This post is a return to my review of the Farmers “Next Generation” Homeowners policy. During this review, we have seen that this policy makes many, often subtle, tweaks to the standard homeowner’s insurance policy that results in many benefits…to Farmers. Today we are looking at the special limits placed on certain categories of personal property.

The standard HO3 policy lists 11 categories of personal property that are subject to special limits under the policy. Those categories are money defined and are standard throughout most policies. The Farmers “Next Generation” policy includes the same items as the standard HO3 policy, but adds two additional categories. They are:

9. Imported rugs, carpets and tapestries.
$5,000 any one article and $10,000 total limit on theft of imported rugs, carpets and tapestries. This applies even if such items are artwork or decoration. Imported means made or manufactured in whole or in part outside of the United States.

10. Cards and comic books.
$200 limit per trading or collectible card or comic book and $2,500 total limit on all cards or comic books. This includes sports cards, game cards and trading cards of any kind.

Why Farmers chose to add just these two categories remains a mystery, however it is important that Farmers customers are aware of these limitations. While I do not personally own any imported rugs, like many folks my age, through my childhood I acquired a large amount of baseball cards and comic books, many of which were passed down to me by my father and brothers.

While I have not looked over these collections in sometime, as I sit here I know I have several items worth over $200 each and the total of both would likely exceed $2,500. This is without purchasing any cards or comics in many years, so I am not what you consider a collector. I mention this because there are many people with similar collections of personal property who are unknowingly limited by the Farmers “Next Generation” policy and, in the event of a loss would be underinsured. Once again, the next generation policy is ushering in a new generation of problems for insureds.

One good thing however on this cold day, this post made me think of the approaching baseball season. Pitchers and catchers report on February 18, 2016.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=04KQydlJ-qc%3Frel%3D0