Most clients don't have piles of gold bars buried in the back yard, but about every client has some kind of unique or valuable personal property in their home. Take a moment to think about the personal property items that you own. What do you have that is valuable or unique?
For many clients, the answer may be as simple as a piece of inherited jewelry or a wedding ring. Some clients have collections of various items such as sports memorabilia or coins. Others may have figurines or beautiful artwork. No matter what unique and valuable personal property item you have, the one thing you MUST do is discuss these items with your insurance agent. Some of these items will need additional insurance or scheduling on your insurance policy. Some types of property, such as jewelry, are subject to sublimits in the homeowners policy. The last thing you want is to have thousands of dollars in cash stored in your home only to find out that when your home burns down, you only have coverage for $1000.
Most unique and valuable items will require an appraisal to be submitted to the insurance company. This appraisal not only verifies the value of the item, but it also provides an accurate description for each piece. The important part for insureds to remember is that these appraisals may need to be updated frequently. For example, a wedding ring of a couple married for 20 years may be more valuable at year 20 than it was when the original appraisal was done at the time of their marriage.
There may be one more reason to schedule these unique and valuable items. Scheduling items normally provides "all risk coverage". Therefore, you may find some coverage that
may not be provided under a standard homeowners policy. For example, Julie looks down one day to realize that the diamond from her wedding ring is missing. She searches high and low to find the diamond with no luck. She placed a call to her agent to discuss coverage. If Julie had the ring scheduled prior to the loss, she likely has coverage for "mysterious disappearance" which will allow her to make a claim on the policy.
Another example of where "all risk coverage" may come into play is: Sarah collects a beautiful glass sculpture piece that she picked up while traveling to Italy. She took great care in shipping the piece from Italy back to Indiana. Fast forward 10 years later and Sarah's now 18 month old daughter sets her eyes on the piece. Wobbling over to the piece, she quickly picks it up, loses her balance and both she and the piece crash to the ground. If Sarah has schedule the piece of artwork, she may have coverage for breakable artwork.
Unique and valuable items are often hard to insurance agents to identify without the help of the insured. Often these items are hidden (such as in a safe) or placed in areas of the home that the agent may not see. Be sure to discuss these items with your agent to ensure that you have an understanding on how your policy would respond in the event of a loss.
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