★ Collector Vehicles · Agreed Value Coverage
How Hagerty Works in Arkansas.
A standard auto policy is built around a car that loses value every year. A collector car is the one asset in the driveway that may be doing the opposite — and that single difference changes what the policy has to promise. Here's how agreed value actually works, who really underwrites the policy, what an Arkansas antique plate does and does not do for your coverage, and how we'll tell you when Hagerty isn't the answer.
Short Answer
Cribb Insurance Group is an independent agency in Bentonville, and we can place collector vehicle coverage through Hagerty. Hagerty is a specialty program for classic and collector automobiles, motorcycles and watercraft, written out of Traverse City, Michigan, and its defining feature is agreed value — the figure is settled when the policy is written rather than argued about after a loss. The structural thing most people don't know: Hagerty is not the insurance company. It is a licensed producer and managing general agent, and the policy is issued by an underwriting company whose name is on your declarations page. The honest read: agreed value is genuinely the right mechanic for an appreciating vehicle — so the useful question isn't whether the program is good, it's whether your car and the way you use it fit what it will accept.
Two ways to answer "what was it worth?"
Nearly everything distinctive about collector coverage comes down to one question, and it is a question a standard auto policy answers in a way that suits an ordinary car and badly misfits an extraordinary one.
A standard auto policy settles a total loss at actual cash value — what the vehicle was worth immediately before the loss, after depreciation. In Arkansas that basis is set out at Ark. Code 23-89-211, which also carries the sales tax requirement and a damage-to-value threshold above which a vehicle is settled and salvaged rather than repaired. For a daily driver, actual cash value is not merely acceptable, it is correct: the car really is worth less every year, and the policy should say so.
Now point that same machinery at a car somebody spent four years restoring. Actual cash value asks what a depreciated vehicle is worth. It has no vocabulary for originality, for documentation, for a rising market, or for the four years. Agreed value answers the question differently: you and the insurer settle on the figure when the policy is written, and that is what a covered total loss pays. The argument happens at the beginning, in daylight, with both parties looking at the same car — rather than at the end, with one party looking at a photograph.
Value decided after the loss
Settles at actual cash value, and the figure is worked out once the car is already gone. Right for a depreciating vehicle and genuinely fine for most of what is in most driveways. The trouble starts when the vehicle is the exception.
Value decided before it
Agreed value settles the figure up front, so a total loss is an administrative event rather than a negotiation. The trade is that the program decides what it will accept, and those rules are real — which is the conversation worth having first.
Where a collector policy earns its keep.
Beyond the valuation mechanic, three things separate a specialist program from a standard policy with a classic car attached to it.
The valuation is somebody's actual job
Arriving at an agreed figure means someone has to have a defensible view of what these cars are worth, and a specialist program maintains that view continuously rather than looking it up when a claim arrives. The practical effect shows up at renewal: a market that has moved is a policy that needs revisiting, and on an appreciating vehicle a figure set three years ago is a figure that is now wrong in the direction you would least prefer. Our honest add — the agreed value is not a set-and-forget number, and reviewing it is the single most useful thing an owner can do each year.
Repair assumptions built for the car
A standard policy is built around a network, a parts supply and a repair economy designed for current production vehicles. A collector program starts from different assumptions about parts, about who should do the work, and about what "repaired properly" means on a car where originality carries value. This is the part owners tend to appreciate only once, and then permanently.
More than the car in the garage
Collector coverage reaches beyond the automobile itself. Classic and antique motorcycles and watercraft sit in the same specialist world, and so do the things that accumulate around a collection — parts, tools, memorabilia and a vehicle bought at auction before anyone has had a chance to arrange anything. Where a household has several of these, the useful move is to look at the whole picture at once rather than insuring each item the week it arrives.
Collector vehicles, and what sits around them.
What we compare for Northwest Arkansas collectors, through Hagerty and the other specialty markets we hold.
On four wheels
- Classic and collector cars
- Restorations in progress
- Street rods and customs
- Parts, tools and memorabilia
On two and on water
Around the collection
A collector policy is not your everyday auto policy.
This is the one people get wrong in both directions. A collector policy is written on the assumption that the vehicle is not your daily transportation, and specialist programs generally expect a household to carry a separate policy on the cars it actually commutes in. That is not a technicality — it is part of the basis the coverage was priced and underwritten on.
So the right structure is usually both: the collection on a specialist policy, the daily drivers on a standard one, and where the household warrants it, an umbrella sitting over all of it. That is precisely what an independent agency is for. One conversation, the right policy for each vehicle.
Your Arkansas plate and your insurance are two different systems
Owners of older vehicles ask this constantly, and the honest answer has two halves.
The first half is that Arkansas runs more than one plate regime for older and modified vehicles. There are historic or special interest plates; there is an alternative antique plate provision at Ark. Code 27-15-2209, which requires the plate itself to be submitted to the Office of Motor Vehicle for inspection and allows it to be refused on stated grounds; and street rods and custom vehicles sit under a separate regime entirely at Ark. Code 27-24-1502 and following, with its own definitions.
Which brings us to something we would rather tell you than gloss over. The qualifying age depends on which plate and which type of vehicle, and the official Arkansas sources do not all state the same threshold. The code section above is written around one age; the Department of Finance and Administration's specialty plate listing gives a different age for cars than for motorcycles, and separately lists an antique vehicle plate that remains valid but is no longer issued. We are not going to publish a single number and let you plan around it. Confirm the plate with DFA for your specific vehicle — they administer it, and they are the only ones who can tell you which plate your car qualifies for today.
