Homeowners commonly assume that “all insurance is the same”; extensive advertising encourages price comparison with little attention being paid to coverage, and the cheapest price usually wins.
However, Insurance is no different to many other products and services in life where cheapest is not always best. Furthermore, in the insurance world buying cheaply can very often mean sacrificing thousands of Euros in the event of a claim or even having the claim turned down outright.
Off the shelf, mass market insurance is fine for standard homes, but if you have a little more to protect, then a standard policy is unlikely to provide you with the cover you require or indeed expect.
Therefore, if you are fortunate enough to own a high value home, you should really consider discussing your insurance requirements with a specialist high net worth Insurance Broker. He or she will be trained and qualified to effectively spend the hours, days and weeks doing the comparing the fine print of policies and have the experience of how the companies actually perform when a claim is made. Having discussed your personal requirements, the specialist Broker will then “go to market” and identify within the niche private client market the policy that best meets your requirements.
Technically, what are the differences between a high net worth (HNW) insurance policy and standard homeowner policy?
The HNW insurer will normally organise a complementary risk inspection within 30 days of inception enabling them to fully understand the risk, advise on sums insured, risk management, home security, etc. This means that, should a claim occur, the Insurer was fully aware of what the risk was and cannot wriggle out of a claim by denying knowledge of where or what the risk was.
The HNW insurer will offer all risks worldwide cover for your contents and personal possessions as opposed to the off the shelf Insurer who will only cover your contents within the home and with very restricted coverage outside.
The HNW insurer will offer worldwide all risks cover for jewellery.
The HNW offers specialist all risks cover for art, including death of the artist, defective title, artistic depreciation, etc…
HNW insurance has no average clause whereas the standard off the shelf policy tends to penalise the Insured for underinsurance.
Having inspected the property and signed off on the sums insured, the specialist Insurer will normally offer extended reconstruction cost – which means that in the event of a total loss, the Insurer will pay to have the home reconstructed even if the cost exceeds the sum insured for buildings.
The high net worth policy will contain much broader cover and much higher limits – for example, up to € 7.500 in cash, golf hole in one cover, loss of metered water/oil, etc.
In the event of a claim, the high net worth Insurer will use expert loss adjusters who are used to dealing with high values and the dynamic lifestyles of the Owners.
And above all, when it comes to making a claim experience shows that many of the claims paid under specialised policies would not have been covered by a standard
Insurance policy. Note I think they have built up and here’s the heater on the is ridiculous its 15° as good as no I had the windows open big windows of
Perhaps one of the key differences is the common sense approach that the specialist Insurer and Broker bring to the transaction, as opposed to the standard ‘one size fits all’ approach of the mass market Insurer. This is particularly apparent when trying to arrange insurance for something unusual – a painting of considerable value or a particularly expensive piece of jewellery or indeed when dealing with a claim. In these circumstances, the specialist Insurer has one point of contact who is empowered to make decisions and whose desire is to accommodate the client even if that means a more ‘flexible’ interpretation of the rules.
Finally, we could not finish this article without a word about service. All of the highlighted benefits would count for nothing if they were not backed up by an impeccable service. This is precisely what the specialist Insurer and Broker strive to provide, which in turn creates the feeling in the client that they are dealing with someone who actually does care about them.
As you can see, a specialist high value household policy really does offer considerably more than a standard policy, and contrary to what many people think, it does not necessarily cost any more – in fact on homes with values in excess of € 2.000.000 and € 300.000 for buildings and contents respectively, the cost of a specialist policy may be less than an ‘off the shelf’ product.
Therefore, if you have a high value home and you would like to see how a specialist high net worth homeowners policy could work for you, then contact Danni Worth on 95 288 2273 or danni@opdebeeck-worth.com. You and your exceptional house deserve exceptional care.
A Guest Blog by Op de Beeck & Worth Insurance Brokers.
Danni Worth is Founder and Director of Op de Beeck & Worth Insurance Brokers, who are Spain’s leading private client Broker. Specialist in Expat community. Expert in High Net Worth Home Insurance. 30 years of professional experience. Member of ADECOSE (Asociación Española de Corredores de Seguro).
danni@opdebeeck-worth.com
www.opdebeeck-worth.com
