Will you be ready when disaster strikes? How to inventory your property for insurance claims
Uncontrolled wildfires have burned nearly 40,000 acres in Los Angeles over the past week. Western North Carolina saw thousands of homes devastated by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. More than 2,200 homes in Maui burned to the ground in August 2023. A four-state grouping of tornadoes destroyed thousands of Midwest homes just before Christmas in 2021.
These are just a few of the most painful climate change-driven natural disasters that have ravaged the U.S. in recent years. There was an estimated $182.7 billion in damages in 2024 alone from weather and climate disasters, while the tab in 2022 was $183.6 billion.
The tragedies don’t end once the disasters pass. “After the Kincade fires in 2019, there was no power in our neighborhood. We were subsequently looted and vandalized the ensuing week, so our emotional rollercoaster began with multiple incidents and insurance claims,” says Mike Yurochko, CEO at Loti. “It was the single most devastating event our family has experienced.”
Too many people assume this will never happen to them, leaving them unprepared when disaster strikes. In the wake of events like this, the last thing anyone wants to deal with is trying to compile lists of items they’ve lost to submit for insurance payouts.
Taking the time to inventory your belongings now, before tragedy hits, can go a long way toward giving you peace of mind should the unthinkable happen.
First understand the insurance coverage you have today
Before you begin an inventory of your possessions, read your insurance policy to see what sort of coverage you have today.
Stephen Poux, EVP of Risk Management at The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers points out that typical homeowners' and renters' insurance policies often exclude certain natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, necessitating additional coverage through riders or separate policies. He also notes that high-value items, like jewelry and fine art, frequently require additional endorsements to ensure they are fully covered.
Contact your insurance agent directly to confirm your coverage. In the event that your policy does cover replacements, there are different methods the underwriters may use to determine what to pay out. Common policies include replacement cost coverage and actual cash coverage, as well as stated value coverage.
Replacement cost coverage
This requires insurance to replace items “like-for-like” when possible. The more detailed your records can be, the better. This is especially important for collectible and big-ticket items; don’t just list, “a full set of the Mistborn book series,” when what you actually own is, “a first edition, first printing set of leatherbound Mistborn books signed by the author.” You’d hate to end up with a set of cheap paperback books to replace your rare collectibles.
Actual cash coverage
This coverage generally has lower premiums, and will provide you with the cash value of similar items based on their value at the time of loss. In other words, since most items face depreciation due to wear and tear, you likely wouldn’t get enough money to replace your bespoke kitchen table with something comparable and would end up having to purchase a cheaper alternative.
Stated value coverage
This describes a pre-determined, fixed amount to be paid out in the event of a claim.
If you only have actual cash coverage, your note-taking can be a bit less detailed since you don’t necessarily have to worry about all the fine details. But if you carry replacement cost coverage, make sure you keep track of as many details as possible so that your carrier will be able to find you items of similar value in the future.
6 steps to documenting your personal belongings
Here is a six-step plan to document the items in your home. Yurochko worked hard to perfect this approach in the years since his property was damaged by wildfires, creating a comprehensive recovery guide called Loti to benefit others faced with extensive property loss and the ensuing conversations with insurance carriers and adjusters.
“Through it all, it’s clear that most homeowners, including myself, are entirely unprepared for disasters like these,” he says. “In general, the easiest thing for a homeowner to do is spend about an hour taking pictures and uploading them to a cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.”
If organizing notes and data isn’t your forte, there are digital tools that will provide a solid framework for the process. Perhaps the most reliable comes directly from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)—its Home Inventory App will guide you through each room of your home as well as help you get a claim started in the future, if necessary.
1. Tour your home and start building a list
Grab a tablet or a smartphone, or even just a pen and paper. Walk through your entire home and document every space. Don’t stop with the basics such as living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Take note of closets, too, as well as outdoor spaces such as yards and sheds.
Once you have a list of each space in your home, decide where you’d like to start. The kitchen is easy, since you likely already have everything stored in an assortment of cabinets and drawers. Use post-it notes to assign a letter or number to each storage location until you have a comprehensive list of locations where your items live. Then, start the documentation.
2. Take photos and video of your belongings
Let’s stick with the kitchen as an example. Begin by taking photos of the room from different angles so that you have a record of what it looks like as a whole. Then do a video walkthrough of the whole room.
Lauren Szerlip Dowling, a broker at World Insurance, recommends narrating and emphasizing important or rare items. “This ensures their financial value is well-documented, making it easier to account for them in the event of a covered loss,” she says.
