High-value personal · by appointment
High-value home.
Built for homes that cost more than $1M to rebuild. Extended replacement cost, blanket coverage on contents, agreed value on jewelry and art, and claims handling that matches the asset.
What it is.
A high-value policy isn't a bigger HO-3 — it's a different contract. Cash settlement on total loss, no co-insurance penalty, blanket coverage instead of itemized sub-sublimits, and a claims handler who shows up in person within 48 hours rather than a 1-800 queue. Premium is usually 1.3-1.6× a standard policy on the same dwelling — and the gap closes fast on the first partial loss.
The lines in your policy.
Each one is its own knob. The carrier's default rarely fits a real life.
What a claim looks like.
Three anonymized files. Numbers are illustrative.
Mission Hills home with a $2.4M dwelling limit; total loss after kitchen-origin fire. HV carrier (Chubb-style) settles at full $2.4M cash within 60 days, no rebuild requirement. Owner elects to build a smaller new construction at $1.7M and keeps the difference. A standard policy would have required rebuilding to spec.
Owner loses scheduled engagement ring while abroad. Item scheduled at $34K agreed value with the carrier. No deductible, no proof-of-loss disputes (agreed-value contract), worldwide coverage. Check issued in 9 days. Standard homeowners would have triggered the $1,500 jewelry sublimit and a long appraisal fight.
Tornado-spawned debris damages 70 feet of restored 1908 stone facade. Standard HO-3 form would have settled at depreciated value; repair quotes from period-appropriate masons came in at $148K. HV carrier pays $148K under the matching-of-materials clause that's standard on this paper.
How to read a high-value home policy.
The four things worth looking for on the dec page, in the order we read them.
The first page tells you who's actually covered, on what address, and under whose legal entity. A surprising number of policies have the wrong name, the wrong address, or a missing additional insured, and you don't find out until you file a claim. Cross-check it against your driver's license, your title or lease, and any contract that requires you to be insured.
Policy limits are abstract until you stack them against the assets they protect. A $300k liability limit feels generous in isolation; against a $1.2M home and a college fund, it isn't. Walk down each numbered line on your dec page and ask: if this were the cap on the worst day, would I be okay?
Page one shows you the base form. Pages four through twelve show you what the endorsements added, and, more importantly, what they took away. Water-damage exclusions, roof-payment schedules, named-storm deductibles, scheduled-valuables caps. These small numbered forms decide more claims than the headline limits do.
Carriers re-rate, re-form, and re-endorse policies at every renewal. If you keep last year's dec page, a side-by-side read takes ten minutes and tells you which limits drifted, which sublimits got cut, and which endorsements quietly disappeared. It's the single most useful habit in personal insurance.
Frequently asked questions.
Why is high-value paper worth the premium gap?
On a clean year, you pay more. On a partial-loss year (hail, water, theft) the difference in claim outcomes typically eats the premium gap many times over. Cash-settlement on total loss alone is usually worth $20K-$50K vs a standard rebuild requirement.
Do I need to use one carrier for everything?
Most high-value carriers prefer a 'monoline' relationship — home + auto + umbrella + valuables together. The package discount runs 10-25%. We typically write the package with one carrier but will split if a different auto carrier is meaningfully better for your situation.
How does this interact with my umbrella?
An HV primary makes umbrella underwriting cleaner — most umbrella carriers want $500K or $1M underlying liability, which HV paper hits as standard. We typically pair $5M-$10M umbrella on top.
Can you write outside MO/KS?
For HV clients with property in multiple states, yes — HV carriers operate nationally and we hold non-resident licenses across the broader region as needed.
Want a second read on your high-value home policy?
Send us your declarations page. You'll get it back marked up, in plain language, with the gaps and the over-coverage flagged, yours to keep, no obligation to switch.
or phone (913) 408-7280
We're an independent broker. We represent you, not the carrier , paid by the carrier we ultimately place with, but accountable only to the person whose name is on the policy. Read more about how we work.