Were you one of the people from the car commercials who found a surprise in the driveway with a big bow on it Christmas morning? For most of us, the answer is probably not, but just like you’d insure a new car, you may want to look into insuring some other gifts from this past holiday season. Certain gifts, such as cars, obviously require their own insurance policy, but sometimes it’s not always as clear.
Most of the gifts are automatically covered by your homeowners or renters insurance, but there are a few gifts that may be exceptions to that. Trusted Choice® independent insurance agents encourage you to review your insurance if you unwrapped one of these gifts this year:
Jewelry Insurance
Jewelry is a popular gift item every year, and on top of the value of each piece, a jewelry collection can have a value of thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. On a homeowners insurance policy there may be a limit of $2,000 or less on the amount of coverage for jewelry. A diamond ring and a pair of pearl earrings may put you over that limit. With jewelry it’s important that you know how much your gift (and other pieces) are valued at, and whether it exceeds the limits in your policy. If it does exceed the limit, consider adding what’s known as a “valuable articles floater” to your homeowners policy.
Collectibles & Memorabilia Insurance
Whether it’s the baseball card from your favorite player’s rookie year, the autographed “Rolling Stones” album cover or the rare stamp your philatelist father-in-law has been searching for, collectibles and memorabilia can have significant value, either as an individual item or as part of a larger collection. For some collections, listing or “scheduling” the items on your homeowners insurance policy will provide sufficient coverage. For some collections though it may make more sense to obtain a separate policy- for items like art, antiques, musical instruments and coin collections, a Fine Arts and Valuable Items policy may be available for added peace of mind.
A valuable articles floater or a personal articles floater can add coverage for your gifts if they aren’t covered by your homeowners policy. When you give or receive gifts that may have a high value, make sure you document their value and add them to your home inventory. Then, reach out to your Trusted Choice agent to make sure that you have coverage to protect your present.