Financial Analysis of Alpaca Ownership
Registration and Insurance - Protect your Investment!
When you purchase an animal that is already registered with ARI you will receive a transfer certificate of registration to change the ownership to your name. If you paid in cash, the certificate should come to you immediately, signed by the seller so that transfer can be affected by sending the completed certificate (on the back) into ARI.
If you purchase an animal on time then the seller remains the registered owner until such time as the final payment is made. Any cria born to a dam that you are making payments on technically belongs to the seller as well. If you want to register a cria born while you are still making payments it must be registered with the seller as Owner and then transferred to your name upon final payment.
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When you register an animal that you own outright you will need the following signatures to complete the form:
* Owner of Dam at time of conception
* * Owner of Sire at time of conception
* * Owner of Dam at time of birth
* * Owner of animal being registered
With the new online registration system at ARI this becomes easier as you simply fill out the information necessary and then they contact the other signers via e-mail to have them, „Sign Off“ on the animal in question.
You can see that ARI wants to make very sure that animals are registered properly and it can get a bit complex trying to figure out who owned what animal at what time. Just one more reason that good records are extremely important.
* You will also need a sample of blood on an ARI FTA card. These cards can be purchased through the ARI website and are only necessary the first time an animal is registered.
All other information and forms for registration can be obtained on the ARI website.
Insurance
Alpacas are investment quality livestock and you have the option of insuring them against theft and mortality. There are very few investments that you can insure so I highly recommend that you take advantage of this safeguard. There are any number of insurance companies that will insure livestock, specifically alpacas. Wilkins Livestock Insurers and Prairie States are just two that immediately come to mind.
If you purchased an animal for $15,000 you can insure it for that full amount for about 3% of the value. It would cost you about $450 per year to insure a $15,000 animal. Animals valued at over $30,000 require a veterinary exam before they can be insured. Each company will have its own form asking what they want the vet to check. The vet will complete their exam and then you send in the vet report along with your information form and you will receive a "Binder" for your animal followed by an invoice for the insurance amount.
Having done all of the above you can continue watching the cria grow and enjoying your new adventure in alpacas knowing that you have taken care of the details that make this pleasure a business.
Now, you’ve progress this far . . . check out the Alpacas For Sale and Breeding!
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