We can often feel like we’re safe when in our homes but our homes aren’t impenetrable. When owning a home, or even renting one, there’s always the risk that your property could get broken into and your valuables get stolen.

Just like anything in life, it’s important to get protection for your valuables, so if the worst were to happen, there will be some financial compensation you could claim back. It’s essential to have insurance, rather than to risk it and tempting fate.

In this article, you’ll get an understanding of what’s available and what practices you should follow so you have the right insurance for valuables.

What would be defined as “valuables” in your home?

There are sentimental valuables that might not really hold much value, and they’re also often things you can’t put a price on. Unfortunately, those things that hold little to no value might not even be worth putting on a home insurance policy.

There are common valuables that many people will wish to insure though when it comes to an item being expensive, rare or collectible. These are something an insurance company will deem being worthy of going on a policy.

These could include but are not limited to fine jewelry, art, coins, stamp collections, cameras, sports memorabilia, electronics and even medical devices.

It’s important to consider everything you have around your home in order to figure out what could go on your policy and what’s not worth covering with insurance for valuables.

Types of insurance coverage available

There are differences in coverage firstly when it comes to being the owner of a property as opposed to simply renting a property.

These coverage limits are worth noting so you’re getting the right one. They also each have their pros and cons in this respect.

For example, homeowners insurance will have higher valuable coverage limits, but the premiums are likely to be more expensive.

However, renters have lower valuables coverage limits, but they also have less expensive premiums. So there are pros and cons to both that are worth noting.

With most standard homeowners policies, to keep this coverage affordable to you, they’ll likely have a low limit of liability of theft.

You’ll want to find out how much this is with the relevant insurance providers you’re looking at, but there are a couple of ways to increase this coverage. One would be to raise the limit of your liability, whether that’s a limit of $5,000 or $10,000.

There’s also something called a floater policy. A floater policy offers you broader protection for your valuables. They cover losses of any type, and that means anything that your typical home insurance policy wouldn’t cover.

This may be an accidental loss, for example, which many of us can be prone to doing. If you’re thinking of purchasing a floater, then you want to get your valuables appraised properly so you know exactly how much every valuable is worth.

An insurance agency in Essex, NJ will be able to help with guiding you through this process successfully.

Five tips to get insurance for valuables

When insuring your valuables, it’s important you know some helpful tips that will make it a little easier for you to do, whilst giving you some peace of mind that you’re doing it correctly.

So, here are five tips for insuring your valuables on a home insurance plan.

Get your valuables appraised

As mentioned in the floater policy, if you want to increase coverage of your items, then it’s worth getting those items appraised.

Some may be quite common and therefore you know exactly how much they’re worth.

However, for more valuable pieces, you might find that they vary in value and a floater that’s worth $3,000 might not be helpful if you find that the piece of jewelry or art for instance, is worth thousands more.

Find out what valuables are worth so you can get the necessary coverage.

Double-check what your policy entails

When it comes to your policy, be vigilant and read the small print. Don’t simply skip or skim-read the documents you’re given because you may come across something you’re not happy with or don’t fully understand.

When going on any home insurance policy, you want to make sure you’re fully covered, so if anything were to happen, you would be protected.

Document your belongings

With your valuables, it’s likely that over the course of your home policy plan, you might add in additional valuables that you purchase.

With that being said, it’s worth keeping hold of a home inventory to make sure that you have everything documented and added to the policy when it’s needed.

You should do this when purchasing a policy for the first time, too. Thay way, you have an updated record that you can refer to every so often, and it comes in handy when filing a claim.

Get an endorsement

An endorsement is something you purchase and is an add-on to a policy that you’ll find available with most providers. This allows an increase in the property coverage limit for specific items.

It raises your premiums slightly, but it will mean you get a higher payout after something has been lost. It’s definitely worth using if you have certain things that need that extra coverage.

Think about getting a buyer’s protection plan

Purchasing a buyer’s protection plan is definitely worth doing to help with providing you extra coverage. This is usually offered on items like a new watch, camera or television.

It’s worth getting, even if you have a home policy in place. This usually comes as a one-off or monthly fee.

Insuring your valuables is something that you really want to do sooner rather than later. It’s a priority that you want to make instead of telling yourself you’ll do it later on.

Later on, it could be too late, and then you’ll really be regretting it! Follow these tips in order to get the most out of insurance for valuables.