The second half is the part that is actually ours, and it is simpler than it sounds. A plate class is not an insurance class, and neither one sets the other. Registering a car as antique does not create agreed value coverage. Holding an agreed value policy does not change how the car is registered. They are administered by different bodies under different rules, and an owner can very easily have one without the other and assume the two travel together. They do not. Handle the plate with DFA, and let us handle what the policy actually does — and if you have both already, send us the declarations and we'll confirm the coverage says what you think it says.
Ark. Code 27-15-2209 and 27-24-1502 et seq., and Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration plate listings, summarized. Sources differ on qualifying age; confirm with DFA. General information, not legal advice.The coverages, in detail.
Hagerty is one market we compare for each of these. The pages below explain the coverage itself, across every market we hold.
Cribby reads the car, not the brochure.
Cribby the Chameleon is our guide to reading a policy in plain English.
A chameleon adapts to its surroundings, which is the whole idea on a collection. No two of these vehicles are the same, and the coverage gets shaped around what the car is, what it is worth, how it is stored and how often it actually moves. Cribby can also answer the questions this page deliberately won't — whether a particular vehicle, storage arrangement or usage pattern is likely to fit a specialist program. That is underwriting territory, and it belongs in a conversation rather than in published copy.
Rate the underwriter, not the brand.
Why we lead with candor here instead of a badge
The easy version of this section puts a letter grade next to a well-known brand and moves on. That version would also be slightly untrue, because the brand is not the rated entity, and we would rather be accurate than smooth. The rating tells you a specific insurance company is assessed as financially sound today. It does not tell you your claim will go well, whether your vehicle still fits the eligibility rules in three years, or whether the agreed value on your policy still reflects the market.
Those are different questions with different answers, and they are the ones we can actually help with. Our job is to weigh the rating alongside the coverage, the eligibility rules, the service and the renewal, put this program next to the other collector markets we hold, and have somewhere to move you if any of that stops working.
What we actually do at a claim
Narrower than some agencies imply, and we'd rather be straight about it. We don't adjust your claim and we can't overrule an adjuster.
What we do: tell you which company actually issued your policy and how to reach it, help you decide whether a claim is worth reporting before you report it, make sure the coverage that should respond gets identified, confirm what your agreed value figure actually is before anyone starts negotiating around it, chase the file when it stalls, flag when a renewal or a moving market means the value needs revisiting, and move the policy to another of our markets if this one stops fitting. That last one is the part a single-program channel structurally cannot do for you.
Priced on the car and the use, not a table.
A collector premium isn't a discount off a chart — it's built from the agreed value you and the insurer settle on, what the vehicle actually is, how and how much it is driven, how it is stored, who has access to it, your driving and claims history, and the coverage and deductible selected. It is rated on an entirely different basis from a standard auto policy, which is exactly why the two are not comparable line for line and why we don't publish a planning figure for either one on a carrier page. Nothing here is a quote or a guarantee, and a first-term number isn't a promise about renewal. What reliably helps: tell us what the car is, what it's worth and what you actually do with it, then let us compare where it lands.
Collector vehicles in Arkansas: common questions.
Can Cribb Insurance Group place Hagerty coverage in Arkansas?
Is Hagerty the insurance company?
What is agreed value and how is it different from actual cash value?
Does my regular auto policy already cover my classic car?
Does registering my car with an antique plate in Arkansas change my insurance?
Is the membership the same thing as the insurance?
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Hagerty is one of 40+ markets we represent.
Which means we can tell you honestly whether this is the right home for your car — or whether one of our other collector markets fits the vehicle, the storage or the way you actually use it better. Tell us what it is, what it's worth and what you do with it, or send the declarations for whatever you're carrying now, and we'll read them back to you in plain English, including which company actually issued the policy. If what you have is already right, we'll tell you that too.
1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 📞 (479) 286-1066 ✉️ service@cribbinsurance.com 🕔 Mon–Thu 9:00–5:00
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Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas. We are not Hagerty, Hagerty Insurance Agency, LLC, Essentia Insurance Company, or any Nationwide company, and this page is not endorsed, sponsored, reviewed, or approved by them. "Hagerty" and related marks are marks of their respective owners, used here nominatively to identify a program we may compare. Hagerty Insurance Agency, LLC is a licensed producer and is not the insurance company; policies are issued by an underwriting company that varies by product and by state, and the issuing company is identified on the policy. Hagerty Drivers Club is a separate membership provided by a non-insurance affiliate; it is not insurance, purchase of insurance is not required for membership, and membership benefits are governed by their own terms rather than by any insurance policy.
This page describes coverage in general terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price. Coverage, program terms, product availability and eligibility vary by state, by vehicle, by policy, and over time, are set by the program and the issuing carrier, and are subject to underwriting approval and to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy actually issued. Agreed value applies as provided by the issued policy and may be subject to deductible and salvage provisions. If anything on this page conflicts with the issued policy, the policy controls.
Financial Strength Ratings are opinions of an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations, are subject to change, and are not recommendations to purchase, hold or terminate any policy, nor do they address an insurer's claims-handling practices; current ratings are at ambest.com. The A (Excellent) Financial Strength Rating referenced is assigned by AM Best to Essentia Insurance Company, which is rated on the consolidated financials of the Markel North America Insurance Group. Ratings apply to the rated company only and do not transfer to affiliates, producers, program administrators, or other companies participating in the same program.
No premium figures, rate estimates, savings figures or suggested coverage limits or values are published on this page. Cost statements describe how collector vehicle premiums are generally rated and are not a quote, not carrier-specific, and not a guarantee of your rate or your renewal.
Arkansas statutory references and statements about vehicle registration are general information and not legal advice, and registration is administered by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration rather than by this agency. Arkansas sources differ on the qualifying age for antique and special interest plates, and no qualifying age is stated here; confirm eligibility for a specific vehicle with the Department of Finance and Administration. Statutes are summarized, carry provisions and exceptions this page does not cover, and may be amended.
Last reviewed August 2026.