Insurance for especially valuable items — like furs, jewelry, antiques, collectibles, wine, and fine art — is not just a good idea, it is a necessity. That is because a regular home insurance policy, which covers your personal property, has limits on how much it will pay for certain kinds of pricey items.

If you want to make sure that your valuables are covered, you will need to make special mention of them to your insurance agent when you buy your homeowners insurance. You will probably have to take out a separate rider for items like the ones we are talking about here. That means you will pay a bit more for your policy, but if you do not take out the rider, you may not be fully covered for damage to your special belongings.

In general, if you have any one item or a collection of items that is worth more than $2,500, you should tell your insurance agent when you buy the policy. The threshold of value will differ from insurer to insurer and from policy to policy.

If you have a collection of fine items of less substantial value, it might make sense to take out a blanket coverage rider on them. Categories for blanket coverage vary, but generally include jewelry, fine art, silverware, cameras, musical instruments, furs, wine, stamps, coins, and collectibles. Provided that no one piece of your collection is worth more than $2,500, blanket coverage may be the way to go.

Chubb gives its customers the choice of listing especially valuable items separately or lumping together possessions that fall into a single category, such as jewelry or a wine collection. If you want to insure something valued at more than $50,000, you will have to hire an appraiser to document its value. Listing valuables separately will effectively settle the loss before it occurs: If the insurance company has documentation proving that your antique armoire was worth $55,000 and the armoire burns in a fire, your dollar figure is already set and you will avoid having to haggle with claims adjusters.

If you want to separately list items that fall below the $50,000 threshold, then it is simply a matter of describing them and estimating their worth. Some insurers might not require a bill of sale to document the value of items worth less than $50,000, but other insurers may have more stringent requirements.

Regardless of how you decide to insure your treasures, make sure you know about any cases in which the policy will not pay out (called exclusions). In general, policies and riders for fine valuables provide broad coverage, including losses resulting from just about any peril you can think of, except nuclear explosion, war, or intentional acts of destruction.

One other thing that most policies of this type will not cover are musical instruments or cameras used for profit.

Also, most regular home insurance policies will not pay to replace what some insurance companies call "items of antiquity." In some cases, that means anything more than 25 years old, but the definition can vary depending on your home insurer. That is another reason to take out a special rider on any antiques you own.

• Theft?
• Fire?
• Flood?
• Windstorms (including hurricanes and tornadoes)?
• Earthquake?
• Explosions?
• Riot or civil commotion?
• Aircraft?
• Vehicles?
• Smoke?
• Vandalism?
• Volcanic eruption?
• Burst pipes?
• Deterioration?
• Spoilage due to sudden changes in temperature?

Keep documentation of your valuables worth in a separate location: a safety deposit box, your lawyer s office, or at the house of a relative.

Make sure you understand the limits and exclusions of your policy or rider.

For particularly valuable items, or for collections or antiques whose value can be questioned, consider hiring an appraiser. Make sure the appraiser has an impeccable reputation.