If you’ve inherited or were given a valuable piece of jewelry or art, you need to do more than find a special spot for safe keeping. You need to make sure you have enough insurance to protect it.
Standard home insurance policies provide coverage for household belongings, but they have limits for precious items, such as jewelry, fine art and furs.
The standard home insurance policy’s coverage limits for theft of jewelry, for instance, is usually $1,500, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).
To increase coverage, you can pay a higher home insurance premium to raise the coverage limit or purchase a “floater” policy. Raising your coverage limits is probably the cheaper way to go, but you might still face a limit on how much you can claim for the loss of an individual piece, the I.I.I. says.
Consider adding a floater to your home insurance policy
A floater is a separate policy that provides supplemental insurance for valuables and covers losses that wouldn’t be covered under a standard home insurance policy, such as losing a ring in a hotel room.
Follow these tips to make sure your new valuables are covered:
- Ask your home insurance agent about limits in your policy and whether there’s enough coverage for valuables.
- Compare the cost of increasing your coverage limits to getting a floater policy. Make sure either option would provide the appropriate amount of coverage.
- Get the item appraised if you want coverage through a floater policy.
- Add the valuable to your home inventory list.
If you don’t already have a home inventory of all your belongings, now is the time to create one. An up-to-date
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Aon Risk Solutions has been named the global insurance broker for the McLaren Group, providing insurance for the Formula 1 team, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and its new production car company, McLaren Automotive.
The account will be handled by the Redhill-based Corporate team, with support provided by Aon’s London Broking Centre.
The deal requires a broad range of expertise and insurance coverage, with diverse challenges such as providing individual drivers with insurance, as well as covering pit crews and logistics.
Jon Cooper, area director for Aon’s specialist Corporate team in Redhill, has described working with McLaren as a challenging and rewarding experience, which demonstrates the broad range of expertise Aon can provide.
McLaren Group Ltd’s Chief Financial Officer Andy Myers expressed the firm’s delight at working with Aon, adding that there was a natural fit between the two firms.
People living in Surrey and Scotland have seen the biggest hikes in the cost of home insurance, according to new research from moneysupermarket.com. While many homeowners across the country have been hit with substantial increases in premiums – the typical cost for buildings and contents cover has gone up by 6% over the last 14 months – people living in Surrey and Scotland have been hardest hit by price rises.
Analysis of 3.4 million quotations, conducted by moneysupermarket.com, reveals that these unfortunate individuals have seen their home insurance premiums jump by up to 46% over the last 14 months, with those living in Dorking, Surrey suffering the largest increases.
Cover provided for households in Dorking has soared from an average of £119 to £174 since February 2010 – that’s a rise of 15p per day.
Meanwhile, homeowners living in the city centre of Edinburgh and Milngavie in Glasgow have experienced similar increases of 45% and 40% respectively.
And people based in Greater London have also had to find the extra cash to cope with above-average premium hikes; five of the top twenty hardest hit areas in the country are within this area.
Prepare for even higher costs
The bad news is that premiums look set to continue rising apace – wherever you live.
Julie Owens, head of home insurance at moneysupermarket.com said: “The cost of insuring homes in the UK is steadily on the increase.
“Unfortunately for consumers, things look set to get worse with the increase in prices unlikely to slow down in the coming years.”
The reason that the cost of cover is increasing is because the number of claims being made on home insurance premiums has risen in recent years, causing insurers to hike premiums in order to cover their costs. <
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If you’ve got more than one car, then it might seem obvious to go for a multi-car policy, but this may not always be the most cost-effective route. According to research by swiftcover.com some two-car households could save money by insuring their vehicles separately, rather than going for a multi-car policy.
In fact, analysis by the insurer found that a household insuring both a BMW 318 and a Ford Focus could save £258 by insuring the two vehicles separately.
So even if your insurer is offering what seems like a really competitive discount on your home’s second car, it still makes sense to compare car insurance prices online first to see if you can find a cheaper deal.
After all, premiums can vary hugely between different insurers, depending on the car you drive and whether or not the provider wants to attract drivers like you.
Sarah Vaughan, a spokeswoman for swiftcover.com, said: “It’s easy to assume that multi-car discounts must offer the best value, but it’s clearly not the case for everyone. It may be slightly easier but is it really worth paying hundreds of pounds over the odds? These figures show that no matter what discounts are offered it is best to shop around.”
Beat rising premiums by shopping around
Another reason it makes sense to shop around for the best cover is that car insurance premiums are still rising.
The AA’s insurance index shows that the average price of car insurance leapt 40% in the 12 months to March. That’s the biggest increase ever recorded by the insurer, which has been tracking premiums since 1994.
Coming on top of rising fuel prices, this is causing many drivers some real pain.
But there is some good news.
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One in 10 motorists (3.3 million) have been involved in a crash with an uninsured driver, according to new research commissioned by Direct Line and road safety charity Brake.
Of the accidents involving an uninsured driver, 25% of them saw someone injured and 4% of these led to one or more deaths.
Immorality is often added to illegality, with 17% of uninsured drivers leaving the scene of their crash with little concern for the others involved.
Thirty-two percent of those who stayed at the scene lied and claimed they were insured, and 23% tried to avoid getting insurers involved.
Andy Goldby, Director of Motor Underwriting at Direct Line car insurance, explained that uninsured drivers cost other motorists £30 a year through higher premiums but that their real cost is the disregard for other peoples’ lives.
Goldby stated that drivers without insurance are not committing a victimless crime, and called for harsher penalties against them.
In January Road Safety Minister Mike Penning announced measures, due to take effect in a few months, to help tackle uninsured drivers and made it an offence to be the registered keeper of a vehicle which does not have insurance.
If you are tired of paying a high car insurance premium, as if anyone isn’t, it may be time to choose a different type of plan, a pay as you drive car insurance plan. This type of plan can be helpful because it focuses specifically on charging you less, if you drive less.
How it Works
The pay as you drive car insurance plan is different from one provider to the next. However, these plans can be outstanding in terms of what they can offer, if you fit the profile of a driver. Here’s how they work. You install a device in your vehicle. This device does not interfere with your driving ability, but it helps to monitor your driving. It watches how much you drive for example. In addition, it monitors how you drive, specifically in the areas of how you accelerate and how you brake.
How You Benefit
If you are one of the people that will benefit from this plan, you will end up paying less overall. To get that lower cost, you need to know what the plan is looking for. In this type of car insurance plan, the fewer miles you drive, the lower your premium will be. The safer you drive (in terms of braking and accelerating for example) the lower your premium is. Of course, this also helps you to save on gas (since accelerating slower and braking slowly help your vehicle to use less gas.)
Where You Can Get Them
Not all car insurance companies actually offer this type of plan, but those that do are becoming more popular. More people are looking for ways to save on car insurance and this is helping to make pay as you drive plans more in demand by drivers. Some of the larger insurance companies are not offering these plans. How
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