MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR INSURANCE DOLLARS 8 Important Tips to Help You Protect Your Personal Assets

Disaster preparedness is essential to all homeowners. Structural reinforcements are clearly important, but another essential element in preparedness, though often overlooked, is personal property documentation. If a home or business owner should experience property loss, proof of ownership and condition are required by most insurance companies for claims.

Here's a frightening thought: what if your home has fallen victim to a hurricane, flood, fire, or even burglary, and your insurance claims adjuster asks you to complete a detailed claim form listing the contents of your home that were lost, damaged or destroyed. How complete and accurate could your list be?

According to an adjuster for a prominent insurance company, your ability to recall personal possessions would be less than 60%. So, what can you do to better the odds of recovery from your insurance carrier should you need to file a claim? Veteran videographer and insurance professional Bruce Schwartz has been helping Florida residents document their personal property for the last ten years. He has some important tips that will help you tremendously if you ever need to file a claim against your policy:

? Back up data on your home and business computers. Whether you use a computer at work or at home, back up all of your files regularly. Computer data loss occurs every day costing enormous amounts of time and money to home and business owners - losses that could have been prevented had proper back-up procedures been in place.
According to RBS, Inc. of New York, in their report "Data Loss Statistics - How much will data loss affect you," U.S. businesses lose over $12 billion per year because of data loss. Their study also found that hardware or system failure accounts for 78% of all data loss. As with many other areas of prevention, disaster prevention and recovery plans are often overlooked, even though, according to an ICSA Lab Virus Prevalence Survey, in addition to being more prevalent, computer viruses are more costly, more destructive, and cause more real damage to data and systems than in the past.
How important is protecting your data? According to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, 93% of companies that lost their data for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster while 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time-period filed for bankruptcy immediately. Preparation and prevention are the solution.

? Shop and compare before buying insurance. When buying insurance, the importance of comparative shopping cannot be overstressed. Price and coverage vary, so take the time to find the policy that suits your particular needs. Simply call various agencies and inquire about the premiums and benefits of the policies they offer and which carriers they represent.

Buying from a reputable company is highly recommended. Attorney William M. Shernoff, in his book How to Make Insurance Companies Pay Your Claims, states, "You want to entrust your money to a fairly well known and established insurance company for the same reason you would do this with a bank --- security. This is, after all, the purpose of insurance."

? Understand your policy. While reading an insurance policy will never replace the grip of a well-written novel and on the contrary, can even be quite boring and confusing to most of us, it remains extremely important to understand the terms and conditions stated in your contract. Be sure to read the declaration page and any definitions contained within the policy. If you are unsure of the meaning of any definitions or terms of coverage, have your agent clarify them for you. Read the exclusions portions carefully, which are generally found on the last pages of your policy. If your agent speaks of specific benefits, coverage, or prices ask where these points can be found in the text of the policy itself.

It's perfectly acceptable to have your agent go over the policy with you to explain things that might be difficult to understand, however this does not in any way remove the burden of responsibility of the insured to read their own document thoroughly before signing. All too often, consumers think they are covered for something when they are not. It's much better to be clear on your coverage and limitations before a loss occurs.

? Don't be underinsured. Be certain you have the appropriate amount of insurance coverage in your policy. "Most people underestimate the value of what they own," says Tel Asiado, author of the article, How to Get Your Money's Worth from Insurance Policies - Tips to Protect Monies from Joint Life to Home and Contents published in April of 2009. "For instance, home and content insurance have a component for true replacement value, and the true value should reflect the insurance."

According to author Linnea Heinrich in her article entitled, What to Do if Your House Burns Down, "Another reason not to underinsure your assets: you may be accused of purposely underinsuring to keep your premium payments low. This can seriously delay or even prevent a full settlement."

Bruce Schwartz is the owner of Video Property Archives (VPA), a professional video documentation service company in Sarasota (www.VideoPropertyArchives.com). "Review your homeowner's insurance policy with your agent annually to insure that you are adequately protected against a loss, especially if you have made significant purchases during the year. Ask about replacement value options that may be available to you. This could save you money down the road should you personally experience a catastrophic loss," says Schwartz.

