Home Insurance

If you've spent real money building a collection — jewelry from an estate, wine in a temperature-controlled Bethesda basement, watches accumulated over a career, art acquired piece by piece through Georgetown galleries — your homeowners policy probably doesn't cover it the way you think it does. Not because the carrier is trying to deceive you. Because standard homeowners

Most homeowners assume their existing policy covers whatever happens during a renovation. That assumption holds up fine when you're repainting a bedroom. It gets shaky when you're adding a second story. The distinction matters because major renovations — additions, gut kitchens, full basement finishes, accessory dwelling units — change what your home is in the middle of the process.

When the current-events wire is quiet, sometimes the most useful thing an agency can do is flag the coverage pattern that generates the most surprised looks at renewal time. This season, that pattern is backyard amenities — specifically, what happens to a standard homeowners policy when the yard contains a pool, a hot tub, or a trampoline. None of

If you own meaningful things — jewelry, art, wine, instruments, firearms, silver — your standard homeowners policy is probably not covering them the way you think it is. This matters most in the DC metro, where a Great Falls household might have a Steinway in the living room, a Bethesda wine cellar, and an engagement ring that cost more

If you've spent the last few years upgrading your house — a whole-home audio system here, a leak detection network there, a smart lock ecosystem, a video surveillance array, maybe a home battery paired with rooftop solar — your homeowners policy may be running well behind what you actually own. Not because you chose bad coverage. Because the house