KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge and Insurance Claims/Tips

Anything can happen at any time that may require you to file an insurance claim!

The Insurance Industry, mortgage lenders, financial planners, estate attorneys, the Red Cross, the Better Business Bureau and others recommend every home and business owner have inventory documentation of their assets.

Insurance Advice and Tips, check the cover letter from you home owners insurance policy for their recommendation to have an inventory or proper documentation for an insurance claim (consider yourself warned).

National Disasters have made the insurance claim more complex. Having good insurance coverage is not enough. You are required to provide a detail list of loss or damaged items, along with their values, for an insurance claim or police report. Often they also require photos and receipts for proof of ownership.

Insurance Claims, are complex and most people don’t read their policy or know what is required to file a claim. Its recommended that you should review your policy annually with your insurance agent and add any additions that may affect your insurance coverage.

Understand Your Policy, know your rights, consult with professionals before being short changed on a claim. Public Adjusters are regulated by the state department of insurance regulators in each state and they are available to assist in claim settlements.

Tax Loss, if someone doesn’t have insurance or if losses exceed an insurance claim reimbursement, losses may be tax deductible (review this possibility with your tax consultant, CPA or IRS).

Don’t become a victim twice:

Here is how a day time home burglary may go down…..it’s about 11am, you are at work or away from home and a neighbor calls to tell you that the side door of your home looks like it’s been kicked in. You leave immediately and call the police. You discover, upon arriving home, that you’ve been burglarized.

You discover, five T.V.’s, an X-Box, two DVD players, a desktop computer/monitor, two laptops, tablets, all the jewelry and a 9 piece gun collection/ammunition …..are gone.

The police and your insurance adjuster will ask, do you have a detail inventory, photos and receipts of all your valuables and assets that you can provide when preparing your police report and insurance claim? The loss of these items could amount to thousands of dollars and a huge financial loss.

Then, you’re informed that items lost requiring model and serial number may not be returned if they are found. Why? If you don’t have the identifying information, model, serial numbers, photos and receipts for your police report and insurance claim, how will the police know it is your property and how will you know it is your property?

Don’t let the lack of something important as an inventory of your valuables and assets cause you to be a victim twice! First, you lose it to thieves, then you may lose it to unidentified property held by law enforcement, later sold at auction!