A Rolex Daytona stolen in Madrid

A longstanding client with a home insurance policy was given a hard-to-obtain Rolex Daytona, Platinum Rolex Daytona by his son. He was wearing it whilst driving his Bentley Bentayga in Madrid with his elbow leaning on the open car window. A pregnant lady approached him at a traffic light and suddenly his watch has gone. He is 70 years old, wearing one of the most sought-after watches in the world.

No warranties on the policy, so wasn’t worried about not being covered.

Quite a hard watch to get hold of and the insurance company managed to source another one for him, same year, because he was more upset that his son had bought it for him, so did not want a cash settlement or new version.

£65K brand new £110,000 now.

If you are concerned about insuring your watches, please contact us.

Read this article from the Insurance Times for an independent assessment of high value watch insurance: Brokers must help Rolex and Patek Philippe owners watch for HNW underinsurance

The Olive Tree

A recent client was recommended to us as they had purchased a 700 year old Olive tree which was featured at the 2015 Chelsea Flower Show worth approximately £18,000.

The client’s current insurer would only cover garden plants and shrubs up to £5,000 and at the same time, the client was having £2.7m of works conducted at their property at the same that the Olive tree was arriving.

How Did PWI Assist?

At PWI we have a range of insurers covering many unusual items that are precious to our clients. We were able to arrange insurance for the client to cover the Contract Works value as well as the existing structure for the duration of the works at their home and cover or clients prized Olive Tree should a loss occur.

Beware of guessing your sums insured

Upon discussing a a client’s rebuild sums insured for a Grade II listed Property with 3 storeys, an outhouse, Annex and outbuildings the client had requested a sum insured of £468,791. Adter questioning this, the client asked us to update it to £700,000. How did we help?

After providing an indicative quotation for buildings insurance, we agreed with the prospective insurer to fund a professional Rebuild Survey in order to ascertain the correct level of cover for the client through an independent appraisal service which would normally have cost the client in excess of £500.00

The Appraisal recommended a Rebuild Sum insured of £1,078,100 which client thought was a little high but the client had never had it explained to them the methodology and implications of rebuilding a Grade II listed house versus a simple rebuild of a typical non-listed house.

Valuation was based on a total demolition of the site including garden, garden walls, out buildings, site clearance, surveyors and architect fees, Grade II listings approvals and also 20% on top of all of that.

The Appraisal stated that a complete destruction of the whole site was so rare as to be a miniscule risk of being totally demolished ‐ and therefore the 20% VAT on repairs would apply versus a ‘new-build’ which excludes VAT.

The client accepted the rebuild and the insurer also applied an Unlimited rebuild cost guarantee to the policy as the client had received a RICS approved valuation.

If PWI had not provided the advice…

Had the client suffered a total loss claim with a standard Perils based home insurer, it is likely that their policy would have been voided due to misrepresentation of the risk and the client may not have had any payment made towards their claim.

Jewellery Insurance Issue

We were recommended by a reputable Jeweller to a young lady who had been given a Patek Phillipe watch from her grandmother which she had valued at £18,000. Miss Bellard lives at home with her parents and together they had a Home insurance for their buildings and contents and three separate policies covering similar items with a jewellery only insurer.

What did PWI suggest?

After an initial telephone conversation, we suggested that they may be paying too much for their jewellery insurance and offered to visit Miss Bellard and her parents to review their home insurance needs and jewellery covers.

Upon visiting the clients, we listened to them about what they wanted from their insurance and then together, conducted a contents inventory with the family which concluded that their General contents were almost 50% under insured meaning that they could have an issue with any claim if a loss were to occur with their current insurers. We also discussed with them that their current security arrangements may need reviewing with recommendations provided on measures they can take.

How did PWI help?

After the meeting, we conducted a full market appraisal of Miss Bellard familly’s insurance needs and provided a quotation which reduced the cost of their jewellery insurance by embedding them into a new Warranty Free Home insurance covering their Buildings, Contents, Collectibles and jewellery with an insurer who also agreed to contribute towards the cost of the security upgrades.