Insurance+Trading Places

Factual Questions
1
      • Regarding the movie Trading Places:
  • There’s a scene early in the movie where the two old guys bring Eddie Murphy to “his” new house for the first time. He picks up a vase, starts tossing it around and drops it. He asks how much it cost and one of the other men says (IIRC) $20,000. Then he points out that they had insured it for (again, IIRC) $50,000.
    ~ How do you get insurance like this? I have heard of policies against theft, but if the whatever-it-is gets stolen, the insurance company follows the police investigation very closely. Insurance against breakage of one particular item I have a hard time imagining: the wife’s beloved lap rat could be gnawing on a Princess beanie baby and knock stuff over. Seems like there’s lots of ways it could get broken, especially if it’s tall, thin and kept out in the open. Where do you get policies like this? How much do they cost? Like as in, typically, what percentage of the policy coverage do they have to pay per year? - MC
    ~
    ~
    ~
    “Aaaaaaaaaohhhhhhheeoolleoolalaaaaaaaa. Beef Jerky Time.”
2

My homeowner’s insurance policy has a rider that covers my wife’s jewelry. It covers accidental loss for any reason- loss, theft, accidental breakage, etc. This was pretty cheap, too. The insurance value is the appraised value of the jewelry (which we had to get appraised).

In the case of the movie, the vase was probably “appraised” at $50,000. I’m not sure how insurance of valuable, fragile, art items works, though :slight_smile:

Arjuna34