'Antiques Roadshow' Boosts Insurance Sales
The "Antiques Roadshow," a primetime hit series on PBS that encourages viewers to find out the appraisal value of their hidden treasures at home, is helping boost insurance sales to cover unusual items, an insurer which sponsors the program believes.
The show tours across selected cities each year, encouraging local residents to bring in two items they are curious about for free appraisals by experts.
Chubb Insurance Group, based in Warren, N.J., which has been a sponsor of the show since it first began six years ago, believes its association with the program has helped boost sales of Chubb's "Masterpiece Valuable Articles Policy," according to Mary Ann Avnet, vice president of marketing and customer relations.
"The growth of our valuable articles business has more than doubled in the last five years and some of it is because of our increased emphasis with our agents and brokers on the importance of this coverage," said Ms. Avnet. "But I think its because of an awareness that the public now has from shows like Chubbs 'Roadshow,' where they see people all the time looking at things that they may have in their own home and think that they probably also have something that is very valuable," she added.
"Our goal has been to take that to the next level to make sure that our agents and customers are aware of the fact that once you discover you have a treasure, you also need to protect the treasure and one of the best ways to protect it is by making sure that nothing happens to it," she said.
Chubb's "Masterpiece" policy covers homes, autos, watercraft and valuable possessions, including antiques, jewelry, fine arts and other collectibles, including wine collections. The policy focuses on coverage for loss of valuables, such as antiques, that can occur anywhere in the world and includes coverage for breakage, newly acquired items and the full replacement of pairs and sets.
"Its a policy that can be written by itself or with other coverages. It is primarily designed to provide either itemized or blanket coverage for several classes of businesses, many of which are limited under traditional homeowners policies, such as jewelry, fine arts and silver, and Chubb has a collectibles class that is for items that arent as easy to classify, such as wine collections," said Ms. Avnet.
She added that there are many advantages to having a policy such as Masterpiece, because the coverage is much broader than a basic homeowners policy offers.
"Under a traditional homeowners policy, theres always going to be some limitations to coverage that very often the consumer isnt aware of because they think that they have coverage for basically what they see as their contents. What they need to take into consideration is that all homeowners policies have deductibles that would apply, said Ms. Avnet.
"One of the advantages is that a valuable articles policy coverage is broader. It extends to things like mysterious disappearance, and other losses, such as misplaced jewelry, would be covered without a deductible," explained Ms. Avnet.
She added that the coverage also offers advantages to travelers. If people buy a valuable item when they travel, she said, "they need to know they have automatic coverage for that until they get it shipped back to the U.S. And one of the things they get with a valuable articles policy is a certain amount of coverage for newly acquired articles, which is really important."
To determine the coverage and value of an item, Ms. Avnet said that customers should insure their valuables for their actual market sale price. For antiques, the cost would be based upon what they are appraised at by experts, such as the appraisers from leading auction houses like Christies and Sothebys, as featured on the show, she added.
According to WGBH Boston, the public television production house which produces the "Antiques Roadshow," the appraisers examine the items for identifying marks, signatures, brands, quantity and condition, age and the material from which it was manufactured or created.
The appraiser then discusses the item with colleagues, researches the item on the Web, or browses the traveling library of books available to pinpoint the origin, artist or manufacturer, and the approximate period of the piece's creation. This way they find out the facts and value of each item, she noted.
Ms. Avnet added that she encourages customers to reexamine the value of their antiques frequently because such values "can change pretty rapidly."
Ms. Avnet mentioned that the value of an antique is based on four qualities–the age, rarity, condition and desirability of the item.
For the Masterpiece policy, there is no maximum amount for coverage that is predetermined. "It is looked at on an individual basis," said Ms. Avnet.
There are choices in a Masterpiece policy as far as how people insure items, she said. "They can schedule individual items, such as higher-valued items, but they do have a choice of blanket coverage, such as if they have a lot of jewelry and they are not sure how much a piece is worth," said Ms. Avnet.
"That gives the consumer a lot more flexibility by giving them the choice of either one, because the coverage is the same and the rate is the same. It just gives them an opportunity which way they would like to insure a piece or a whole group of pieces," she explained.
The popularity of the PBS series, "Antiques Roadshow," has alerted millions to the potential value of items they
had previously thought to be worthless, thus creating a market for specialty insurance coverage like
Chubb's "Masterpiece Valuable Articles Policy."
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, July 20, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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