8.1 Personal Inland Marine Insurance

Personal Inland Marine insurance is designed to cover movable personal property against direct physical loss. This type of coverage is important because certain personal property may be especially vulnerable to loss while it is being transported, used away from the home, or kept in different locations. Standard personal lines property policies, such as Homeowners policies, may not fully cover these items. In some cases, coverage may be excluded, limited to specific causes of loss, or restricted by special dollar limits under Coverage C. Personal Inland Marine insurance helps fill these coverage gaps by providing more specialized protection for valuable or portable property.

Floaters

Movable property is sometimes referred to as floating property, and Inland Marine policies are often called floaters because they are designed to follow covered property as it moves from place to place. These policies provide specialized protection for property that may not be fully covered under standard personal lines property policies.

One common example is the Personal Articles Floater, also known as the Scheduled Articles Floater. This is a separate policy that functions in a way similar to the Scheduled Personal Property Endorsement available under a Homeowners policy. It is used to insure specific classes of valuable personal property, such as jewelry, furs, cameras, musical instruments, silverware and goldware, golfer’s equipment, fine arts, and stamp or coin collections.

Coverage may be written in two main ways. First, individual items may be scheduled, meaning each item is specifically listed in the policy with its own limit of insurance. Second, coverage may be provided on an unscheduled basis for items within the same class of property, subject to a blanket limit of insurance. This allows the insured to choose a coverage method that best fits the value, type, and number of items being insured.

Several other types of Personal Inland Marine floaters are available to insure specific categories of movable personal property. Each floater is designed for a particular class of property and provides coverage that is more specialized than the coverage typically found in standard personal lines policies.

A Personal Jewelry Floater provides coverage for scheduled jewelry and furs. Because these items are often valuable, portable, and subject to special limits under other personal property policies, they are commonly insured separately.

A Fine Arts Floater is used to insure private collections of fine arts at scheduled locations. Covered property may include paintings, pictures, etchings, tapestries, art glass windows, statuary, antiques, manuscripts, porcelains, and other items of rarity or artistic merit.

A Cameras Floater provides coverage for personally used cameras and related equipment. This may include projection equipment, sound equipment, discs, films, tapes, and other camera accessories.

A Personal Effects Floater covers items that tourists and travelers wear or carry while traveling anywhere in the world. However, coverage generally does not apply while the property is at the insured’s home or while it is in storage.

Standard Coverage

Personal Inland Marine policies are commonly written on an open perils basis, meaning covered property is insured against direct physical loss unless the cause of loss is specifically excluded. These policies often provide worldwide coverage, which makes them especially useful for valuable or portable property that may be used, transported, or stored in different locations.

Although coverage is broad, Inland Marine policies still contain exclusions. Common exclusions include loss caused by war, nuclear hazard, governmental action, intentional loss, and neglect. Depending on the type of property being insured, the policy may also include additional exclusions that apply specifically to that class of property. For this reason, it is important to review both the general exclusions and any property-specific exclusions when determining how coverage applies.

As a general rule, losses under Personal Inland Marine policies are valued based on the property’s actual cash value, which considers the value of the property at the time of loss. However, some policies may offer an agreed value option. Under this option, the insured and insurer agree on the value of the property when the policy is issued.

Because many items insured under Inland Marine policies are valuable, unique, or difficult to value, insurers may require an appraisal before coverage is provided. The appraisal helps establish the property’s value at policy issuance and may be used to determine the appropriate limit of insurance.

Personal Inland Marine coverage may be added to a Homeowners policy by endorsement or written as a separate stand-alone policy. When coverage is attached to a Homeowners policy, it supplements the existing personal property coverage by providing broader or more specialized protection for certain movable property. When written as a stand-alone policy, it provides separate coverage for the insured items according to the terms, limits, and exclusions of that specific Inland Marine policy.