First Tech’s Noah Kuchenmeister helps explain scheduled personal property insurance

To help explain the role and importance of scheduled personal property insurance, we asked First Tech Insurance Sales Agent Noah Kuchenmeister a few questions about it. Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

Why do we need scheduled personal property coverage?

Your standard home insurance policy is intended to provide coverage to replace your property with brand new items in the event of a loss. However, it’s common for home policies to limit the amount you can claim on certain types of personal property like jewelry, watches, furs, rugs, silver, etc. So, when you own items that may be one-of-a-kind or especially valuable, it’s important to review your home policy to make sure they have proper coverage. Insurance carriers offer a coverage option called a schedule as a way to expand your own policy limits on categories that aren’t providing your valuables enough protection.

What kinds of items do you suggest that a member schedule?

That depends. It’s often very specific to the member and the personal property loss limitations of their policy.

Jewelry is the most commonly limited—and the most commonly scheduled—item. Often there will be a limit of around $2,500 for theft of an item of jewelry on standard policies. Many pieces of jewelry are worth far more than that, so a schedule would essentially add that item to a policy for its specific appraised value.

Another example would be if you have an item that tends to appreciate in value over time, like an antique, or artwork.

To determine what should be considered for scheduled coverage, I often ask the members ‘Can this item be easily replaced right now? What items of your personal property are important? Is there anything you have invested substantial money in?’

If it’s a one-of-a-kind antique, or a custom-made ring that you can’t go to the store and get a replacement, those are the types of items that should be covered with scheduled personal property insurance. Schedules will also provide stronger and broader coverage than your standard home policy—like if you just lose an item, it might not be covered by your standard policy. Schedules would give you coverage over accidental loss and other circumstances.

What is something that most members might not know about scheduled property?

One interesting aspect of scheduled property coverage is that there is often no deductible. Your home policy may have a deductible of $1,000 or $2,000 to pay before getting reimbursed for home insurance claims, but if you have a scheduled property rider, you don’t have to worry about losing that deductible, and you get the full appraised value of that particular item.

What are some interesting items that you have scheduled for a member?

I’ve gotten inquiries about baseball card collections and beanie babies, and that type of thing—and they all have a reasonable stance if someone wanted to get those scheduled.

My most interesting item was an antique chair that was part of some very old castle. The appraised value of it was around $100,000. I met this nice couple at the Antique Roadshow—which is where they got it appraised—it had been passed down in their family and they knew it had value, but they had no idea it had that much value. So I worked with them to protect the chair, which they joked was worth more than the rest of their property combined.

Most of what I schedule is jewelry, but I’ve insured rifles and art pieces as well.

First Tech Insurance Services is here to help protect your most valuable possessions. To learn more about how scheduled personal property coverage works, and if it makes sense for you, contact an agent today.