Expatriate Insurance - Expatriate Personal Property Insurance

Expatriate Personal Property Insurance

There are a number of ways to insure property while overseas.

Personal property insurance will provide coverage for all your valuable items. This type of cover is usually attached to a home insurance policy which will provide coverage for all "fixtures and fittings within the home" and "additional items of increased value". With a home insurance policy it is possible to include specific items on a "worldwide all risks" (WWAR) basis which will protect your valuables outside of your home. Insurers will typically require proof of value when insuring WWAR items and the addition of these items will increase the plans premium. In the USA this type of plan is commonly referred to as "renters insurance", although the scope of these policies overseas can have much wider implications.

Home insurance is different from fire insurance which protects the physical structure of the home and all rebuilding costs. Fire insurance policies are normally only obtained in the case that an individual actually owns the property and can be extended to cover "extra" or "allied perils". Extra perils can usually be added to a policy at the expense of an increased premium and can include typhoons/hurricanes/cyclones, flood damage, landslip and subsidence, and what in the USA is referred to as "an act of God". If you are expecting to be overseas for a short period of time it is highly unlikely that you will purchase a fire insurance policy unless otherwise stipulated in your tenancy agreement.

For individuals who are relocating overseas international transport insurance is usually a valuable plan. These plans are extremely broad in their scope and if the items insured are being shipped to their destination then the policy will usually be subject to marine insurance and maritime law. This includes all principals of average, salvage (different from the salvage found in property and auto insurance), and sue and tort. International transport insurance can be complicated as there are many different areas of consideration, typically an insurance company that deals with this area of insurance will have dedicated international transport specialists.

Property insurance claims can be complicated and are usually settled in the following ways:

• Indemnity - The payment of monies to the insured to cover the loss. This is also known as a "Cash payment".
• Repair - Payment to a repairer to fix the damaged item or property.
• Replacement - With new items, property, or items that are likely to suffer very little depreciation, the insurer may choose to simply give the insured a new item that is the same as the one that was lost. This can be beneficial to the insurer, especially if they can obtain a discount from the supplier.
• Restoration - Typically this means the restoration of the item or property to the condition that it was in immediately prior to the loss.
• New For Old - the substitution of a new item that acts the same way as the item that was lost or damaged.

It is important to check the policy schedule and understand in which way claims on a specific policy will be settled. Marine Insurance or marine-related insurance policies have long and complex claims procedures that are best left to experts.