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An insurance brokers tips when placing High Net Worth Insurance

June 15, 2020

My name is Carl Sharp and I’ve have been working at Macbeth for 15 years, focusing as a high net worth insurance broker for the majority of that time. I have helped my clients on every type of home and construction imaginable. In addition, the requirements for contents, fine arts and antiques and jewellery etc has no limits! Basically, every customer and their requirements are unique! This is without even touching on the vast array of claims I have seen and continue to see daily. Claims especially never cease to amaze me!

 

It is my job to set my client’s expectations and advise to the upmost of my ability, to ensure the best insurance policy for their needs. Please find below my top tips when arranging high net worth (HNW) home insurance:

 

  • All HNW policies are different when it comes to claims. If you want a quality high net worth insurance product, choose an insurer who processes all claims in house, this is because they then make all the final decisions. Not all insurers are equal, and this is the key reason why.

 

  • Make sure all valuations on fine art, antiques and jewellery are kept up to date every 5 years. I find that some customers try to avoid this due to the expense/time, but in the event of a claim, the wording only entitles you far more options if the valuations are up to date. Try to think of this as something that must be done inline with your high network insurance policy.

 

  • The Broker. Choose a quality insurance broker to work with. A quality insurance broker will advise of all options, assist on claims, and remind you of valuations etc. At Macbeth, we are a Chartered Insurance Broker which tables us within the top 5% of brokers within the UK. In addition, as a client of Macbeth there is one point of contact for everything, which makes life a little easier when administering the high net worth policy. We pride ourselves on the quality of the relationships we have with our clients.

 

  • One common renewal date. If all policies; home, motor, let properties, holiday homes etc. are all due on one date a broker can look to insure everything together or split it up dependant on cover and price. It also means less time for policyholders as it’s a once a year review for everything.

 

  • Long term agreements. It is not wise to shop around every single year for high net worth insurance as unlike standard home insurance, all HNW insurance policies are manually underwritten by expert Underwriters. If an Underwriter sees the same quotation year on year, and sometimes from multiple brokers, they will not work overly hard to try and win the business. Therefore, I recommend remaining with the same insurer for 3-5 years. Due to this, some HNW insurers offer Long Term Agreements where if customers commit to an Insurer’s policy for 3 years then they will apply additional discounts or even money back towards security improvements.

 

  • High excesses. In my experience, a HNW client would only really claim in the event of a larger loss and not because a lower value item such as a laptop or phone is lost or broken. Therefore, high excesses can be a good idea. It is also worth highlighting that HNW policies have Large Loss Excess waivers, so where a claim exceeds £10,000 the excess is waived anyway.

 

I hope you found these tips useful and should you wish to discuss anything further please contact me directly on either 01189 165 487 or carl.sharp@macbeths.co.uk

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