Next, log items in your notes or in your app of choice. If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of items in the room, focus on high-value objects such as the appliances and furniture. This will help you make sure your big-ticket items are accounted for, rather than getting lost in the minutiae of documenting smaller things that would be easier or cheaper to replace.
3. Document details such as serial numbers
This step is crucial for people who have replacement cost coverage on their policies, but it’s a good rule of thumb for everyone. Recording the model and serial numbers of your appliances, technology, tools, and other expensive items will help ensure you get similar replacements in the future.
You should also take note of anything that makes your items unique, such as limited-edition colors, whether the item is part of a matching set, or where the item was obtained from if it’s not easily replaceable.
While it can be a tedious process, the more details you can record about these items, the better your odds of a smooth claims process.
4. Make copies of receipts and appraisals
If you have hard copies of the receipts for expensive purchases (such as those kitchen appliances), now’s the time to record that data. Make copies and store them with your notes, both physically and digitally if possible.
If you have items that have increased in value since you purchased them, you’ll want records on their current value. Consider getting an appraisal on anything that may be difficult to value, such as antique vehicles or artwork.
5. Back up your data in a safe place
Once you’ve gone through the steps above for each room in your home, you should have a comprehensive list of everything you own. Now, you’ll want to make sure it’s stored safely and will be easily accessible in case of an emergency.
“I store a copy of these documents in a fireproof safe for quick access during a claim or emergency evacuation,” says Dowling. “I also back them up securely to the cloud to ensure they remain accessible even if the physical copies are lost or destroyed.”
Let’s look at each of these options in more detail:
Cloud storage. If you’ve used an app or created a spreadsheet to log your items, make sure that this information is stored in multiple locations—digital systems can fail and passwords can be lost, so it’s wise to keep multiple backups. For instance, you might use an app as your primary list, but should also export the data and store it on a personal cloud storage system such as Google Drive or DropBox.
Safety deposit box. For physical records, keeping them in the same location as the inventory you’re trying to protect is a bit foolhardy—if the home is destroyed, your documentation will be, too. Consider getting a safe deposit box at a local bank so that your hard copies are kept safe in the event of an emergency; Just keep in mind that you may be faced with the limitation of only being able to access these records during the bank’s business hours.
A home safe. Again, keeping your records off-site is generally better than not. But if your bank doesn’t have any boxes available or just isn’t a viable option, invest in a safe that can protect your personal documents from both fire and water damage. Just make sure you choose a location for it in your home where it won’t be easy for would-be thieves to target.
6. Keep your records updated
As time goes on, you’re likely to make purchases that will require updating your records. Appliances will die and need to be replaced, electronics will be upgraded, and so on. Make it a habit to copy receipts for major purchases and replace old ones.
One way you can make sure you’re updating these records on a regular basis is to make it a part of your annual tax preparation process. As you gather your pay stubs, tax forms, and other financial information, take some time to review last year’s home inventory and update it appropriately.
What to do when disaster strikes
We often like to think that we can hold the forces of nature at bay with our dams and fire suppression systems, but the truth is quite different. As Ray Bradbury reminds us in the classic Fahrenheit 451, “When we forget how close the wilderness is […] someday it will come in and get us for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be.”
The harsh reality is that floods, tornadoes, and other disasters can—and do—strike at any time. In fact, in 2022, fire departments in the United States responded to home fires an average of every 21 seconds. Documenting your household belongings can be a time-consuming task, but in the unfortunate event that the information is ever necessary, you’ll be glad you put in the effort.
Contact your insurance agent
Poux urges impacted homeowners to get to safety first, then contact your insurance company as soon as possible to let them know what’s happened.
The exact steps to follow will vary by provider, and your agent will be able to guide you through the best process for your unique situation. In the event of a widespread natural disaster, such as the Los Angeles wildfires, contacting them as quickly as possible may help ensure you get assistance before an abundance of claims are filed.
He also advises that disaster sites should be safely secured after a damaging event has taken place. “Cover broken windows, holes in roofs, and other vulnerable areas that might be exposed to the elements. This not only protects the property from further damage but also aids in the claims process by delineating the initial impact from any subsequent damage.”
Apply for FEMA aid
In the event that your insurance policy doesn’t cover the full extent of the damage to your property and belongings, you may need to contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This agency has several programs that can provide additional assistance in the event of a disaster using plans such as the Individuals and Households Program (IHP).
However, it’s important to note that assistance from FEMA should never be relied on as a primary source of compensation. Programs like IHP are intended to assist those “affected by disaster” who are facing “serious needs,” and only helps to cover basic necessities rather than replacing one’s personal property. Applicants cannot apply for assistance from the IHP unless a state of disaster has been declared.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