? Document your personal property. Attorney Shernoff states, "Most companies will be reluctant to pay what they do not have to pay. They feel that it simply makes good business sense to pay no more than the lowest legal amount ? or not to pay at all, if a claim can be denied on 'reasonable' grounds." He goes on to say, "One of the best ways to keep from becoming a victim is to be prepared for the worst." That way, you won't find yourself in a "helpless state of affairs when you file an insurance claim." Good advice in light of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (Cat. 5+), Charley in 2004 (Cat. 4), Wilma in 2005 (Cat. 4), and Katrina in 2006 (Cat 5+). Far too many homeowner policy holders were devastated by the affects of those hurricanes and did not recover as successfully and completely as they might have.
So just what does Shernoff suggest? "The most important thing you can do to protect your belongings is to take a detailed inventory of all belongings you insure, keep your inventory updated, and keep a separate copy outside of your home." Sound reasoning when you consider the words of Superior Court Justice Blenus Wright who presided over a case against a major carrier that denied a property loss claim. Justice Wright said, "It is difficult to determine true value of possessions without proper documentation ... Persons with possessions of above-average value ought to be aware... Unfortunately, most people neglect to prepare proper documentation. They procrastinate, doubting that their possessions will ever be destroyed." That is excellent advice to homeowners everywhere, especially in Florida.

We tend to believe disaster will never happen to us. So what is the easiest and most efficient way to document your possessions? Property and Casualty insurance adjusters highly recommend maintaining a professionally produced audio/video recording to prove property ownership, condition, and value prior to a loss. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), State & Local Governments, Insurance Carriers, Law offices, News Medias, and Official Hurricane Preparatory Documents consistently warn homeowners to document household contents for insurance purposes before a storm strikes.

? Hire a professional for your video documentation. The key to recovery, should you experience a loss, is in the documentation of your assets. A professional videographer with experience in the insurance industry can increase the chances of your receiving a full and complete settlement. Bruce Schwartz's VPA is just such a company. Schwartz is a ten-year veteran videographer with over thirty years in personal lines underwriting and executive administrative management with insurance carriers. The largest property and casualty insurance company has approved VPA as the luxury property audio/video documentation specialist for recording the personal assets of their elite "Private Client Group." Servicing Florida since 1999, VPA is uniquely qualified to provide policyholders with the tool they need to document the contents of their home in order to provide insurance companies with the detailed information needed to process claims. VPA adheres strictly to industry standard guidelines for independent and unbiased recordings of clients' assets to valuate and help facilitate recovery from insurance carriers in the event of a loss.

Do-it-yourself home videos can delay reimbursement and may even cause financial recoveries to fall far short of the limits available in an insurance policy. The burden of proof lies with the insured. A recording by a documentation specialist will include proprietary components that will assure an accurate, complete, and claims-compliant video enabling the insured to recall and document the condition and value of all their recorded personal property for insurance claim purposes. The more precise and inclusive claim records are when a carrier is contacted regarding a loss, the quicker and cleaner the recovery will be. As the Insurance Commissioner for the State of Maryland stated in 2008, "Documentation and communication are the two keys to a smooth recovery from your insurance company, along with a little patience."

? Keep records up-to-date. Next to documenting your personal property, keeping your records current is the second most vital element in your protection. Jeanne M. Salvatore, Vice President of Consumer Affairs for the non-profit communications organization Insurance Information Institute says, "An up-to-date home inventory is one of the best ways to make the most of your insurance dollars." This point is echoed by Susan Whelan in her article, How to Prepare a Home Inventory for Insurance who writes, "An up-to-date home inventory is a useful reference when calculating the replacement value of possessions for contents insurance or when making an insurance claim."

Once your property has been professionally recorded, it need never become significantly outdated, since updates are relatively simple. Schwartz states, "VPA offers an annual update program as part of our ongoing commitment to keep your personal property records as current and accurate as possible."

? Maintain a safe deposit box or secure off-site storage. Keep receipts for all important purchases in a safe, off-site location. If receipts have been printed on thermographic paper, photocopy them to protect against fading and loss of readability. Each time you acquire a new item, make a copy of the receipt and file it in your safe. A fireproof, waterproof in-home safe is not as reliable as one might think since the entire box can be lost in a weather event with strong winds, such as a tornado or hurricane; a safe deposit box at a bank is a far safer choice.

Copyright 2009. Reprint rights available - contact author, Julie Schwartz.