The Importance of Safeguarding Your Valuables

No home is immune to disasters, and when a problem occurs, you might have little to no time to secure your most precious valuables. Be it an earthquake, flood, fire, severe storm, or even a break-in, your belongings are not immune to damage or loss. You need to do everything you can before these accidents have a chance to strike to protect your valuables.

The first step to take is to identify what you have. Your home’s valuables might be much more expansive than you might think. Consider just a few of the important items that need protection:

Vital records and certificates (birth, marriage, divorce, adoption, child custody, death)
Passport, driver’s license, Social Security card and other identification documents

Property leases, deeds, mortgages, titles (auto, home) and other legal records
Financial records, including recent tax returns, copies of pay stubs and bank account statements, and debit and credit card numbers
Insurance policy documents
Wills, living wills and powers of attorney
Medical records including prescription medicines, medical conditions, medical provider contact information and copies of health insurance/Medicare/Medicaid cards

Safe deposit box information and keys
Records of passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs)
Family photos, keepsakes, jewelry or other mementos
Photographic or data inventory of valuables (photos, videos, CD/flash drive)
Jewelry, art or other possessions of verifiable value

How to Protect Your Valuables
Once you complete your checklist, there are a number of simple no-cost or low-cost steps you can take to protect your valuables:

Create a photographic record or inventory of your valuables and store it in a safe deposit box or other off-site location. Consider keeping a copy on a CD or flash drive in your disaster kit, so that you can provide it to your insurance company following a loss; this will allow you to start the insurance/recovery process more quickly.
Scan important records such as vital records, medical records and financial documents, and save the files on disks or flash drives. You may also want to password-protect the data you have stored in case of loss or theft. Store the backup records in a safe deposit box or other off-site location.
If you have too many records or no way to scan/copy them, store them in a flood/fireproof home safe or a safe deposit box. Also, consider giving backup copies of important documentation to family members to store for you.

If you have valuable items stored in a basement, move them to a higher location to avoid water damage.
Include any readily accessible records, such as medical records and medical contact information, in your disaster kit.
In some cases, you may be able to protect valuables in waterproof containers available in sporting goods or hardware stores. For smaller items, a flood/fireproof home safe may provide temporary protection.
Take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft when you create backup systems to store critical information.

Your homeowners insurance is often very specific when it comes to insuring these items of value. Therefore, it’s imperative to work with your agent to determine how to extend your possessions to important items in the most appropriate ways.

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