Insurance for large system

[Salectric]

Back in 1991 we had a home burglary and my entire system was stolen. Nationwide covered everything under our replacement cost coverage for general personal property. I had receipts for nearly all of the Hifi stuff fortunately (although they simply accepted our word about other items such as jewelry and silver). For items where my model had been replaced with a new model, Nationwide covered the cost of the newer version. For example, my Martin Logan CLS was no longer available. It had been replaced by the CLS II and they covered the full $3500 cost rather than the $2500 I had paid for the CLS. Same with some other things that were still available but where the price had gone up (VPI table, ARC preamp, RM-9 amp). NW also gave me credit for the the then-current price of items where I chose to replace them with something different. However, if I had not purchased a replacement, they would have only paid me the depreciated value of what had been stolen.

All in all, Nationwide was a dream to work with and I stuck with them for many years afterwards, even as the premium cost inched up each year, until I found out I could get the same bundled coverage (house, car, umbrella) for 1/2 the cost elsewhere. Loyalty only goes so far.

When I moved to a new area last year, I re-evaluated all of our insurance coverage and asked the agent specific questions about the Hifi. This time (different agent, different company) I am not so confident how things would be handled in the event of another burglary. In theory the replacement cost coverage would operate the same way as I experienced with Nationwide. The agent recommended I take photos and keep receipts which is good advice regardless. However my situation today is quite different than it was in 1991. Today I have speakers with vintage drivers and horns in custom cabinets which would be very difficult to replace. Even more troublesome is that all of my electronics these days is custom one-of-kind stuff and I made much of it myself. The agent didn’t have satisfactory answers about how a claim for those items would be handled. I just hope I never have to find out.

I also asked the agent about coverage for my LP records if they were destroyed in a fire. Again she said to maintain an inventory of all my records and kerp purchase receipts. That’s not going to happen! Not with some 3500 records with the first ones purchased over 50 years ago. Again, I hope I never have to file such a claim.

 

[Steve Williams]

Same here and they have been straightforward to deal with. Detailed records history with regularly updated pictures is encouraged.

I have the contents of my entire house on video stored in a drive kept in my safe deposit box at the bank

 

[Steve Williams]

Read last year’s State Farm financial report and you may be unsure about their stability going forward.

I had a major problem getting them to honor the letter of the policy last year. The hierarchy of adjusters were focused on repairing the storm damage even though original materials were not available and it would have been a cosmetic mismatch. Fortunately my team had the horsepower to force the issue and I got full replacement with proper materials.

Regarding expensive collections, read your fine print. Often a fully scheduled rider or supplemental policy is a good idea. I used to cover my guitar collection with an all risks policy from a musical instrument insurance specialist.

I’ve never once had a problem with State Farm.

 

[microstrip]

Back in 1991 we had a home burglary and my entire system was stolen. Nationwide covered everything under our replacement cost coverage for general personal property. I had receipts for nearly all of the Hifi stuff fortunately (although they simply accepted our word about other items such as jewelry and silver). For items where my model had been replaced with a new model, Nationwide covered the cost of the newer version. For example, my Martin Logan CLS was no longer available. It had been replaced by the CLS II and they covered the full $3500 cost rather than the $2500 I had paid for the CLS. Same with some other things that were still available but where the price had gone up (VPI table, ARC preamp, RM-9 amp). NW also gave me credit for the the then-current price of items where I chose to replace them with something different. However, if I had not purchased a replacement, they would have only paid me the depreciated value of what had been stolen.

All in all, Nationwide was a dream to work with and I stuck with them for many years afterwards, even as the premium cost inched up each year, until I found out I could get the same bundled coverage (house, car, umbrella) for 1/2 the cost elsewhere. Loyalty only goes so far.

When I moved to a new area last year, I re-evaluated all of our insurance coverage and asked the agent specific questions about the Hifi. This time (different agent, different company) I am not so confident how things would be handled in the event of another burglary. In theory the replacement cost coverage would operate the same way as I experienced with Nationwide. The agent recommended I take photos and keep receipts which is good advice regardless. However my situation today is quite different than it was in 1991. Today I have speakers with vintage drivers and horns in custom cabinets which would be very difficult to replace. Even more troublesome is that all of my electronics these days is custom one-of-kind stuff and I made much of it myself. The agent didn’t have satisfactory answers about how a claim for those items would be handled. I just hope I never have to find out.

