As a practice most insurance companies require an updated insurance appraisal every three years for fine art, better antiques and jewelry.

• Do you need to update your insurance policy?
• Would you like to be certain that family heirlooms, personal property, fine art and antiques, jewelry, collectibles and other valuable assets are insured to their highest value?

Llewellyn Dykes Appraisals offers a fully researched, documented and photographic record of your valuables in order to provide the correct valuation of your personal property. Don’t wait until disaster strikes.

A natural disaster – think hurricane, tornado, flood, changes everything. Insurance companies may be forced to fight for their lives and will play hardball with a team of their toughest adjusters. You will have to prove, convincingly, the validity of each and every claim:

• That the item actually existed
• That the item was properly evaluated as to condition
• That the item was competently valued as of recent date

Contact us at (843) 816-0103 to set up an appointment to evaluate your property for insurance purposes.

21st Century Facts of Life

Weather anomalies are an ever increasing reality. For those of us living on the coast, the possibility of a regional event leading to a regional disaster is looming as a larger and larger probability. One look at a recent NOAA chart clearly demonstrates the trend.
Why the threat of a regional disaster warrants extra preparation:

In a regional disaster, the normal systems and processes can be rapidly overwhelmed, and those excesses are not limited to emergency services. Insurance companies can be forced to establish priorities when responding to claims simply due to the number of losses, and field agents must, logically, resort to claimant triage.

triage: noun,
1. (in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.
2. the process of determining the most important people or things from amongst a large number that require attention.
Origin: early 18th century: from French, from trier ‘separate out.’ The medical sense dates from the 1930s, from the military system of assessing the wounded on the battlefield.

Claimant triage scenario:

The disaster is followed by chaos. Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of claimants experience losses and require assistance. Certainly, physical injuries come first and damages to structures and vehicles require and receive urgent attention, but then begins the process of evaluating claims for personal property losses – not our homes, but the huge and varied amounts of “stuff” we have inside. Art, antiques, furniture, collectibles, furnishings, decorative arts, china, crystal, and the list goes on and on.

And the claim adjusters begin their triage.

Who comes first? Who receives the most attention?

Logic provides the answer. Those with boxes of photographs, and file folders of old receipts, or even less, go to the end of the line. And those with prior appraisals, professionally executed reports documented with not only photographs but condition reports and comparable values and all that goes to support the conclusions of a competent appraisal, step to the front. Those who have had the foresight to provide their insurance company with a copy of that appraisal report are understandably compensated first. There is no question about value or condition – or fraud. And those who cannot substantiate their losses dwell in a state of limbo that can last for years.

And a little common sense…

Much of the stress and the potential loss associated with a regional disaster – at least as far as personal property is concerned – can be significantly minimized by having a complete personal property appraisal of your important treasures and household furnishings prepared in advance. The more valuable items on the inventory can be scheduled individually – which may result in an increased premium – but the rest will be documented and on file with the insurer should you experience a loss. The cost is reasonable. And buys you a first-class ticket to the front of the triage line.