Do you stay in an old-gen or a new-gen home?

Why do you still have old generation home insurance?

A home is a family’s most prized non-living asset. Yet, you’ll be surprised how little awareness is there around home insurance as a concept in India. And, even those who have existing home insurance plans are missing out on the tremendous changes that have happened in the segment. The traditional home insurance plans that are the most common amidst home owners have proven to be very ordinary in terms of effectiveness whenever families have had to fall back on them, in case of an eventuality. There are various technicalities like reinstatement clause, breakdown of gadgets, claims of the content and many more such conditions that are practically very difficult to adhere to.

However, the good news is that over the past few years, Household Insurance has undergone a revolution of kind. The new generation home insurance plans have plugged many of the shortcomings in the traditional plans, and much more. Today, the new gen plans don’t just provide protection against fire, earthquake and other perilous events like floods, riots, etc., on agreed value, and also for the content of the house.

Most people are aware of the Market Value and Reinstatement Value. Today, there’s a different kind of an insurance cover on offer in the market - Agreed Value insurance. When you get your home insured at Agreed Value, it means in the unfortunate event of an eventuality, your loss will be settled by the insurer on the value of the property or content agreed by the insurer at the time of purchasing the insurance policy.  The definition reflects that the claim is settled based on the value agreed by the insurance company before insurance is done in case a total or partial loss occurs. The concept is similar to motor insurance where the claims are settled on insurance declared value, i.e. IDV, and not on Insurance estimated value, which again was an old concept.

It’s important for any homeowner to be aware that the concept of Agreed Value makes a huge difference. One of the big benefits of this is that subsequent to claim, the insurance company will pay up to the sum insured and the customer can decide if they want to construct the affected property or more to a different location altogether. The thrust being to ensure that a policyholder can manage to be in the same financial position in which she/he was, prior to the misfortune. It’s important to keep pace with the times, and like your homes which have evolved from old-gen to new-gen, it’s time for you to think about upgrading your household insurance too!swayed by the ease of getting the policy.

It’s important to look for effective support, so that in case you need to get in touch with the company for post sales services, you are able to avail quality support both in terms of domain knowledge and transactional. If you have a trusted broker or an expert who can handhold you, it’s always better than talking to a call-centre voice from some part of the world!