The Safe Is Not Usually the Weak Point

A safe protects against opportunistic theft while nobody is home. It does not protect against a confrontation in which somebody is asked to open it, and it does not protect against the household knowing where it is and who has the combination. Those are different risks and they are the serious ones.

Weight is the practical issue nobody raises. A safe light enough to be installed easily in an existing house is light enough to be removed by two people, and one heavy enough to resist that generally needs a ground floor and sometimes structural attention.

• Convenience, which a home safe wins decisively.
• What your policy actually requires for a scheduled item at home.
• Whether a safe is bolted down and to what.
• Who in the household knows the combination.
• Whether the property is left empty seasonally.

Whether the safe is anchored and to what, its rating, where it is located in the property, and what alarm coverage exists. Those conditions frequently attach to scheduled items and are frequently not met.

It is worth reading the schedule rather than assuming. A condition unmet is discovered at claim, which is the worst possible moment to learn about it.

1. 01Hold the part of a collection that is rarely worn.
2. 02Document what is held, which a home safe does not.
3. 03Provide records that satisfy an underwriter.
4. 04Be honest that day-to-day pieces belong at home.

Split the collection. Keep what you wear regularly at home in a proper safe and vault the rest. That is the arrangement most collectors settle on, and it is more sensible than either extreme.

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