Valuables & Collections

Every household policy in Portugal covers valuables, and almost none of them covers them the way an owner of a real collection assumes. Cover is delivered through an overall limit for the class, a sublimit per item, and a set of conditions about where the item was kept and what security was in place. Items above the sublimit have to be specified individually. The distance between "insured" and "insured for what it is worth" is where most of the disappointment in this area lives.

The articles here work through that gap. Agreed value and market value are not the same basis and behave very differently on an appreciating asset — a watch, a classic car, a case of wine, a painting by an artist whose market has moved. Valuations have a shelf life, and insurers differ on how old a valuation they will accept and who they will accept it from. Safes, alarms and their certification are frequently a condition of cover rather than a discount on it, which means an unset alarm is a coverage question, not a discount question.

We also cover the situations where the object leaves the house: jewellery and watches worn while travelling, high-value bicycles and e-bikes ridden away from home, musical instruments carried to performances, and worldwide all-risks cover for personal possessions generally. And we cover arrival — shipping a collection to Portugal is a transit risk, a customs question and an insurance question at once, and the three are usually handled by three different parties who each assume one of the others has it.

Looking for a quote rather than a read? See our High-value & collections page.