What is High-Value Home Insurance?

When looking into home insurance, you naturally want to explore all your options. Knowing whether you should take out a standard home insurance policy or a high-value one is beneficial. 

One thing to note is that high-value and traditional home insurance policies aren’t the same; they are actually quite different.

Here’s what you get when you take out a high-value home insurance policy:

Better Customer Service

One feature of high-value policies is you get access to dedicated customer service. Traditional home insurance, you often hear that customer service is uneven—sometimes you get a great advisor, other times you’re left wanting for one—while high-value home insurance comes with gold-star service.

When you take out a policy, your insurer will match you with a personal representative who does the legwork on your behalf, like filing claims, scheduling appraisals, or hiring a contractor to complete repairs. 

Higher Coverage Limits

With a higher-value home comes the need for greater coverage limits. Fortunately, a high-value home insurance policy will give you more dynamic coverage for your home and personal property. Typically these plans will cover the replacement cost value, not the depreciated value, as with most standard home insurance plans. There is also the possibility of raising your valuable coverage limits with additional living expenses coverage.

Keep in mind that high-value policies protect against open peril, meaning home insurance covers anything not listed as an exclusion.  

Some features associated with high-value coverage limits that your policy may offer you are:

• Guaranteed replacement cost in a total loss, even if the cost to rebuild is more than your policy limits.
• Guaranteed replacement costs in a total loss for your belongings, not their actual cash value.
• Offers all-risk coverage against all perils except those listed as exclusions to your home, property, and personal belongings.
• Increased coverage limits on scheduled items or blanket personal property like valuables or collectibles.
• Increased additional living expenses or temporary housing for homeowners with homes that sustained damage from a covered peril and have to move elsewhere during repairs.
• Increased limits for debris removal and landscaping to cover tree removal or debris clean up after a wind storm or natural disaster.
• Increased personal liability coverage and umbrella insurance to cover your assets.

Additional Coverage Options

Another key difference between high-value and traditional home insurance is what comes standard with your policy. High-value plans typically come with landscaping, identity theft, water backup, and business property coverage as standard. In contrast, traditional home insurance policies offer these features as optional add-ons you must pay extra for.

These are some additional home insurance coverages that may come standard with your high-value policy:

• Increased flood limits for your home and personal belongings.
• Water backup coverage for your sump pump, sewer, or drains.
• Identity theft recovery services like paying legal fees against the perpetrator that stole your identity or connecting the homeowner with a consumer fraud specialist.
• Increased liability coverage against personal injury, slander, false arrest, wrongful eviction, or libel.
• Extortionist coverage (ransom, kidnap, or extortion) and crisis management services for you and your family.
• Ordinance, if your home is damaged after a covered peril, this coverage will ensure your home is up to code.
• Business property coverage for your stolen or damaged business goods, like your laptop.
• Increased protection to secondary properties, including a vacation home, even if it’s located out of the country.

Policy Perks

The final benefit associated with high-value home insurance is the additional perks. Policy perks are dependent on the provider. Some of the policy perks that may come with your high-value account are:

• Complimentary house appraisal or evaluation to ensure you have sufficient coverage.
• Risk or loss reduction consultation for your property to help safeguard your home from known perils.
• Deductible waivers for named losses are frequently waived for anything over $50,000.
• Cash-out settlement option, rather than rebuilding, if your house is a total loss.
• Increased wildfire protection for homeowners living in a high-risk wildfire zone, like getting private firefighters to protect their property during a fire.
• Increased hurricane protection services for homeowners living in hurricane zones, like storm monitoring updates, quick claim processing time, and immediate access to qualifying restoration companies.
• Architectural legacy services include risk assessments and a historic home report detailing your home’s history.