Unscheduled Property Floater

Unscheduled property floater refers to an addition to an existing property-insurance policy that provides coverage for items that have not been individually itemized or valued. An unscheduled property floater usually provides coverage against damage, theft or loss of these items. The additional cost is generally much lower than the original policy premium.

Unscheduled property floaters, also called blanket floaters, break down into two separate definitions.

The unscheduled property portion refers to items that are covered in the main policy, but are not specifically itemized or valued. These items usually do not warrant separate insurance. For example, under home insurance, unscheduled property could include clothes, jewelry, sports equipment or cameras. In the event of a fire or other catastrophic loss that the policy covers, the policyholder would add up all of these unscheduled items, estimate their total value, and submit them for compensation.

The term floater refers to an addition to a current policy to make sure the insurance covers certain valuables. People buy these add-on policies to provide coverage for property that insurance may not adequately cover otherwise. They sometimes come with additional benefits, for example, adding theft coverage even if the item was not in the home when it was stolen. Adding a floater usually requires a higher insurance premium.

Note that floater policies also can be scheduled, as opposed to unscheduled. For scheduled policies, each item would be individually listed with an approximate value.

Unscheduled property floaters may be advantageous when the prospective policyholders have many items to insure, each valued at $1,000 or less. An unscheduled policy usually has a set deductible and may also have a set coverage ceiling for all types of items.

Conversely, a scheduled property floater may be more appropriate if there are fewer, more valuable items to insure, and it’s really not a burden to list them all in the policy separately.

In general, unscheduled floaters may be limited to specific types of losses, such as theft or fire. Unscheduled floaters typically have one overarching amount of coverage that applies to any and all items within the scope of the policy.

Scheduled floaters may cover more types of losses, although they will not cover items that the buyer doesn't specifically spell out.

Note that it also is possible to have both scheduled and unscheduled policy floaters in the same policy. In fact, certain types of policies may require one or more scheduled items in order for the policyholder to have unscheduled coverage.