Insurance Claims: Two Potential Strategies to Help You Get What You’re Entitled To
Imagine for a moment that you’re driving home from the airport after one of the most memorable vacations of your life.
The weather is poor, and the “haze” of being on vacation begins to lift.
As you begin to deal with an annoying case of “back to reality blues,” your mind can’t help but begin to plan when you can get back there again.
You turn down your street, pull into your driveway, and enter the garage.
The contrast from being on vacation is always strong, but you begin to have the feeling that something really is different.
It must be your imagination. You’ve been away for a while, and you’re just out of your element right now!
As you enter the house, your jaw hits the ground as it becomes apparent that someone has been in your house while you were away.
In fact, your entire house has been turned upside down.
Then, the reality hits you: “WE’VE BEEN ROBBED!”
You drop your bags and run around looking for what’s missing. It’s hard to tell because you’re so disoriented.
As you do this, you can’t help but notice a funny smell.
After 15 minutes of running around trying to figure out what those criminals took, you open the door to your finished basement.
“Uh-Oh”!
Your beautiful, finished basement has over a foot of water on the floor, and as you trudge around down there, you see what the problem is.
Whoever robbed you thought it would be funny to break a window in your basement, turn on your garden hose, stick the hose through the broken window, and let water run in your basement until you return!!
This is a Nightmare!
After shutting off the water and patching the window, you collect yourself and try to think of what you should do first.
Call your homeowner’s insurance company? Maybe, but let’s stop and think about this for a minute.
Is it in your insurance company’s best interest to pay you the biggest claim settlement they can, or the smallest?
Well, of course, the answer is the smallest.
So, how can you make sure that you’re getting everything you’re entitled to under your homeowner’s insurance policy, and at the same time, clean up your house and get it back to normal?
Strategy #1: Public Insurance Adjuster
One way to potentially improve your odds is to hire a public insurance adjuster.
In addition to helping you maximize the settlement you’re entitled to in a timely manner, a public insurance adjuster relieves you of the paperwork burden by handling everything for you.
In addition to removing that burden, they also raise helpful points that you wouldn’t have thought of, especially in the middle of a crisis.
The analogy is going to court without an attorney to defend your rights. Most people wouldn’t think of doing that.
The same holds true if you suffer a loss to your property. You want to make sure that you receive everything that you’re entitled to after paying insurance premiums your entire life.
A public insurance adjuster can handle your entire claim from start to finish. Their work includes hiring cleaning companies, dealing with contractors, compiling the list of damaged or stolen property and assigning the replacement value, etc., which can help allow you to concentrate on getting your home back in order as quickly as possible.
Strategy #2: Film the Contents of Your Home
Even with the best public insurance adjuster, one of the challenges is you will never receive what you’re entitled to if you can’t recall everything you owned that was destroyed or vandalized.
In other words, after living in a home for more than 30 years, and under the duress of a catastrophe to your home and the trauma of dealing with the loss, the last thing you will want to do is to try to remember every little detail about your home and its contents.
It’s right up there on the list with having your appendix removed without anesthesia!
The chances of you remembering everything in your home, the date you purchased it, and the current value, etc. are slim to none.
Since the amount of your claim that you’re entitled to is dependent on you being able to do this perfectly, what should you do?
Step One
My recommendation for years has always been to film the contents of your home with your iPhone or iPad!
Film the outside of your home from all directions. While you’re doing this, talk into the camera and explain it as you’re filming it, especially anything out of the ordinary.
Then, film the contents of each room and closet in the house talking your way through everything.
Lastly, take a white sheet and spread it out on your dining room table.
On the table, place any valuables such as those scheduled on your homeowner’s insurance policy: jewelry, china, silver, furs, etc. Then, film what you’ve laid out while describing what you’re filming.
Most Important Step
If you filmed your home using an iPhone or like device, make sure to back up the videos in your Cloud account or somewhere other than in your physical home.
If and when you have an insurance claim, you simply retrieve your video and hand a copy to your public insurance adjuster and insurance company. (Keep a copy for yourself.)
There will be no confusion whatsoever as to what you’re entitled to.
Would it be better if you also had receipts for every purchase you’ve made over the years? Yes. That would help tremendously.
However, most people have not saved all of their receipts, so if you fall into that category, don’t sweat it. Just go ahead and film everything right now.
Your insurance company may not be very happy with you, but if you ever have a claim, you’ll be very happy you took this step.
*Please Note: Limitations: The story above is a narrative created for illustrative purposes and is intended to demonstrate the type of situation that could potentially happen in real life and how proper planning, including insurance coverage and preparation, might help mitigate the financial impact.
Jack Phelps
Managing Partner / Financial Advisor