The Home Gym Is the Asset Nobody Thinks to Insure.
Sep 1 2026 — High-value athletes, open-door training culture, and the liability exposure sitting quietly in your basement.
READING TIME: 6 Minutes
PEEL REGION, ON - I was having a casual conversation recently with someone who has built exactly the kind of life most people work toward.
Tech exit a few years back. Settled in Oakville. His background is basketball — played competitively, lived it, loved it and now he coaches for a living. It's interesting how we find our way back to what we loved as kids. The sport that shaped us has a way of following us into every chapter.
He mentioned, almost in passing, that his peers across competitive sports leagues know what time he trains in the morning. The door is open. They're welcome anytime.
I thought about that for a moment.
A full home gym. Turf. Cables. Sled. Power rack. Plates. Recovery equipment. High-value athletes — competitive, driven, the kind of people who push hard — coming and going regularly. A space built for serious training, used by serious people, inside a private residence.
And then I thought about what happens when someone gets hurt.
The Lifestyle First
There is something genuinely admirable about a person who builds the financial freedom to do what they love and then actually does it. Not everyone gets there. Not everyone who gets there makes the right call with it.
Waking up every day to train, to coach, to surround yourself with like-minded people who share a passion — that's a quality of life that money can enable but can't manufacture. The community that forms around a shared sport, a shared discipline, a shared standard of training is one of the most powerful things a person can build.
As my grade school teacher used to say — have fun, but be responsible.
“I think it's an incredible way to live. The ability to do what you love every day and build a community around it — that's genuinely important for mental health and for the soul. But from my experience, especially with athletes, guys get carried away. A little competition here and there goes a little too far. We've all seen it. And that's fine — that's part of the culture. But private clients with everything they've built need to make sure they have the right measures in place to protect themselves when things get a little too heated."
— Bram Bains, Maverick Insurance Brokers
What a Home Gym Actually Represents
A full private client home gym is not the Bowflex in the basement or the bike in the spare bedroom. It is a purpose-built training facility inside a residential property.
Turf. Sled. Cable machines. Power rack. Bumper plates and dumbbells. Recovery equipment — cold plunge, sauna, massage tools. A setup that can represent anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 or more in equipment alone — and that figure rises quickly in a space that was built and finished to match the rest of the home.
All of it lives under the contents line of a standard home insurance policy.
Most clients haven't thought about whether that number reflects what's actually down there.
The Liability Exposure Nobody Discusses
Here is where the conversation gets real.
When someone trains in your home gym and gets injured — and in a culture of competitive athletes pushing hard, injury is not a hypothetical — you as the homeowner have a duty of care. The person was on your property, using your equipment, in an environment you created and invited them into.
Duty of care in Ontario means you have a legal obligation to ensure your property is reasonably safe for the people you invite onto it. When something goes wrong, the question isn't just whether you meant for anyone to get hurt. The question is whether you took reasonable steps to prevent it.
The scenarios are easy to imagine because they happen:
A wet floor near the turf. A transition between surfaces. Someone coming out of a cold plunge and moving too fast. A slip that happens in a second and changes everything.
A heavy lift that goes wrong. Someone pushes past their limit — because that's what competitive athletes do — and the weight comes down wrong. A spotter who couldn't hold it. A bar that moves in a direction nobody planned for.
Equipment that fails. A cable that snaps under load. A rack that isn't properly secured. A piece that was right for one person's strength and wrong for someone significantly stronger.
None of these require negligence in the traditional sense. All of them can result in a claim against the homeowner.
When the Home Becomes the Venue
Consider what happens when a private residence stops being just a home and starts functioning as something else entirely.
There is a home in Toronto that has become something of a cultural landmark in this city. A full NBA-regulation indoor basketball court. A lounge and bar. Entertainment spaces designed to host at the highest level. A space where professional athletes — the kind of people who train and compete for a living — come to play.
It is one of the most impressive private residences in Canada. It is also, from an insurance and liability standpoint, one of the most complex.