I also asked the agent about coverage for my LP records if they were destroyed in a fire. Again she said to maintain an inventory of all my records and kerp purchase receipts. That’s not going to happen! Not with some 3500 records with the first ones purchased over 50 years ago. Again, I hope I never have to file such a claim.

I have found that companies accept insuring anything in the conditions we want, but the premium costs can be very high when insuring special and valuable objects, even in bundle insurances.

The critical question is how much should we expect to pay for each insured dollar per year.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, Hugh for starting this thread!

Hugh asked me this question, and I have such a big problem with primary residence insurance costs in California* that I was negligent in focusing on coverage specifically for the stereo and media.

I asked my insurance broker about the coverage, and presently our coverage for the stereo equipment and media is negligible. So I requested a quote for specific coverage.

*As a public service I will make you all feel better about your insurance premium for your primary residence. Due to California government insurance regulations I believe that every high-end home insurer except one has left the state entirely or is declining to write new policies in my area. Effectively there is only one insurer left writing policies in my area. My insurance premium for basic coverage which does not even fully insure the replacement cost of our 5,000 square foot house with very little flat land is $85,000.

 

[ScottK]

I'll be checking tomorrow. I do know coverage varies from state to state even within the same insurance company.

 

[Gregadd]

Gas Prices Are Down, but New State Gas Taxes Aren't Helping - CNET

Read last year’s State Farm financial report and you may be unsure about their stability going forward.

I had a major problem getting them to honor the letter of the policy last year. The hierarchy of adjusters were focused on repairing the storm damage even though original materials were not available and it would have been a cosmetic mismatch. Fortunately my team had the horsepower to force the issue and I got full replacement with proper materials.

Regarding expensive collections, read your fine print. Often a fully scheduled rider or supplemental policy is a good idea. I used to cover my guitar collection with an all risks policy from a musical instrument insurance specialist.

It's basically a contract. You don't want to be left to the goodwill of your sales agent who often has nothing to with settling your claim.

 

[Steve Williams]

Thank you, Hugh for starting this thread!

Hugh asked me this question, and I have such a big problem with primary residence insurance costs in California* that I was negligent in focusing on coverage specifically for the stereo and media.

I asked my insurance broker about the coverage, and presently our coverage for the stereo equipment and media is negligible. So I requested a quote for specific coverage.

*As a public service I will make you all feel better about your insurance premium for your primary residence. Due to California government insurance regulations I believe that every high-end home insurer except one has left the state entirely or is declining to write new policies in my area. Effectively there is only one insurer left writing policies in my area. My insurance premium for basic coverage which does not even fully insure the replacement cost of our 5,000 square foot house with very little flat land is $85,000.

But Ron your premium is high due to past history of repairs. I live in a guarded gate community on a golf course. Every company in the state has stopped writing fire insurance and most Al have left the state. So this is a delicate issue for me

 

[Steve Williams]

But Ron your premium is high due to past history of repairs. I live in a guarded gate community on a golf course. Every company in the state has stopped writing fire insurance and most Al have left the state. So this is a delicate issue for me

My total hone coverage all in is $6K per year

 

[Another Johnson]

I’ve never once had a problem with State Farm.

I would reiterate the advice to read last year’s financial report. I’d never had trouble before either.
State Farm has completely revised their business and work model. They’ve closed many service centers. The barely supervised are working from home and they are often assigned activities on behalf of customers far from their base (TX to TN was my experience).
You can’t keep losing money and stay in business, so things are changing.
Isn’t it the usual case that customers have no problems … until they do? Then many become ex customers. YMMV.

 

[Another Johnson]

Gas Prices Are Down, but New State Gas Taxes Aren't Helping - CNET

It's basically a contract. You don't want to be left to the goodwill of your sales agent who often has nothing to with settling your claim.

The agent is never involved in adjusting unless in the role of cheerleader on behalf of the customer.

 

[Ron Resnick]

But Ron your premium is high due to past history of repairs.

Steve, no; I do not know why you are assuming that. The repairs have nothing to do with my insurance premium. I have never filed an insurance claim on this house. The repairs have nothing to do with insured losses.

