Almost everyone has some type of insurance to cover their personal belongings. Perhaps you have auto insurance to protect your car. If you rent an apartment, you might have renter's insurance to protect your personal belongings. And homeowners usually have homeowners insurance to protect their investment in their house as well as its contents. Some policies allow the policy holder to collect the estimated value of their property at the time of loss; however, homeowners insurance policies typically entitle the policy holder to collect the replacement value of their lost property.
Unless the homeowner owns something of excessive value, like expensive jewelry or very high end electronics, he typically doesn't have to provide a list of his assets to the insurance company. He may, however, find an inventory of his assets to be useful when estimating the amount of coverage he needs or reporting a loss to the insurance company. After a fire or other catastrophic event, a homeowner may not be able to easily rattle off a listing of everything he owns. At those times, he'll be glad to have a list readily available.
So, now that you're convinced that you need a list of your assets, you may need a little help getting your list together. The idea of listing everything you own may be overwhelming so try looking at your belongings in chunks rather than individual pieces. Here are a couple of different methods of taking inventory of your personal assets:
List by Type - This listing method may sound simple, but if you have a large home or many assets, you may find this method to be the most cumbersome. For instance, you may start off listing furniture. You'll have to list every piece of furniture in your home. If you forget a room, or suspect you might have forgotten a room, you'll have to comb back through the list to see if you got everything.
List by Location - This listing method is the easiest to use when you're trying to keep your assets in chunks. Simply walk into a room and list everything in it. Don't count anything in another room until you're ready to do that other room.
Now that you've gotten your listing, don't forget to attach any available receipts. Large, expensive items in particular may require proof of purchase in the event of a loss. Place your list in a safe place like a safety deposit box or fire safe to ensure that the list will still be available when catastrophe strikes. Now, you can sleep soundly knowing that you've done everything you can to prepare for those little unexpected glitches life can throw your way.
