While organizing homes and offices, we are often asked what kind of documentation is needed in case of a loss.  So, we asked our friendly Allstate Insurance Agent, Angel Lax, for her help. Here is her advice…

Document Your Belongings

• A quick video showing the contents of the house, including closets and basements. In clothes closet, show tags on designer clothes. Save this to the cloud via email, google drive, Dropbox, even a flash drive in your Safe deposit box.  Update regularly.
• Special items: make sure your insurance agent knows of valuables such as jewelry, fine art, musical instruments or collectibles. If your homeowner’s policy has limits on these items you may need an additional policy or rider. If you don’t call out these more valuable items (“scheduled” in insurance language) you’re limited on reimbursement.
• If you don’t have a list of lost items, the company will give you ~70%, depending on the company, of the “personal property limits” listed on your policy. Most of the time, that will be less than if you have good documentation of what you lost.

Organize Your Documents

Create an “insurance” file either in paper or digitally or both

• Include the name of the company
• Named insured
• Policy number
• Deductibles
• For big-ticket items, note serial numbers and take a picture of the receipts to keep with insurance documents

Review Your Coverage

Make sure you are covered appropriately…have you contacted your agent in the last year or two? The agent will evaluate the value of your home, based on the size, condition and quality of your components. The quality ranges from economy to standard to above standard to high end. This rating informs the amount of coverage you need to replace.  For older homes, some companies encourage a 150% replacement cost plan which covers you in case you need to bring items up to code in the event of a loss. Or, if there is a pricing surge, like there has been in Sonoma and Napa counties, the extra percentage can alleviate that challenge…or if there has been an error in evaluating the value of the replacement.

Use this opportunity to re-acquaint yourself with your things and maybe clear out a closet or two. Even if you only do a few of the items above or only manage to inventory some of your rooms you’ll be better off than not taking any action – progress is better than perfection!