When you purchase homeowner's insurance, it provides several types of protection. First, it protects your home structure. Secondly, it gives you liability protection against lawsuits that arise from injuries on your property. Third, it covers your personal property. If you are unsure about how to get enough personal property coverage on your policy, read this guide to learn more about this aspect of homeowner's insurance.

You Can Base It on a Percentage

The first thing to understand is the primary method that insurance companies use to calculate the amount of personal property coverage homeowners need. Most insurance companies recommend using a percentage method to calculate the amount you need. The percentage might be 50% or more, depending on the company, and they base this on the value of your home.

For example, if the insurance company recommends using 50% as the percentage, you would need $125,000 in personal property coverage if you have $250,000 structural coverage for your house. You can increase the amount if you think you have more assets than the amount the percentage method yields for coverage.

You May Want to Take an Inventory

When you choose the amount for your personal property coverage, you should know a few things. First, you might not receive the full amount if you lose everything you own. The insurance company will ask for proof of your assets and their values if you have a complete loss. As a result, you might want to take an inventory of your things once a year. You can write a list of everything you own or make a video that shows all your things. Having an inventory can help you get enough compensation for your things after a complete loss.

You Might Want to Add Riders

The other thing to know is that you may need to add riders to your policy to have enough protection. If you own things that are worth a lot of money, your personal property coverage might not cover their full values. For example, suppose you own a guitar that is worth $10,000. Your personal property coverage might only offer $1,000 for the guitar after a claim. If you want to insure the instrument for its full value, you can add a rider to achieve this goal.

If you have questions about the homeowner's insurance policy for your house structure or personal property, you can learn more by talking to a home insurance agent of your choice.