What is scheduled personal property coverage, and why is it so important?
Scheduled personal property insurance can offer peace of mind when it comes to your most valuable belongings.
Scheduled personal property is a supplemental insurance policy that provides enhanced coverage to ensure your valuable items are fully covered. Most homeowner’s policies offer standard personal property coverage to cover your belongings such as furniture, clothing, and electronics, but those policies may have limitations on the amount of coverage available for some types of valuable items such as jewelry, art, and antiques.
These limitations are often presented in the form of sub-limits. Sub-limits place a maximum on the amount available to pay for some classes of personal belongings based on the type of loss. For example, a standard personal property policy may impose a limit of $1,000 per item on the amount paid due to theft of jewelry. That means if you had a necklace worth $2,000, you would only receive $1,000 to replace it in the event it was stolen.
Scheduled personal property insurance provides coverage for jewelry, art, and many other types of valuable items at an appraised value, or an amount that you and the insurance company agree upon. Scheduled personal property also offers you grace in the event of a mysterious disappearance—in other words, when you just flat-out lose something. Standard personal property coverage typically only covers an item if it is stolen or damaged—but if you just lose something, you may be on your own. Providing scheduled coverage means that you can recover the full value of an item, even with a mysterious disappearance—whether it fell out of your pocket or backpack, or you left it somewhere far away on vacation. Your items are covered to their full scheduled limit, no matter if an incident occurs at home or from afar.
To determine if scheduled personal property coverage is worth considering for you, take a full inventory of your home and all of your belongings, and assign a rough value for each item. Then review your coverage options and limits to see if there are gaps in coverage. Potential items to schedule include:
- Jewelry and watches
- Silverware, china, and crystal
- Antiques
- Fine art
- Stamp and coin collections
- Bicycles or other sporting equipment
- Cameras and computers
- Musical instruments
- Fine wine
If you have a number of high-value items and you aren’t sure how, or even if, they are fully covered in your policy, check with your insurance agent or contact First Tech Insurance Services today to discuss your options. Our insurance professionals can help you develop a strategy for determining which insurance plan will be the best fit for your budget and for each stage of your life. Schedule some time to speak with one of our agents today.