posted 11-30-2006 11:21 AM            

Do members have their collections insured?

Do you insure all or part of your collection?

In my experience, paying for insurance is easy but collecting can be very difficult. Can you share any personal insights about how to make sure one gets a full & prompt insurance payment?

Collections are almost always being improved with items being sold off and new items being added. How to best manage the associated insurance issues?

What other insurance questions/suggestions might we pose to each other? For example: item is stolen. Insurance payment is collected. Many months/years later the item is recovered. Who technically get the item; you or the insurance company? What/who does it benefit if while the item was missing it went up/down significantly in value? Etc. etc.

posted 11-30-2006 01:23 PM            

You should always insure your complete collection, or you must specify each and every item to be covered. Otherwise the insurance company will apply what is termed averaging.If your entire collection is worth 10,000 dollars and you insure for 5,000, then you get 5000 dollars if all is stolen, and 2500 if half is stolen.You are assumed to have been covering the other 50% yourself.
If you have a claim, and are paid out for it, then the items belong to the insurers. Often they will offer to sell it back to you! If "averaging" has been applied to your payment , then you are entitled to the proportion of value that was not paid for by the insurers.
The art is to have a good agent, who fights on your side. But he must be helped. We keep as many receipts as we get (but the best deals are often for cash !) and an up to date base which we send to the insurers each year. They never read or load it onto their computers but in the event of loss you can prove you informed them. Valuation is difficult. I have a large collection of Georgian Silver buckles and a few years ago they asked me for a professional valuation. This would have been expensive and virtually useless as I am probably the only person capable of doing it ( I am also modest as well). I asked if they would accept a valuation by one of the top three London auction houses. I then contacted one (who I know fairly well) and suggested I do the valution, they checked it, and sent out in their name.For a much reduced fee of course. The auction house said no, but wrote theinsurers a letter to say, broadly, " Mr Taylor has we believe the largest active collection in the UK, and in our opinion is in a better position to value it than ourselves. We have no reason to doubt his integrety in a matter of this type" Insurers have not asked again. Sometimes you do get something for your buyers premuim.