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Insuring a cigar collection

Light this!

Licensed to Kill
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
1,941
Has anyone had experience and or have successfully insured their cigar collection? I've been thinking about this lately. I mean it would probably be easy to insure a non CC collection but how about a CC collection. There is probably a lot of red tape when it comes to CC's to begin with. Anyway any feedback or suggestions are greatly appreciated. 
 
Depending on the size of your stash, you will probably need a rider on your homeowners insurance.  Riders usually require an appraisal or receipts to prove value.  Since we are talking CC's I doubt you will get it.  I would look at the policy though to see what exclusions or limitations you have.  Also, talking to your agent and just asking general questions on the subject you can get an idea of what coverage you may have on them already.
 
About 11 years ago we had a house fire that burned a good portion of the home.  House had to torn down after that.  One of the things we learned after the fact was that my coin collection would only be covered for $200 when the actual value was in the thousands.  Luckily, the dresser drawer they were in protected them when part of the roof collapsed and they only had some minor water damage to the some of the boxes.  Still have them today thankfully.
 
In my previous life, I spent 15 years in the auto & property insurance industry. I can tell you with certainty that insuring these under a standardized home owners policy such as those offered by State Farm, Allstate, etc, probably won't happen. Most major carriers including the one I worked for did offer PAF (personal article floater) for high value items such as art, coin collections, jewelry which required a very specific appraisal down to serial numbers and a clear stated value in case of loss. Those policies are "all risk", even for losing an item but I very much doubt their underwriting departments would write a PAF for cigars of any kind as you would need to prove they are for collection purposes, non consumable and have a certified stated value up front. Even then based on their nature, the carrier has the final word on what they will issue a PAF for.
With that said there do exist specialized insurance carriers, the most well known of course would be Lloyd's of London, that provide all risk policies on the specific item (or event) you choose to insure. Since my experience was with a standardized carrier, I would not even venture to guess what would be involved in obtaining a specialized policy for cigars.
So, it can be accomplished. The determining factors being the value of your collection and the cost effectiveness of the premiums based on your desired level of protection.
Interesting topic. I get a feeling a few of us have thought about this at one point or another.
 
bucfan444 said:
In my previous life, I spent 15 years in the auto & property insurance industry. I can tell you with certainty that insuring these under a standardized home owners policy such as those offered by State Farm, Allstate, etc, probably won't happen. Most major carriers including the one I worked for did offer PAF (personal article floater) for high value items such as art, coin collections, jewelry which required a very specific appraisal down to serial numbers and a clear stated value in case of loss. Those policies are "all risk", even for losing an item but I very much doubt their underwriting departments would write a PAF for cigars of any kind as you would need to prove they are for collection purposes, non consumable and have a certified stated value up front. Even then based on their nature, the carrier has the final word on what they will issue a PAF for.
With that said there do exist specialized insurance carriers, the most well known of course would be Lloyd's of London, that provide all risk policies on the specific item (or event) you choose to insure. Since my experience was with a standardized carrier, I would not even venture to guess what would be involved in obtaining a specialized policy for cigars.
So, it can be accomplished. The determining factors being the value of your collection and the cost effectiveness of the premiums based on your desired level of protection.
Interesting topic. I get a feeling a few of us have thought about this at one point or another.
 
 
Buc, thank you for the feedback bro. A lot of what you mentioned makes sense. The toughest part is proving what you "think" they are worth or if they would go by what you paid for them for the initial value. A lot of variables are in play here just like when trying to figure out what a cigars worth is for a pass. 
 
What sucks is that it's part collection until you smoke them. So they will have a diminishing value and to keep track of that would be a pain in the arse. I mean let's face it, many of us have all sizes of varying collections and god forbid if there was a fire, water damage or whatever, trying to replace some of these sticks would be somewhat damn impossible. And then there is the whole CC side of this to consider and if you can even insure them.
 
Yes, I have though of this and maybe a few have as well. 
 
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