Home Insurance FAQs

While a standard home insurance policy generally provides some coverage for more expensive items, such as luxury watches, designer handbags, wine and art collections, or sports memorabilia, the protection is typically limited. Sometimes coverage is only up to a defined dollar amount; other times protection is only valid for certain types of events, like fire or theft, but not for accidental damage or loss. For this reason, whether you have just a few pieces of fine jewelry or have accumulated a variety of valuable collectible items, it’s very likely that you require additional insurance to make sure you can fully repair or replace these possessions if anything happens to them. To better protect your high-value belongings, your insurance professional should recommend that you consider adding a special endorsement, called Scheduled Personal Property coverage, to your homeowners policy. By listing out each of your expensive belongings on this endorsement, you should be insured up to their appraised value. In addition, with this add-on insurance option, you should get broad coverage for a wide variety of incidents that can ruin your valuables. Plus, any claims you do make should not be subject to a deductible. It is also critical to get periodic appraisals for the expensive items and collections in your home, and to share this information with your insurance professional.