Taking the Ugh Factor Out of Inventorying Personal Property
Nobody wants to think about it but imagine your home burned to the ground tonight. Your first concern would be for the safety of your family and finding shelter. Shortly after that however, you are going to want to file a claim so you can start the process of getting back to normal.
Can you honestly say you know every item that your family owns? Do you know the value of those items? Can you prove that you actually had them?
The need for a detailed personal property inventory is obvious but spending a couple of weekends doing it is not a project many people will leap on with enthusiasm. Your insurance company desperately wants you to do an inventory because it makes the claims process run smoother (read less expensive) when the insured can submit a comprehensive list of damaged/destroyed items.
Enter the Insurance Information Institute. They have developed an easy to use, comprehensive solution that takes the pain out of inventorying and documenting every item in your home.
Personal property inventory…there’s an app for that!
The Insurance Information Institute developed a free online application they call Know Your Stuff® that takes the pain out of inventorying and provides a secure method to store photos and scanned receipts as well. It’s an intuitive form that you can fill out at your leisure rather than trying to accomplish it all at once. Best of all, because your inventory resides securely online you can access it at any time from any device that has an internet connection. No worries about a paper list being damaged or destroyed.
Accessing the application is as simple as creating an account here and then using your smartphone or wireless device, going room to room recording your property. The form is intuitive and has many drop down menus to help you populate the form without typing. When you get tired you can quit and the app saves all of your entries.
Changes to your property are easy to make as well. For example if you buy a new TV you can simply delete the one on the app and enter the new set.
Having an accurate, documented inventory will tell you how much your property is worth, if you have sufficient coverage and most importantly, will make the claims process proceed much more quickly. It’s easy to access, easy to do and it’s free.
