Personal Property Floater

Includes copyrighted material of Insurance Services Office, Inc., with its permission.

Open Perils Coverage

The ISO personal property floater form PM 00 19 12 02 applies open perils coverage to most of the kinds of personal property found in a typical home, including, under certain circumstances, property of others. The insured’s additions and alterations to the part of the residence occupied by the insured as a tenant, or to a condominium unit owned by the insured may also be covered. Modern homeowners, condominium, and renter’s policies have primarily supplanted the need for separate personal property floater coverage; however, in some circumstances (for example, where the insured escrows payment for insurance as part of his mortgage arrangement, or has large collections of personal property which he or she does not want to cover under the homeowners form), the need for separate inland marine personal property coverage exists. The form could also presumably be used for a college student away from home with a large amount of personal property.

The equivalent AAIS form for personal property is IM-176.  Following is a discussion of these forms.

Topics covered:

Development of the personal property floater

Scope of coverage

Definitions

Property covered

Property not covered

Perils insured against and exclusions

Optional coverages

Deductibles; credits

Loss conditions

Other insurance

Other provisions

When to schedule

Development of the Personal Property Floater

The personal property form was developed in the early part of the twentieth century, when increasing use of the automobile created the need for insurance coverage away from an insured’s home. The fire insurance policies in force at the time provided an extension of 10 percent of the contents limit for property away from the residence. However, the two primary perils faced by a traveler—theft and the perils of transportation—were not covered. In Marine Insurance: Ocean and Inland (Prentice Hall; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; 1970) the writer says that a traveler would need “five insurance policies to give himself reasonably complete protection under the old monoline insurance concept of insurance.” The five policies would be: “fire and extended coverage policy, a residence theft and burglary policy, a water damage policy, an earthquake policy, and a personal effects policy.” In addition, a sixth policy might be needed for valuable personal articles.