| Most folks do not have sufficient reading skills to decode whether | any given policy will cover a particular activity under typical | conditions.
I don't buy that. Yes, legalese is difficult to comprehend, but it's certainly possible for normal people to understand most of it if they actually try and put some time into it.
The problem is that most people don't even bother reading this stuff.
Getting a cell phone? Sign that contract -- who cares what's in it? Starting a new job? Sure, sign that paperwork! Same goes for buying a car or anything else ... people just sign.
When I bought my house, it was quite obvious that the sellers and title company were quite annoyed at me because I insisted on reading every line of what I was signing (and if you've never bought and financed a house, it's a trip -- you have to sign like forty different documents!) If I didn't understand something, I asked (and took their answers with a grain of salt, because what matters is what it says, not what they say), which annoyed them more. But hey, I'm spending $150K here, and something like $1500 of that's going right to the title company, $3K to the realtor, and most of the rest to the seller. Quit your bitching! (Actually, the realtor was quite helpful, even though he techically worked for the seller rather than me.)
I suspect that part of the reason your salespeople couldn't read the policies they were selling is because they never had to, because nobody ever expected them to, and if somebody did expect them to, they just threw up their hands and didn't try.
In any event, I've read through my homeowner's policy quite carefully (from USAA, if anybody cares) and determined that it does cover model airplane related issues. It explicitly excludes aircraft, but it defines aircraft in such a way that model aircraft that don't carry people aren't excluded from the policy.
If you haven't read your policy or contract, do. Having your insurance company or salesman give you a summary doesn't count, because you're not signing that summary. If you really can't understand it, ask, but be aware that what matters is what the paper says, not what the salesman tells you. So if you still can't understand, have a lawyer read it to you. At least you can generally trust your lawyer to give it to you straight, since he works for you, but lawyers make mistakes too ...