Personal Articles Insurance: How To Protect Some Of Your More Valuable Items
Homeowner's insurance may not always cover the personal items that are present within the home. Your valuables are susceptible to things like water damage and burglary. In fact, 73.9% of all burglaries in 2010 happened on residential property. To protect your valuables, speak with an experienced personal insurance agency about the type of personal articles insurance that you may need. This article will explain just how you can protect your more valuable personal items.
What Is Personal Articles Insurance?
Most homeowner's insurance policies offer coverage for furniture, clothing and appliances; however, this may not necessarily include some of your more valuable assets, like jewelry, silverware, fur clothing and even art. Even if these items are covered, the insurance agencies may place a limit to the amount of compensation that can be awarded. For example, most insurance agencies restrict the amount of coverage for jewelry and fur pieces to $1,000. In the event that these personal items are damaged, you won't be getting its full value back. To prevent this, you should consider obtaining a personal articles insurance policy for individual items.
The personal articles insurance policy will provide the full value of the items that it covers. For example, let's say that an art piece worth $1,500 was damaged from a pipe bursting. Under this insurance policy, you may be compensated the entire value of the art piece. Different personal articles insurance policies will offer coverage under different circumstances. You and an experienced insurance agent should consider what factors you are most at risk to.
What Can You Insure?
Most insurance agencies offering personal articles insurance policies are quite flexible in regards to the type of items that can be covered. If you have any unique requests, contact an experienced insurance agent who can help you design just the right type of insurance policy needed. Some personal items that are commonly insured will include:
- jewelry pieces, especially antiques, and those that contain particularly valuable stones. For example, many women may want to take out an insurance policy for their engagement ring, which costs an average of $5,229.
- fine arts, like oriental rugs and paintings. It would be foolish for the private collector who bought the No.5 by Jackson Pollock to not insure the $164 million painting.
- fur pieces. Keep in mind that fur pieces are particularly vulnerable, and are susceptible to damages from environmental conditions.
- collectibles. Most collectibles increase in value with time, so it may be important to consider getting an insurance policy that will honor the market value of the item at the time that it was damaged or stolen.
What Do You Need to Protect These Items?
If you are interested in obtaining a personal articles insurance for a particularly valuable items in your home, you will need to consult with an experienced insurance agent immediately to work out the details of the coverage. Before heading off to the office, make sure that you have:
- multiple photographs of the item that you are insuring. You want to be able to prove without a doubt the condition of the item.
- a professional appraisal detailing its value. An insurance agent will need to obtain a professional appraisal in order to determine the actual worth of the item.
Conclusion
If you are not satisfied with the amount of coverage that your homeowner's insurance policy offers for valuable assets stored in your home, it may be time to consider taking out an insurance policy on some of your more valuable assets. A personal articles insurance policy can provide you with the coverage that you need in the event that unfortunate situations happen.
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