Insuring Collections
Looking after one’s collection is top of most collector’s priorities, but, however careful you are, accidents can happen, and so insurance provides an important layer to anyone's good risk management programme.
Collections are emotive things: some have great financial value – others are of historical or personal interest but modest commercial worth. Many have taken years to assemble but, if disaster strikes, can be wrecked in a moment. Whilst thefts are headline grabbing, they account for less than 5% of incidents faced by specialist insurers. Fires are catastrophic when they do occur, but are also, thankfully, rare. The most common source of losses or damage are escapes of water, accidental damage or accidental loss, quite often simple cases of clumsiness.
Insurance provides peace-of-mind and financial compensation for unforeseen risks, but good insurance provides you with options following loses which might otherwise have disastrous consequences.
Like the policy from Insure My Stuff, an insurance policy intended to protect a collection must operate on an All Risks basis. Below are some other things to consider when purchasing insurance:
Make sure that your policy recognises the additional value of Pairs and Sets and will pay a claim for the total value of a set and not just the damaged or lost item within the set.
Ensure that cover includes both Restoration and Depreciation and will both pay for an item to be restored as well as making up the difference for any loss in value to the items because it has been restored.
Insure My Stuff policies offer worldwide insurance, so check whether there are any Geographical restrictions for items in transit or whether cover is limited only to a single location.
Because your items are personally valuable to you, make sure that you can maintain your Rights of Title so that, in the event that insurers have paid for a stolen item that is later recovered, you have an option to have the item returned to you by the Insurers for the amount paid for the claim.
Finally check the policy for exclusions, the best policies provide cover for everything other than those things which are specifically and clearly excluded in the policy wording – usually the excess, terrorism, wear & tear, moth/vermin damage etc.