Did You Know

Your agent needs to know what your exposures/risks are to provide you proper coverage. That priceless baseball card collection, the antiques you may have, even your Barbie collection, needs to be discussed. Let me share a story from my firefighting days to put it in perspective.

My company responded to a house fire one night and found the back deck on fire extending up into the attic. The occupants had accidently left the gas grill on for hours, which ignited the deck and house. Luckily the smoke detector alerted them and everyone escaped before our arrival.

As I always did after the fire, I asked if there was anything special we could remove from the house and bring to them. The owner said “yes my Barbie collection in the front bedroom”.

We went into the bedroom and found about 20 dolls in the original display containers, that the fire never damaged. They had some minor smoke damage but were still in nearly perfect condition.

In talking with the owner we learned that some of the dolls were appraised at thousands of dollars.

To this day I wonder if her agent knew of the collection and if it was properly insured. It was a modest house, and unless it was brought to the agent’s attention and the items scheduled out, chances are she was underinsured. If the room was destroyed in the fire, it might be pretty tough to prove a $10,000 collection was in that room.

So the next time your agent calls to review your policy, be sure to talk about those collections and other valuables.