How often should a high net worth insurance program be reviewed?

Annually at minimum, and any time there is a material change to your asset profile or household — a new property, a significant increase in net worth, a teenager getting a driver's license, new domestic staff, a substantial art acquisition, or a major renovation that changes your home's rebuild cost. The annual renewal is not a sufficient trigger on its own because most brokers simply roll the existing program forward without a coverage review. A dedicated annual review — which is different from a renewal conversation — is what catches the gaps that accumulate over time.

What is the named insured gap and why does it matter?

The named insured on your policy must match the legal entity that holds title to the property. If your home is titled in a trust or LLC and the policy names you personally (or vice versa), there is a named insured mismatch that can complicate a claim or potentially result in a coverage denial. This is one of the most common gaps we find in HNW accounts — the policy was originally written for personal ownership, assets were transferred to a trust for estate planning purposes, and no one updated the insurance to reflect the new ownership structure.

What is an umbrella gap and how does it occur?

An umbrella gap occurs when your underlying liability limits on your home or auto policies are set lower than your umbrella policy's attachment requirements. The umbrella attaches above the underlying limit — but if the underlying limit is $100,000 and the umbrella requires $300,000 underlying, there is a $200,000 layer that neither policy covers. This gap is your personal responsibility. It typically arises because the underlying policies were written or renewed without coordinating with the umbrella's requirements, or because the umbrella carrier updated its requirements without notifying the underlying policy broker.

What does it mean for a collection item to be unscheduled?

An unscheduled item is one that has not been individually listed on your policy with its own agreed value and coverage terms. Unscheduled personal property sits under your policy's blanket personal property coverage, subject to per-category sub-limits — typically $1,500–$2,500 for jewelry, regardless of your actual holdings. Any item whose value exceeds these sub-limits, and that you would not want to lose uninsured, should be scheduled. We regularly find significant collections — jewelry, art, watches, wine — that have never been scheduled because no one asked about them during the original policy placement.

How do I know if my home's rebuild cost estimate is accurate?

Compare the dwelling limit on your declarations page to what it would actually cost to rebuild your home at today's construction prices. For a custom luxury home, the estimate should reflect your home's specific finish quality, architectural complexity, and special materials — not a standard per-square-foot cost model. California construction costs have increased 40–60% since 2020 in many markets. If your policy limit was set more than 2–3 years ago and hasn't been adjusted, it is likely below current rebuild cost. Private client carriers typically include a home inspection and cost appraisal as part of the underwriting process, which is one reason private client coverage tends to be more accurately valued than standard homeowners policies.

7 Things to Check in Your High Net Worth Insurance Program

When we onboard a new high net worth client, the first thing we do before quoting anything is review what they have. The coverage program most HNW clients come in with was assembled incrementally — a homeowners policy placed when the home was purchased, an umbrella added later at a default limit, a jewelry floater added when someone thought to ask, various policies with various carriers that have never been reviewed together as a coordinated whole. The gaps in that kind of program are predictable. Here are the seven we find most consistently.

1. Stale Home Rebuild Value

The dwelling limit on your policy should reflect what it actually costs to rebuild your home today — not when it was last underwritten. California construction costs have increased 40–60% since 2020. Post-disaster reconstruction costs in affected areas spike a further 20–40%. If your home was insured at $2.4M based on a 2021 appraisal and it now costs $3.6M to rebuild, you have a $1.2M gap before any claim occurs. We check whether the declared value reflects a current appraisal and whether the coverage structure — agreed value, extended replacement cost, or standard replacement cost — actually protects against that gap.

2. The Umbrella Gap

Umbrella policies require your underlying home and auto liability limits to meet minimum thresholds before the umbrella attaches. If your homeowners policy has $100,000 in liability and your umbrella carrier requires $300,000 underlying, the $200,000 difference is an uninsured layer that is entirely your personal responsibility. This gap exists silently in many HNW programs because the umbrella was placed by one broker and the underlying policies by another, and no one checked the attachment requirements against actual underlying limits. We look at this first.

3. Unscheduled Collections

Standard homeowners policies have per-category sub-limits for jewelry ($1,500–$2,500 is typical), fine art, silverware, and other high-value personal property. If you have jewelry, art, watches, or wine above those thresholds and they are not individually scheduled on your policy, they are effectively uninsured above the sub-limit. We regularly find significant collections that have never been scheduled — not because the client didn't want to insure them, but because no one asked during the original policy placement or subsequent renewals.

4. Named Insured Mismatch

If your home is held in a trust or LLC — which is common for estate planning and liability protection purposes — the named insured on the policy must reflect the actual title holder. We find named insured mismatches in a meaningful percentage of new HNW accounts: the policy names the individual personally, but the property is titled in a trust that was established after the policy was written, and no one updated the coverage. A claim on a mismatched policy can result in coverage disputes and delays at exactly the wrong moment.

5. Umbrella Limit Sized to a Default, Not an Analysis

Separate from the gap issue in item 2: the umbrella limit itself is often wrong. A $1M umbrella is what most brokers quote because it requires the least conversation. For a household with $8M in net worth, a $1M umbrella leaves $7M in personal assets exposed to a judgment above that limit. We look at net worth, household risk factors — teen drivers, pools, domestic staff, public profile — and size the umbrella limit to actual exposure rather than a default number. The incremental premium from $1M to $5M umbrella is typically $300–$600 per year. That is an unusually favorable coverage-to-cost ratio.

6. Inadequate Loss of Use Limits

After a major loss — particularly a wildfire total loss — rebuilding a custom luxury home in California takes 24–36 months. During that time, additional living expenses continue: equivalent housing in a comparable community, storage, and the ancillary costs of displacement. Loss of use limits on many HNW policies were set when the policies were written and have never been updated to reflect current rental market rates in luxury communities. For a Rancho Santa Fe or La Jolla home, equivalent temporary housing can cost $15,000–$40,000 per month. Confirm your loss of use limit covers 24–36 months at current market rates in your area.

7. No Wildfire Defense Service Coverage

Private client carriers — Chubb, PURE, and AIG — all include wildfire defense programs that dispatch crews to treat and monitor policyholder properties during active fire events. Standard carriers do not. If your high-value California home is on a standard homeowners or even a standard admitted policy that is not a true private client product, you are not receiving this benefit. It is not a small distinction in a state where wildfire defense crews have documented records of protecting properties that would otherwise have been lost. Confirm your carrier's program exists and covers your geographic area.

None of these gaps are unusual. Most HNW clients come to us with two or three of them present in some form. A coverage program review — looking at all policies together as a coordinated whole — is what surfaces them before they surface on their own at claim time.