“Something I learned during the process is that some jurisdictions look to “intent” and “profitability” to determine business vs. hobby. It isn’t as cut and dry as your one poster said. There may be insurance companies who try that hoping that claimants give up and it looked like USAA tried that approach with me initially. When a manager contacted me, I made it clear that we didn’t always get paid and had no gigs planned. They also asked me about business licenses and tax returns, neither of which I do. The final question from them involved using the gear in non-business settings. I explained to them that I used the gear for jams and other informal get-togethers. Bottom line was that I tried to establish lack of “intent” on making it a business and no plans to make a profit at it.

Apparently, USAA’s lawyers had my file for a few weeks researching similar cases. I guess it worked in my favor.

One thing USAA advised me to do was to get liability insurance so that I’m covered at gigs; ie, a drunk trips over a monitor and injures himself. Never mind that he was green to the gills, I shouldn’t have put my monitor where it posed a hazard.”

We’re going to keep the dialogue going on this as we both continue to learn more.