Personal Property Insurance

Personal property insurance and Your Needs

Personal property insurance can provide you with the assurance that your personal belongings will be replaced in many circumstances. If you own your home, you've likely got your personal property insured through a homeowner's policy. But if you rent your home, or if you have significant personal property that is often outside your home, you might need to consider personal property insurance.

Consider these scenarios. You are a renter and your home or apartment building is destroyed by fire. Do you know how you'll get back on your feet? Even if the person who owns the property has insurance to cover the building, your personal belongings are simply your loss unless you've picked up a policy to cover those items. Maybe you are a college student and your stereo or laptop computer has just been taken from your dorm room for the second time in two years. You can obtain a personal property insurance program to protect you against such losses.

If you do have a homeowner's insurance policy, you cannot assume that your personal property is included in that coverage. Carefully read your policy, as you may have to add an additional coverage package to include personal property insurance. Some companies refer to this as a Schedule Personal Property, or a SPP.

Allstate is one company that offers personal property insurance coverage. According to information from Allstate's website (http://home-insurance.allstate.com) personal property insurance also covers the loss of personal property in certain special circumstances. For example, even if your house is not damaged, some personal property insurance policies will cover the loss of jewelry or other items during travels. Allstate points out that the specifics of what your policy will cover can vary and that you should carefully consider what kind of personal property insurance policy will be of the most benefit to you. In some cases, you can purchase personal property insurance for a specific item.

The Mumby Insurance Brokers (www.mumby.com) offers a basic introduction to personal property insurance. According to information on this site, personal property insurance policies typically list risk factors - circumstances in which they will pay claims. The problem is that many people don't realize the risk factors that are missing until they have a loss in that category. Two excellent examples are flood and earthquake. Though many people might think they are completely covered, both flood and earthquake are usually excluded unless a separate insurance policy is purchased.