope of the school.
If a student has a non-owned renter’s policy and a CFI is in the aircraft when an incident occurs, the non-owned carrier may point at the school’s policy and say the CFI’s presence makes the school responsible. Beth was direct about this: even if the student was at the controls and would not listen to the CFI, the fact that a school-employed instructor was in the aircraft can put the liability on the school’s policy.
If a CFI is instructing independently in a student’s personal aircraft that the school does not own, that CFI needs their own non-owned professional liability policy. Once they step outside the school’s operation and take instruction into someone else’s aircraft on their own, the school’s policy does not follow them.
For independent CFIs who are not affiliated with a school, Beth’s recommendation is a professional liability policy that includes non-owned coverage and protects against negligent instruction claims. She confirmed these policies exist and are available through aviation-specialty brokers.
What Happens When a Claim Hits
Beth walked through two specific scenarios that show how these policies interact in practice.
Scenario one: hangar rash. A renter is pushing a school aircraft into the hangar. The aileron gets bent. The renter has a non-owned policy with physical damage coverage. If the renter was flying solo, the carrier will likely pay on that claim. If a CFI was in the aircraft, the non-owned carrier may decline and direct the claim to the school’s policy, on the grounds that the CFI was responsible for the aircraft.
Scenario two: aircraft down for parts. A nose gear collapse. The aircraft needs a part that takes three to six months to source. Whether your policy covers loss of use during that downtime depends entirely on whether you have a loss of use endorsement in your policy language. It is not standard on school rental policies. Beth’s note: you get what you pay for. If you bought the cheapest policy and did not ask about loss of use, you may find out the hard way that you are not covered.
The pattern in both scenarios is the same. Owners who are caught off guard are the ones who made assumptions. They assumed the coverage was there because no one told them it was not. Beth’s advice was direct: read your policy past the first few pages. The declarations page gives you the coverage. The back pages take some of it away, then endorsements give parts of it back. You need to know which is which.
Hull Values: A Problem That Has Been Building for Years
Beth closed the episode with one point that every flight school owner needs to hear right now.
Cessna 172s are not worth $35,000 anymore. A training-fleet 172 that was valued at $35,000 or $50,000 five years ago may be worth two to three times that today. If your hull coverage reflects that old valuation, and a total loss claim comes in, your insurance carrier will pay the insured value, not the current market value. You will hold the difference.
If you have not updated your hull values recently, that is a conversation to have with your broker before renewal. The aircraft market has changed. Your policy needs to reflect where values actually are today.
How to Evaluate Your Current Coverage
Beth’s recommendation for schools that have been with the same local broker for years is not to walk away immediately. It is to ask better questions first.
Ask your broker how many aviation markets they have direct access to. Beth’s number at MMA is 14 aviation-specific carriers for a standard flight school. A generalist broker may have access to three or four. That gap in market access translates directly to the options available to you and the terms you can negotiate.
Ask your broker to walk you through your policy with you. Not the premium. The coverage. What is your liability limit? What does your hull coverage actually protect? Do you have a loss of use endorsement? Is your CFI professional liability on the fleet policy or the general liability, and what does that wording say?
If your broker cannot answer those questions or does not have access to a meaningful number of aviation markets, that is worth knowing. It does not mean you need to switch. It means you have a clear benchmark to work from.
What to Do This Week
Beth’s answer to the single most important action a flight school owner can take this week: read your policy. All of it. Not just the declarations page. Go past the first few pages where everything looks covered, through the exclusions, and into the endorsements where coverage is given back. If what you read does not match what you thought you had, call your broker and ask them to walk through it with you.
The schools that handle claims well are not the ones with the most expensive policies. They are the ones who know exactly what they have, understand their limits, and are not caught off guard when something happens.
If you want to talk through your coverage with Beth directly, reach out to her on LinkedIn or by email through Marsh McLennan Agency.
Listen to the Full Episode
Beth Clark joined Tim Jedrek on The Aviation Business Podcast to break down aviation insurance for flight schools from the ground up. The full conversation covers non-owned student policies, rotor wing coverage, independent CFI insurance, third party rental exposure, how to negotiate with your underwriter, and how to tell whether your current broker actually has access to the aviation market.
About Beth Clark
Beth Clark is an Aviation and Business Insurance Specialist and Manager, Unit and Account Executive at Marsh McLennan Agency in New York City. She brings nearly 19 years of insurance experience to her work, with the last eight years focused on aviation clients including flight schools, FBOs, charter operations, drone operators, ag spray operators, and more. At MMA, the 5th largest insurance agency in North America, she works with 14 aviation-specific markets to structure coverage around each client’s operation.
Connect with Beth on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/beth-dunphy
About The Aviation Business Podcast
The Aviation Business Podcast is produced by Right Rudder Marketing and hosted by Tim Jedrek. Every episode features an industry expert, vendor, educator, or operator in a conversation built around one question: what does this mean for your flight school? New episodes drop monthly at rightruddermarketing.com/podcast and on YouTube, Spotify.
Right Rudder Marketing is the only full-service digital marketing agency built exclusively for flight schools. If you are looking to grow your school through digital marketing, visit rightruddermarketing.com or call 314-804-1200.