What Is a Home Insurance Endorsement?
Owning a home can be expensive, especially when things go wrong. Having a good insurance policy can help when the unexpected happens. And adding additional protection like a Home Insurance Endorsement can help even more. This optional coverage can be added to your
homeowners insurance policy and can extend or reduce the coverage of your policy. This add-on will help you address any limits or areas that may have left your home vulnerable.
Your homeowners insurance policy includes standard coverages to help protect your home, your belongings and the structures that are both attached and detached from your house. To get your desired level of protection, you can add an endorsement to extend coverage.
Is a Home Insurance Endorsement the Same as Personal Property Coverage?
The Personal Property Coverage included in your homeowners insurance policy helps protect your possessions, but it may include a policy cap. This means if one of your personal items is stolen or damaged in a covered event, you’ll be covered up to the maximum amount outlined in your policy – even if the value of the item is worth more than the cap.
To help cover this gap and protect your possessions, you can add an endorsement or scheduled personal property coverage to your homeowners insurance policy.
Scheduled personal property coverage can help protect your items in a covered loss. For instance, if:
- Your diamond ring is stolen. Your homeowners insurance policy limit is $1,500 for jewelry, but the ring is worth $4,000. An endorsement could help with giving you the right coverage.
- You’re on vacation taking pictures and lose your grip on your expensive camera, watching it fall straight into the ocean. If you endorsed your camera, you may have coverage to replace it.
Most Common Scheduled Items Covered by Home Insurance Endorsements
Here are some common items that would benefit from certain homeowners insurance endorsements:
- Jewelry: This includes valuable jewelry, such as wedding or engagement rings, gems, watches and necklaces. If the value of the item is worth more than $10,000, you may need to receive a professional appraisal.
- Fine Art: Depending on the piece, the value of fine art can be much more than the policy limit. As with valuable jewelry, you may need an appraisal to find out how much your art is worth.
- Antiques: Whether it’s a vintage tea set or a pocket watch from the 20th century, consider getting a professional appraisal to determine the value of your antiques. When you know how much they’re worth, scheduling your antiques can help protect them.
- Coin or stamp collections: Have your collection professionally appraised to find its value. This could help you determine how much coverage you’ll need when adding an endorsement to your policy.
- Musical instruments: If your musical instruments are meant for personal use and not business use, an endorsement on your homeowners insurance policy could extend coverage to protect them.
- Furs: Clothes that are made with fur can be protected by a scheduled personal property endorsement.
- Expensive cameras: If you’re not using your cameras for business, adding an endorsement can help protect your equipment in a covered loss.
- Electronics and office equipment: Electronics and office equipment not used for business can be protected by an endorsement added to your homeowners insurance policy.
- Firearms: If you don’t remember the value of your firearms, consider getting a professional appraisal.
How to Add a Home Insurance Endorsement
If you’re adding an endorsement to your homeowners insurance policy to help protect your personal property, you’ll need to know the value of the item. If the item is under $10,000, a receipt can be used. If it’s over $10,000 or you don’t know the value, consider working with a professional appraiser.
When you receive the appraisal, you can speak with one of our specialists about adding a scheduled personal property endorsement to your homeowners insurance policy. If you already have an existing homeowners insurance policy with The Hartford, call us at
800-624-5578 or
find a local agent in your area to discuss adding a homeowners insurance endorsement.
If you’re looking into getting a homeowners insurance policy with The Hartford, get an
online quote fast and easy. We’ll ask you questions about adding additional coverage to your policy for your personal property.
Benefits of Adding a Home Insurance Endorsement
Your standard homeowners insurance policy typically only provides personal property coverage up to a certain amount and for certain types of losses, such as theft. When you add a Home Insurance endorsement, you’re extending the coverage and increasing policy limits for your personal property.
Plus, adding a Home Insurance Endorsement means you could have a lower deductible, or even no deductible.
What Is the Cost of Adding an Insurance Endorsement
The cost of adding an insurance endorsement depends on different factors. The higher value something is, the more it can cost to add an insurance endorsement.
For example, adding an endorsement for a $15,000 ring will likely cost more than a stamp collection that is worth $8,000. In some cases, a certain type of item may cost more than another, even if they both were appraised at the same amount. For example, a diamond necklace could cost more than a coin collection.
Consider getting your personal items appraised by a professional. After knowing how much your items are worth, call our specialists at
800-624-5578 to determine how much it will cost to add an endorsement to your home insurance policy.
