Home Insurance Guide

When you purchase homeowner’s insurance of any variety, one important consideration is the addition of “riders.” Straight vanilla homeowner’s or renter’s insurance will protect your valuables if a covered “named peril” (defined in your agreement) destroys or damages jewelry or artwork with no ceiling limit. However, if your precious possessions are ever stolen, your insurance may cap their own liability, typically at something like $1,000; which can be a big problem. That’s where a “rider” comes in.

A jewelry rider, also called a “personal articles policy,” is what you will need to cover your precious jewelry from theft and is not exceptionally expensive, around $1.50 for $100 of coverage. If you have artwork, fine art riders usually cost $0.25 for $100 of coverage as well and has a double benefit - the value of those items stolen doesn’t count against you when the insurance company calculates the value of the contents stolen in a burglary (because they will cap their replacement at 50-75% of all items stolen). If you have any silverware, the typical cap is $2,500 but you can get coverage for less than $1 per $100.

Finally, if you have a home office, your typical insurance policy will only over $1,000 - if you have more than that, consider purchasing a rider and you can increase that cover to $10,000 for between $75 to $100 a year.