Insuring your collection

[cmcclelland]

I had a large claim with collect insure about 4 years ago as a result of a fire at my home. It's a long story, but they denied my claim because of an exception clause in the policy related to "dealer stock." Essentially, if you don't have their "Dealer Policy" and you sell items on ebay or elsewhere, this clause could come into play. My policy with them had been in place for over 10 years, and my ebay selling had evolved over time, but I never considered myself a "dealer." In addition, the "dealer stock" clause specifically states that the exception does not apply if you are selling doubles or excess stock. Also, NONE of the items I was claiming as damaged were the items I had listed on ebay.

Nevertheless, they said my claim was not covered. Fortunately, my homeowners insurer, Chubb, covered my collectibles loss in full (side note - Chubb is amazing and worth the extra premium - I highly recommend them). As a result, I never had to completely go to the mat with collect insure over the claim, which I would have done if Chubb had not bailed them out. I now have a "Dealer Policy" with collect insure in an abundance of caution, which costs twice as much.

It is also important to understand that collect insure is simply the broker for the insurance policy. They are not the actual insurance carrier. Early on, I remember that the insurance carrier they used was Hartford. At some point that must have changed (maybe more than once) because the insurance carrier at the time of my claim was an obscure insurance company I had never heard of, but I was not paying attention. It is also important to understand that the insurance policy can change each year when you renew, and will most certainly change if they use a new carrier. I don't have my original policy from many years ago when I started using collect insure, but I think it is very likely that it did not include the "dealer stock" clause. The bottom line is that collect insure is a broker and their allegiance is to the insurance carrier, not to you. They want the claims experience for this book of business to be as low as possible. They won't fight you on a small claim when a card gets lost in the mail, but when you are dealing with a large claim, I would expect a fight. They will do anything they can to try to avoid paying these large claims.

I've been meaning to research and find a better option, but haven't gotten around to it. If anyone has positive claims experience for a large loss like this with another carrier for collectibles, I would love to know about it.