Personal Articles Floater

Items of value - including jewelry, furs, silver, guns, stamps, and coins - that are limited by homeowners policies may be scheduled on a personal articles floater. There are many advantages to scheduling.

Personal articles floaters provide extremely broad coverage, usually, with no deductibles. For the most part, you're agreeing on value prior to loss. Floaters are written on an all-risk basis, which means the policy covers against everything except what's specifically excluded.

This coverage is generally written in addition to your unscheduled property, so it provides extra coverage in the event of a total loss. In many cases, personal articles floaters provide coverage for flood and earthquake damage, whereas the homeowners policy does not.

Under personal articles floaters, territorial limits are extremely broad and usually worldwide. Some floaters also cover newly acquired items even if you haven't had time to notify us of the purchase (provided you already have this type of article scheduled on your policy, a maximum limit applies per item).

Vault coverage is available at considerably reduced rates. If you can't be bothered calling whenever you're removing a piece of jewelry from the vault, it is sometimes possible to have a policy extension that allows you to remove the item for a certain period of time, for instance 72 hours, without notifying the broker or the company.

Some companies provide inflation-guard coverage on scheduled items or allow you the opportunity to increase your schedule by a certain percentage every year or two. However, do not become complacent if you have this type of coverage. You must review your policy regularly to determine if there are any fluctuations in values. MSG Personal Lines Agency recommends that appraisals be updated periodically.