The moment a home shifts from residence to venue — even informally, even among friends, even without a ticket sold or a dollar exchanged — the exposure picture changes fundamentally. A basketball court hosting NBA level athletes is not the same insurable risk as a basketball court that sits empty. A bar that serves guests in a private setting creates alcohol liability considerations that a standard home policy was never designed to address. Wet floors, competitive play, a little too much confidence after a drink or two — the lines between social gathering and insurable event blur faster than most people realize.
This is not a hypothetical. This is the reality of how high-value private residences are actually used by the people who own them.
The insurance program behind a home like that needs to reflect the home as it actually functions — not the home as a standard underwriter might assume it functions.
What Your Personal Liability Coverage Is Actually Doing
Personal liability on a standard home policy typically sits at $1,000,000 or $2,000,000. For most households, that has always felt like a generous number.
For a private client who regularly hosts competitive athletes in a home training environment — where the physical stakes are higher, where the people involved have their own assets and earning potential, where a serious injury could result in a significant claim for lost income, medical costs, and long-term care — that number deserves a closer look.
A professional athlete. A high-earning executive who coaches on the side. A former competitor with a career in sport. If one of these individuals suffers a serious injury in your home gym, the claim that follows is not a small one.
The liability conversation for a private client household doesn't start at $1,000,000. It starts at $5,000,000 — with the structure to go higher if the risk profile warrants it.
What to Think About Before the Next Training Session
Your liability limit. What is the number on your policy right now and does it reflect the traffic in and out of your home? Not just the gym — the full picture of who comes and goes and what the exposure looks like if something goes wrong.
Your contents coverage. The gym equipment sitting in that space has real replacement value. If a water event, a fire, or a theft affected the space — is the contents limit on your policy adequate to replace what's actually there?
The condition of the space. Duty of care starts with the property itself. Proper matting. Secured equipment. Clear transitions between surfaces. Adequate lighting. These are not just safety considerations — they are the foundation of a defensible position if a claim is ever made.
An umbrella or excess liability policy. For private clients who maintain an active training environment at home, an umbrella policy above the home liability limit is one of the most cost-effective protections available. The premium relative to the coverage it provides is genuinely compelling.
Have Fun. Be Responsible.
The open-door training culture that high-value athletes build around themselves is one of the most meaningful things about that world. The community. The standard. The accountability that comes from training alongside people who push you.
Protect it properly. Because losing it — financially, legally, or reputationally — over something that could have been addressed with the right coverage is a cost no amount of success makes easy to absorb.
“Chubb and Intact Prestige understand this lifestyle. They built products for clients who live it — higher liability limits, replacement cost on contents, coverage that matches the reality of a high-value household rather than the assumption of an average one. That's the conversation worth having before something happens. Not after."
— Bram Bains, Maverick Insurance Brokers
Coverage details vary by carrier and policy. Speak with a licensed private client advisor to review your existing coverage and confirm the right structure for your household.
About Maverick Insurance Brokers
Maverick Insurance Brokers is an independent private client advisory based in Brampton, Ontario. Founded by Bram Bains, Maverick serves entrepreneurs, business families, and community leaders across Ontario — providing direct access to a trusted advisor across home, auto, high-value assets, and commercial insurance. Maverick is a member of the MIB Broker Distribution Network and an official partner of the Brampton Honey Badgers (CEBL).
Maverick works with Canada's leading private client carriers — including Chubb and Intact Prestige— to deliver insurance programs built around the assets, lifestyle, and risk profile of each client.
Maverick Insurance Brokers has been recognized by Insurance Business Canada and Canadian Underwriter as a voice in the private client advisory space in Ontario.
for more information visit - maverickinsurance.ca
Book a Private Consultation with Bram Bains
If you're stepping into a new position of responsibility and haven't had a proper review of your insurance program — that conversation is worth having. No pressure. No obligation. Just a straightforward discussion with an advisor who is building alongside you.
