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Victims of property loss have trouble remembering everything that was lost. They don’t fret because they could not remember everything they owned that may have been lost, they do get upset at themselves for not keeping good records of their personal property, records that would have provided Proof-of-Loss and made it possible for them and the insurance adjuster to construct a complete and fair claim. After filing their insurance claims, victims did make efforts at maintaining home inventory lists. What is surprising is that not one person interviewed managed to keep their list up-to-date for very long. These are the findings of OneStep Systems’ President and CEO Jim Stahl who after a couple months of research decided he could do something to help people ‘remember’
According to Stahl, “Those of us that have been victims of property loss, had our home or apartment burglarized, our wallet or purse stolen, our car robbed, or suffered a house fire, have a couple other things in common…we have trouble remembering everything that was or may have been lost and we seldom have adequate Proof-of-Loss for all our property when disaster strikes. And over the past 12 years as insurance companies have reduced the amount of their claims payouts, having adequate documentation to support claims has become much more important.”
The October 14, 2007 IN THE MEDIA article HOME INSURERS’ SECRET TACTICS CHEAT VICTIMS, HIKE PROFITS, David Dietz and Darrell Preston, COMPANIES PAY OUT LESS, MAKE $73 BILLION MORE argues that insurance settlements have been dropping and implies claims payouts for the U.S. property-casualty industry were lower by over $39 billion in 2006 alone. While the bulk of lower settlements are attributable to factors such as changes in insurance company policies and costs of construction, some of the reduction in settlements can be attributed to property owners not remembering what they had and not having the documentation needed to prove they had it.
People use lists to help them remember. Today there are lots of home inventory software programs available that make it easy to sit at a PC and create a personal property list, so what’s the problem? Why doesn’t everyone have a home inventory list? And for those that do have lists, maybe a list like the one a North Raleigh resident put together several years ago after her home was burglarized and all her jewelry stolen: a file with photos that she placed in her bank safe deposit box, why are these lists never kept up-to-date?
“It’s too time consuming.” “It’s too inconvenient.”
According to a local insurance agent his most important advice to the home owners he insures, and the last thing he tells them to do as they walk out of his office, is to put together a home inventory record with pictures and to store it in a safe place outside of their home. Why? Because no one can remember everything they have in their dresser drawers, their china cabinet, or their closets and if something unfortunate does happen, having a complete home inventory record will save time and reduce stress by providing the documentation needed to get fair settlements.
Understanding that property owners, for financial reasons, want to ‘improve their memories’ and adequately document their possessions, and that there are easy-to-use software tools and digital cameras to help create lists and records, the question is why all these easy-to-use and readily available home inventory solutions don’t result in everyone having more up-to-date inventory lists. The answer: while home inventory software is easy to use, it is the process itself, i.e. sitting at a PC, using the software, creating the written documentation including photos to record property that is both inconvenient and time consuming. Use a camera, take pictures, transfer and store them. Then find the time to sit at a PC, launch the inventory application and start creating records one at a time, retrieving the appropriate photo of each item from wherever the photo was stored. Stahl’s finding: there are a lot of steps needed to create a single record and it’s seldom convenient having to use a PC to update an inventory list. By integrating wireless, email, internet and database technologies the process of creating an inventory record can be reduced 68%. More significantly, the time needed to create an entire inventory list and keep it updated can be reduced from hours or even days each year to just a few minutes since it now can be done using just a camera-equipped cell phone, wherever and whenever it’s convenient and a PC is not required. This new process is the basis of 1StepInventory.com, the first product developed by new tech startup, OneStep Systems, LLC.
