Get The Best Home Insurance in your Location

What to Do If Your Current Coverage Limits or Excludes Your Items

If you find that you have a lot of items that are limited or excluded on your coverage, it may be time for you to consider insurance from a high-value insurance company that will offer you better home insurance coverage for your lifestyle.

A lot of people think high-value home insurance will be too expensive, but if you consider the cost of how much you will lose if you have a claim and are not insured properly, the costs are really minimal.

You will also have to schedule fewer items on riders since their policy limits are higher because they specialize and expect that you will have many of these items, including fine arts, jewelry, wine collections, and antiques. Their policies are built to insure people who have these things.

Common Home Insurance Policy Riders or Endorsements

There are many kinds of riders that can be added to a home insurance policy. A rider is an endorsement to your insurance policy.

For an additional premium, an endorsement or rider can add additional coverage to your policy for items of high value that you might need additional insurance for because they would otherwise be limited or excluded from your insurance policy.

Jewelry Rider

Basic homeowner policies may cover as little as $1,000 for jewelry. Purchasing a jewelry rider is very inexpensive and will protect each individual piece of jewelry you own not only against damage but theft and in some cases even mysterious disappearance. Some specialized high-end jewelry riders will even include coverage for the missing piece if a stone or gem falls out of it.

Every insurance company is different so make sure and ask exactly how your rider will protect you and if you will have a deductible.

Make sure when you get your policy each valuable piece of jewelry you own has an agreed upon itemized value listed in the policy, so there is no conflict if you have to make a claim.

If you store your valuables in a safety deposit box or fire safe box, you may be able to also get additional discounts or different riders. Jewelry not only includes your typical pearl necklaces or diamond earrings but should also include any high valued watches.

People think of jewelry and often think of women's jewelry, but remember that men have jewelry too, when you count everything a $1000 limit may not take you very far.

Artwork and Antiques Rider

​A rider for artwork and antiques is very inexpensive, so it is certainly worth the cost to add to your policy. One of the problems with standard policies is that items that by their inherent nature cannot be replaced or repaired may only be compensated at their actual cash value at the time of loss, which may be interpreted as a depreciated value.

Art and antiques usually appreciate over time, so the policy wording becomes very important when you have a lot of art or antiques. Make sure you discuss the limitations with your insurance agent and fully understand the basis of claims settlement for these items, and try and insure them on a rider, for agreed value or replacement value. You should expect to also have evaluations or certificates of authenticity to prove your loss in a claim and verify value.

Silverware and Furs

Coverage for silverware and furs may also be in the special limits of your home policy. If you have a claim, you may not receive a proper settlement for the full value of furs and silverware if you do not have them on a rider.

With changing lifestyles, silverware and furs are not as popular as they once were, but many people still have these items, often as inheritances.

Oriental Rugs

Oriental rugs may also have limited coverage under a typical homeowners insurance policy. Homeowners insurance companies know oriental rugs are expensive and they do usually include them in your policy.

Depending on your insurance company, coverage may be limited. If you would like to make sure the cost of your oriental rugs are reimbursed if they are damaged, then you should purchase an insurance rider for them.

Get The Best Home Insurance in your Location

What Is a Personal Property Floater?

A personal property floater is simply an addition to your current insurance policy that raises your coverage limits or extends coverage to specific items.

Floater additions get their name because policyholders can, essentially, float more coverage to items like a diamond ring, expensive gold necklace or many other valuable items.

In most scenarios, a personal property floater pertains to jewelry, furs and other high-value items that are categorized very similarly.

Let’s say you have a $2,500 jewelry limit on your policy, but you have $3,500 worth of jewelry. Well if one of those pieces is, let’s say, a $1,200 diamond necklace, you can get a floater to cover its value.

Therefore, you’d still have your $2,500 jewelry limit and you’d also have coverage for that high-value necklace of yours. Getting a floater is easy and usually pretty inexpensive.

It really just depends on how many floaters you’re adding and for how much you’d like to extend each floater coverage for.

What Are Common Types of Endorsements, Riders and Floaters?

Electronics

Jewelry

Furs

Collectibles

Yard and garden

Sewer and drain backup

Sinkholes

Assisted living care

Identity theft

If you come to find out you don’t have adequate coverage for your home, belongings and events that life could potentially throw your way, don’t worry!

Adding endorsements, riders or floaters can help you get more coverage on the things you already have and extend coverage to things you don’t. That means you probably won’t have to cancel your current policy.

So just remember, floaters apply to specific items while endorsements and riders extend to specific categories. See, differentiating the three and understanding each isn’t so difficult after all!