Personal articles floater
Personal articles floater or a PAF is an inland marine policy, typically separate from a renters or homeowners policy. It is used to insure specific or scheduled personal property on an ALL-risk basis.
Why do I need one, doesn’t my Homeowners policy cover my stuff?
Insurance companies insure buildings and contents two different ways, and the same policy could insure them differently.
For example- Allstate insurance policies in Georgia insure their homes on an all-risk form, whereas they insure content on a board form. (My issue is that they never tell you that until you get a denial.)
I have an article on all risk vs broad if this topic needs more details
Open vs Named Peril Coverage, the dirty secret behind marketing companies vs insurance companies
The TLDR- which loss or peril that happens to your building or contents determines if there is coverage. All risk covers all perils with named exclusions, the board is named risks only.
If you have an independent agent, you will likely have the option to insure your contents with All risk or named risk. Yet even with an all-risk endorsement, things like jewelry, fine arts, silverware, cameras, musical instruments, coin collections, or even rugs have SUB LIMITS.
Since homeowner’s policies want to account for the average individual, and the risk of jewelry and fine art could be in the $100,000’s, they place sub-limits to mitigate risk.
This is where a PAF or personal articles floater comes in. We can insure the jewelry or item specifically for an appraised amount. The cost runs about 1% of the value of the item when it comes to jewelry and can vary based on the appetite of the insurance company we are using for the item we are trying to insure.
The takeaway is that if you have something special, and it might be difficult to find should it be lost/stolen/destroyed, talk to your insurance agent about your options.