The premium is due to the fact that my entire area -- called Beverly Crest -- is considered by insurance companies to be in a brushfire zone.

Painting the entire area from Malibu to Hollywood with the same brushfire zone designation paint brush I think is because insurance companies just don't want to deal with California insurance regulations. My circumstantial evidence for this is that there has not been a brushfire in Beverly Crest since 1990. At that time there was a brushfire covering half of one acre, and exactly one house was damaged. So I think the brushfire concern for Beverly Crest is a red herring. (Malibu is different, as that is a genuine brushfire zone. Also the towns between the ocean to the 405 highway are genuinely more vulnerable to fire. But East of the 405 highway the fire risk drops precipitously.)

 

[Steve Williams]

Steve, no; I do not know why you are assuming that. The repairs have nothing to do with my insurance premium. I have never filed an insurance claim on this house. The repairs have nothing to do with insured losses.

The premium is due to the fact that my entire area -- called Beverly Crest -- is considered by insurance companies to be in a brushfire zone.

Painting the entire area from Malibu to Hollywood with the same brushfire zone designation paint brush I think is because insurance companies just don't want to deal with California insurance regulations. My circumstantial evidence for this is that there has not been a brushfire in Beverly Crest since 1990. At that time there was a brushfire covering half of one acre, and exactly one house was damaged. So I think the brushfire concern for Beverly Crest is a red herring. (Malibu is different, as that is a genuine brushfire zone. Also the towns between the ocean to the 405 highway are genuinely more vulnerable to fire. But East of the 405 highway the fire risk drops precipitously.)

Same with us Ron. We too are considered high risk for fire. Insurance companies have stopped writing policies in our area. My neighbor 2 doors away was canceled for no reason other than time to renew

 

[Ron Resnick]

Same with us Ron. We too are considered high risk for fire. Insurance companies have stopped writing policies in our area. My neighbor 2 doors away was canceled for no reason other than time to renew

Chubb declined to renew the insurance on the high-end home of a lady who is a manager at the Chubb insurance broker I work with.

 

[Steve Williams]

Chubb declined to renew the insurance on the high-end home of a lady who is a manager at the Chubb insurance broker I work with.

I thought Chubb will cover anyone for anything but premiums in the ozone layer

 

[Steve Williams]

For me the caveat is not who your carrier is but to have a videotape of the entire system from every angle and then the video should contain a narrative of every component with the camera on that component. Don’t forget cables, switches routers, footers, tubes etc followed by the video capturing any and all receipts. This video should not be stored on premises. I keep mine in my bank safe box. If your library of tapes, records etc was gone or destroyed. Same thing should be in that video

 

[Famester]

I have AAA (Auto Club of Florida, so far they have been excellent) and they said I would be covered under replacement cost portion of my policy or I can ger a rider, via Lloyds of London.
I thought USAA wasn't writing any policies in Florida?

 

[Famester]

For me the caveat is not who your carrier is but to have a videotape of the entire system from every angle and then the video should contain a narrative of every component with the camera on that component. Don’t forget cables, switches routers, footers, tubes etc followed by the video capturing any and all receipts. This video should not be stored on premises. I keep mine in my bank safe box. If your library of tapes, records etc was gone or destroyed. Same thing should be in that video

Including serial numbers and model numbers

 

[Audire]

I have AAA (Auto Club of Florida, so far they have been excellent) and they said I would be covered under replacement cost portion of my policy or I can ger a rider, via Lloyds of London.
I thought USAA wasn't writing any policies in Florida?

USAA began writing policy’s in FL a few years back. They won’t underwrite all of them, but newer homes right now aren’t a problem.

 

[Famester]

We have USAA insurance (i.e. officer in military) that covers our entire system at “new” replacement value ($500,000). It’s at a reasonable rate. Home and cars combined less than $2900 per year. However, I’ve been a member since 1977 so our rates are low… Qualification is based on different criteria. See if you qualify:

https://www.noblr.com/usaa-membership/[/

http://

USAA began writing policy’s in FL a few years back. They won’t underwrite all of them, but newer homes right now aren’t a problem.

We are USAA members and several times they told me to go pound sand when it came to quoting a homeowner's insurance policy.
But AAA has been great, only one claim after Hurricane Ivan in Ft. Lauderdale, they covered every repair.