High-Value Home Insurance in New Hampshire
What is High-Value Home Insurance?
High-value home insurance is specialized homeowners insurance for often customized or multi-million dollar homes that need higher coverage limits and broader underwriting appetites than the standard home insurer can provide.
Who in New Hampshire Should Have High-Value Homeowners Insurance?
New Hampshire homeowners with dwellings of more than $1 million in building coverage should consider high-value home insurance. This is because many insurance companies are not used to dealing with expensive or customized homes, so should a loss occur, you may not receive the settlement you expect.
Many carriers also have maximum coverage limits that they are allowed to write. If your home is near or just over $1 million, you will eventually have to switch carriers, with inflation pushing that limit over the carrier's maximum capacity.
As insurance agents, we understand the market players and attempt to match clients with coverage and pricing that best suits their needs.
How Do I Determine How Much Coverage I Need for My Expensive Home?
One of the most common questions we get at HPM Insurance concerns how much coverage someone should have on their home. This is a tricky question because some people think they should insure their home for its assessed value, while others think it should be for what they paid or its current market value.
At HPM Insurance, we work with you to help determine the amount of coverage you should have on your home based on what it would cost to rebuild it today. If your home is highly customized, we can have an insurance company do an on-site inspection.
What Coverages are Available Through High-Value Homeowners Insurance?
High-value homeowners insurance often comes with the typical home insurance coverage offered by many standard companies but with just higher limits available, such as:
Dwelling Coverage, which usually covers the primary house on an insured property
Other Structures Coverage, which usually covers secondary structures on the property
Personal Property Coverage, which usually covers personal belongings
Personal Liability Coverage, which usually covers certain lawsuits a policyholder could face
"Other structures" coverage illustrates how a high-value homeowners policy might enhance the basic homeowner's policy. Standard homeowners policies may typically cover a detached garage or storage shed at 10% of the dwelling coverage. High-value policies may be customized to cover larger detached structures such as a garage, guesthouse, boathouse, pool house, barn, and more.
Likewise, Personal property coverage might be enhanced with higher limits, especially for expensive belongings with item-specific limits, such as cash and jewelry.
Some less common coverages that high-value policies frequently make available are:
- Coverage for Rebuilding to Code, which usually covers increased rebuilding costs to meet current codes
- Living Expenses Coverage, which usually covers room and board costs following a disaster
- Electronic Data Coverage, which usually covers both computer hardware and data stored on local computers
- Kidnap and Ransom Coverage, which usually covers expenses arising from forcible capture
- Multi-million Umbrella Coverage
- Itemized Jewelry Schedules
- Fine arts/antique coverage
- Antique or customized vehicles
Do High-Value Homeowners Policies Cover Earthquakes and Floods?
Even though they offer many additional coverages, high-value homeowners policies frequently don't protect against earthquakes and/or floods.
Earthquake coverage can often be added to a high-value home policy, while flood protection is often obtained through a separate policy.
How Much Does High-Value Homeowners Insurance Cost?
Premiums for high-value homeowners policies tend to be more than those of standard home insurance policies, but they aren't necessarily much higher. Many homeowners are surprised at the price versus the coverage difference.
The independent insurance agents of HPM can compare customized high-value homeowners insurance policies from multiple insurance companies, thus making it easy to find a policy that provides the protection your home and lifestyle need.
Benefits of a NH High-Value Home Policy -
Most insurance policies are written to give the average homeowner the coverage they would need should a loss occur. Would you consider your home average? If not, you should consider a high-value home policy offered through HPM.
