Many consumers aren't updating home policies with valuables

Slightly more than 40% of U.S. home insurance policyholders failed to update their coverage after buying or receiving a value item, defined as being worth more than $1,000, this past holiday season, according to Selective Insurance Group, Inc.

Selective reported that more than half of policyholders surveyed had purchased an item valued in excess of $1,000 during this past holiday season.

This news comes on the heels of recent findings that similar levels of U.S. consumers reduced or eliminated some form of insurance coverage during 2020.

Further, nearly 30% reported not being aware that they needed to update their home policy after making a sizable purchase, according to the survey of more than 1,700 U.S. homeowners/renters insurance policyholders. Of those that did update their policy, 52% said they worked with an independent or captive insurance agent.

“These findings show that the majority of Americans with homeowners or renters insurance policies may be facing unappreciated risk by failing to insure their valuables properly,” Allen Anderson, Selective senior vice president, personal lines, said in a release. “If you’re one of the more than half of American policyholders whose household acquired valuable items over the holidays, now is a perfect time to take inventory of your assets — new and old — and make sure they’re properly insured.”

Policyholders between 35 and 44 years of age were the most likely to update their policy compared with older and younger cohorts, according to Selective, while employed and high-income policyholders tend to exhibit similar tendencies to update a policy after a big purchase.

Check out the below infographic for more insights from Selective’s policyholder survey.

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