There has been a noticeable uptick in enquiries that Anthony Jones Insurance Brokers are seeing when it comes to providing insurance for individuals with high value homes. This includes significant home contents, jewellery and watches, antiques and paintings and an increasing array of collections of such things as wine, trainers and memorabilia.
Interestingly, we are also noticing enquiries from children of wealthy parents who are inheriting possessions or having them passed down to them and therefore requiring insurance protection.
The market remains competitive but highly selective. Underwriters are taking more time to understand who is asking, where the property is and previous claims history. By way of example, watch theft and watch losses have been the subject of real focus. When headlines regularly report issues, you can understand the problem. Recently, The Watch Register, a database that tracks stolen timepieces, shared a release stating that “over £1 billion of watches” have been reported stolen to its database, totalling almost 80,000 watches.
Insurers Have Issues Making Money
Consultant EY reported that EY has previously predicted home insurance was set for its “biggest loss in over a decade” in 2023 and 2024. The consultancy firm now says premiums are set to rise 17% this year, at an average of £43 per policy, and a further 16% in 2024. This represents a 36-percent point increase over just two years. EY found that insurers recorded a loss-making net combined ratio of 122% in 2022, driven by erratic weather and high inflation. This is the worst period of trading since EY began collecting data 30 years ago.
What To Do?
We can help many customers. Often we can help by aligning household and personal possession covers with car insurance. This has been very prevalent with high value prestige cars, specifically with Range Rovers and Land Rovers where the availability and cost of insurance has been a market issue for some time. Our experts can help you find the right cover and price – just get in touch!
We Need To Talk About Doing It Right – Underinsurance
Underinsurance is a perennial problem for the insurance sector, with skyrocketing reinstatement costs making it increasingly common. Sums insured have failed to keep place with claims inflation. We often see Building Sums Insured that have not been uplifted in years despite the obvious increase in rebuild costs potentially leaving a customer with a problem.
A leading insurer in the HNW market space recently reported on contents:
- Three out of five (62%) high net worth collectors are worried that their collections and art are underinsured,
- More than half of HNW collectors said they annually have at least one collection appraised.
- In the survey of 250 HNW individuals in the UK, three quarters (76%) said the value of their art collections had increased in the past 12 months, with around the same number expecting the value to continue rising during 2024.
- Some 4% of collectors revealed they do not get their collections valued at all, and 5% admitted to having their collections valued less than every five years.
Please make sure that when looking at household insurance that regular valuations and consciousness about adequate valuations is right at the forefront of your mind.
