Happy New Year Everyone!
As we start the New Year and January comes to a close I thought this would be a great place to begin. We’ve all made those New Year’s resolutions to get more organized. Well, here is something to help you get started. It’s important to keep a home inventory, but the process can be time-consuming and difficult. Thankfully, the newest version of the Insurance Information Institute’s Know Your Stuff tool, available via free download, can make doing a home inventory a breeze.
Know Your Stuff helps customers enter items by room and upload photos or scanned receipts. Once the information is in the system, items can be sorted by price, date of purchase or type (silverware, major appliances, etc.). Customers can even customize their own categories.
Once completed or updated, the Know Your Stuff report also can be printed, saved on a computer, e-mailed or burned on a CD.
The tool is easy to use. Just go to www.knowyourstuff.org the web site takes it from there. A computer must be running Windows XP, 2000, or Mac OS 10.3 or higher for the software to work correctly. (Note: According to the Insurance Information Institute, a version compatible with Windows Vista should be released sometime around May 2008.)
New secure-storage feature
Version 3.0 of Know Your Stuff is compatible with Vault 24, a global data security resource for financial and inventory information.
For a yearly fee ($14.99-79.99) Vault 24 is designed to store critical information, such as Know Your Stuff Home Inventory files, on a secure server in Switzerland. This way, if your home is destroyed, you can access this information remotely at any time.
Note: Customers are not required to use Vault 24 with the free Know Your Stuff tool
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great info, Gerald, and I’ve needed something like this for my own home and office for years. Thanks!
When I saw this site I almost went nuts! In a good way of course. I mean how easy is this. I’ve always talked with my clients about keeping a record of their things. This makes it easy and efficient! When someone makes a claim or has a loss, they always think that they can remember everything they have. This is not always the case. How often have you sat down in your easy chair and looked around the house or apartment and said “whatever happened to…” I know I just saw it yesterday. Imagine doing this after a claim has been settled. It can create a mess. Most times we don’t know something is missing until we go to use it again. Now try to remember what it cost or is worth (not to mention where you bought it). I like this site. I’m going to use it myself. I move into my new condo at the end of the month. What good insurance agaent wouldn’t put his money where his mouth is.
Gerald, great post! I know TWO people who have had house fires in the last 10 years. Both lost pretty much everything. One of them was in the house when it caught fire. Some workers started the fire upstairs and then ran out and left her there in the burning house. She’s fine, but lost so much.
It just goes to show, you never know what weird blows life has in store for you.
I’ll recommend this tool to my friends and clients!
Thanks for passing this on to friends. This was my hope.
This is so true!
That’s why this is such a valuable tool to help bring things together after a loss. It’s one less thing you have to think about when you are trying to put your life back together.