Valuables and collections insurance, explained.
Valuables and collections insurance covers the high-value items a standard home or renters policy barely touches: jewelry, art, wine, watches, and the like. It goes by several names — scheduled personal property, a personal articles floater, or simply a rider. Whatever it's called, the job is the same.
A standard homeowners policy typically limits jewelry theft to around $1,500 total, and applies similar caps to furs, silver, and collectibles. Valuables coverage replaces that cap with the item's real value, on broader terms, often anywhere in the world.
~$1,500
Typical jewelry theft sub-limit on a standard homeowners policy.
Agreed value
Scheduled items settle at the value you set, not depreciated.
Worldwide
Coverage follows the item — travel, loan, and transit included.
1–2%
Approximate yearly premium as a share of the item's value.
What It Is
Coverage for the items your policy barely touches.
Standard home and renters policies do cover your belongings, but they treat valuables as a special case. Categories like jewelry, furs, silver, and firearms carry their own low sub-limits, are usually covered only for named perils, and pay actual cash value — the depreciated figure — rather than what replacement costs.
Valuables coverage removes those constraints for the items you put on it. It is written either as a floater attached to your policy or as a standalone policy, and it covers scheduled items on an open-perils, agreed-value basis. That means broader causes of loss, a settlement set in advance, and coverage that follows the item rather than staying inside your home.
What sets valuables coverage apart.
Open perils, not named
Broader causes of loss, including mysterious disappearance — the simply lost ring a standard policy excludes.
Agreed value
A settlement set in advance, in writing, instead of the depreciated cash value a standard policy pays.
Coverage that travels
Protection that follows the item rather than staying inside your home — worldwide, on loan, and in transit.
Who It's For
You don't have to be wealthy to need it.
Two situations call for valuables coverage. The first is a single item worth more than your policy's sub-limit. The second is a collection that has outgrown standard coverage entirely.
Single item
One piece over your sub-limit
An engagement ring is the classic example. A $12,000 ring against a $1,500 cap is underinsured by more than $10,000 the day you bring it home.
Collection
A serious collection
Art, wine, watches, or jewelry held in numbers and values a homeowners policy was never built to carry.
What It Covers
Each category, lifted off its sub-limit.
Most categories of valuable property sit under a sub-limit on a standard policy. Valuables coverage lifts each one to the item's real value, on broader terms.
Jewelry & engagement rings
Typical standard limit
~$1,500 for theft
With valuables coverage
Each piece scheduled at agreed value, worldwide, including loss.
Fine art & antiques
Typical standard limit
Named perils, no breakage
With valuables coverage
Open perils including breakage, agreed value, loan and transit.
Wine
Typical standard limit
Spoilage usually excluded
With valuables coverage
Spoilage, breakage, and full collection value.
Watches
Typical standard limit
~$1,500 for theft
With valuables coverage
Scheduled at agreed value, covered while traveling.
Other categories work the same way, including furs, silver and flatware, firearms, musical instruments, handbags, and coins or stamps. If it is worth more than your policy's cap, it can usually be scheduled.
Scheduled
Listed individually, agreed value.
Each item is listed with a set value, usually backed by an appraisal for higher-value pieces. It gives the broadest protection and an agreed-value settlement, and it suits a ring, a painting, or a watch.
Blanket
A category, covered as a pool.
Blanket coverage insures a category up to a per-item and total cap, without listing each piece. It suits collections that change often or hold many smaller items. Most households use a mix of both.
The Carriers
Specialty carriers for high-value items.
You can add valuables coverage as a floater through your existing home insurer, or write it as a standalone policy. For high-value or unusual items, the specialty carriers that handle high-net-worth households offer the broadest terms and the strongest claims handling — all reached through an independent agency.
Carrier
Chubb
The long-standing standard for jewelry, fine art, and collections, with deep specialty-claims expertise.
Carrier
PURE
A member-owned exchange with strong collections expertise and worldwide scheduled coverage.
Carrier
AIG / Private Client Select
Built for unusual or international collections — art on loan, wine cellars, and complex inventories.
What It Costs
Small next to what it protects.
As a rule of thumb, scheduling runs on the order of 1 to 2 percent of an item's value per year, and often far less for categories like fine art.
Rates vary with the item type, where you live, how the item is stored or secured, and whether you carry a deductible. The premium to schedule a ring is small next to the cost of replacing it.
How To Buy It
Through an independent agent.
Add it as a floater through your home insurer, or write it as a standalone policy. For high-value or unusual items, the high-net-worth carriers — Chubb, PURE, and AIG / Private Client Select — offer the broadest terms and the strongest claims handling.
All of them are reached through an independent agency, which can place the coverage and coordinate it with the rest of your insurance.
FAQ
Common questions.
The questions we hear most often about valuables and collections coverage: what's covered, how scheduling works, and where to buy it.
Talk to an advisor →Guides
Read deeper on valuables coverage.
How much does it cost to insure your valuables?
A quick calculator that estimates where your collection sits against standard sub-limits.
How jewelry insurance works
Sub-limits, scheduling, and why an engagement ring needs its own coverage from day one.
Scheduled vs. blanket coverage
When to list each item individually and when a category-level pool is the better fit.
Appraisal vs. agreed value
How the figure on your policy gets set, and why it matters at a claim.
Fine art insurance
Open-perils coverage, agreed value, breakage, and protection in transit and on loan.
Wine insurance
Spoilage, breakage, and cellar failures a homeowners policy was never built to cover.
Watch insurance
Worldwide, agreed-value coverage for the timepieces a standard policy caps at $1,500.
Ready When You Are
Cover what your policy overlooks.
A licensed Bulwark advisor will review your jewelry, art, and collections, tell you what's underinsured today, and schedule it on the right terms. Most reviews come back in about a day.