Do you buy Insurance for Stereo Equipment?

My understanding is similar to Theo's - that your homeowner's policy does cover everything up to the amount specified in it. You can pay for a special rider if you really want to, but this is quite expensive. Unless your system costs six figures, it wouldn't be worth it for most folks here. That's what I was told by my agent, who is a long time family friend and wouldn't lie to me about it. My system would only cost in the low five figures to replace. Now my horn, on the other hand, is insured on a totally separate policy, since that is my livelihood, but that policy goes through my orchestra's player's association. But insuring your audio system for most people here would not be worth the expense of doing it.

Speak to an adjuster not an agent. I had flooding in my house but didn't have any damage (it was 1 inch water from a burst pipe). I had flood coverage and everything was raised 3 inches high but I did find out that my system needed to be listed as valuables/ jewelry to be covered.

It is covered under the homeowners insurance....take a picture of it to prove what you have.

Many of you may be wrong with your policies going with the idea that individual items add up to the enter whole. That just is not the case with most plans. My premium cost roughly 10-15% more even though I increased coverage by about 50% when insuring certain items at a determined value. I hope Theo is fully covered per his plan but I was not with mine even though I was insuring all my belongings to the value I had invested in them, say $100k. In an event where there was a total loss, maybe a fire, it would have been very difficult if not impossible to recoup all that loss. The reason being that my stereo equipment made up roughly one quarter of the total insured value, but according to my "$100k" plan, the cap on stereo equipment was far below that. Jewelry it's own percentage, clothes another, housewares etc.

Learsfool-I hope that in a loss your friend will make it whole, but unless he/she owns the insurance company it is not up to them. These companies don't make a profit by paying out in full to every Tom Dick and Harry that experiences a loss. The devil is the details and from my experience value is not value to insurance companies, it's value in certain and confined areas.

Keeping receipts and pictures is ideal but unless that info is stored off site(or itemized with your insurance company) it is susceptible to damage. Who's to say you spent what you spent when it's all ash and there was no record of it other than your memory? When buying used we don't have the paper trail associated when buying new, for me it's usually a MO out of my checking account, that is hardly a receipt for goods.

Just be sure that your covered, don't assume.

"You need to "schedule" each item with your insurance company"

I was a Homeowner's insurance underwriter for 15 years, and this is very sound advise. Yes it's expensive, because the claim fraud is so high with scheduled items (art, jewelry, coins, antiques, etc) but if you want your gear covered for more than about $1000 it must be scheduled. When you schedule an item a photo and some type of proof of value will be submitted and approved. If your agent doesn't know about scheduling items find another agent.