Reduce the Stress - Prepare an Inventory

This article has been submitted by a GrownUps member. GrownUps accepts no liability for its content and the views and information contained within are not necessarily those of the GrownUps website.

Most people realize that they face the possibility of a fire, theft or other disaster. Those who have insurance often rely on it to ‘reinstate’ their lives after such an event. Unfortunately few have a thorough inventory of their belongings which results in a lower insurance settlement than they expected.

Financial aspects aside, the emotional stress of dealing with catastrophic disruption to your life is something few people think about until it's too late. Without looking around, take a moment to list everything in the room. Now try to do that for all of your home's contents. Impossible!

Now think of how difficult it would be if you were not in familiar surroundings and were under the stress of having just experienced the total destruction of your home by fire.

A theft investigator relayed the story of a man who was burglarized. He was so distraught at the thought of being victimized that he couldn't even remember the brand of his TVs. A month later, he still had not finalised his police report or insurance claim form. He felt so overwhelmed with negative emotions when he thought about the burglary that he just couldn't force himself to fill in the paperwork! Therefore, the police had no information to try to recover his stolen items, and his financial recovery was being delayed. Imagine how much easier this man's experience would have been if he had an inventory of his belongings.

A fire victim was stressed because she was working with the insurance assessor instead of spending time with her daughter. When their house was on fire, they jumped from 2nd story windows. Her daughter broke her back, was hospitalized and in a great deal of pain. They had a number of family heirlooms and it was extremely difficult to prove these fire-damaged furnishings were antiques. The time she devoted trying to prove the value of the items and receive an acceptable settlement was enormous. All the while, she was torn between needing to settle the financial issues and desperately wanting to be with her daughter! Imagine, instead, how different those months would have been if she could have shown photographs and valuation documents for these items.

The second case also demonstrates the importance of having a backup copy of your inventory stored off-site. Even if you have an inventory, it will do you no good if it burns with the rest of your property.

The importance of an inventory of your belongings is evidenced at one of the worst times in one's life - when you have experienced a disaster. It can take months to list everything you own(ed), and you are in limbo while compiling this information.

Once the settlement is received, will it be enough to fully recover? Probably not - many claimants state that they forgot thousands of dollars worth of items. According to the insurance industry, policy holders who have a thorough inventory not only receive faster results when filing a claim, they also receive greater settlements. If you don't remember what you own, you won't request reimbursement or replacement; thus, you won't fully recover. And for high-dollar items, you will most likely be required to show proof of ownership (e.g., that big screen TV the kids bought for you).

Most people agree it is important, but few have this documentation. Reasons given for not having one are that are people are too busy, it takes too long, they don't know how, or realize they will not keep it up to date if they do create one.

If you are in one of these categories – and most of us are, seek the assistance of a professional to provide the service for you. In addition to the inventory service, the provider should also include secure backup of your records and have a process available to update your records at least annually. Without the updates, the report will be outdated very quickly. The cost of a professionally documented inventory is minor compared to the loss you could encounter!

print