World's Best Insurance Companies

A standard homeowners policy includes coverage for jewelry and other precious items such as watches and furs. These items are covered for losses caused by all the perils included in your policy such as fire, windstorm, theft and vandalism.

You need enough insurance to cover the following:  The structure of your home. Your personal possessions. The cost of additional living expenses if your home is damaged and you have to live elsewhere during repairs. Your liability to others.

We are all concerned with saving money and it is important to shop around when looking for insurance coverage. However, simply reducing your coverage or dropping important coverages altogether can leave you dangerously underinsured in the event of a disaster. Following are the five biggest auto, home, flood and renters insurance mistakes consumers can make, along with suggestions to avert those pitfalls while still saving money: 1. Insuring a home for its real estate value rather than for the cost of rebuilding . When real estate prices go down, some homeowners may think they can reduce the amount of insurance on their home. But insurance is designed to cover the cost of rebuilding, not the sales price of the home. You should make sure that you have enough coverage to completely rebuild your home and replace your belongings. A better way to save : Raise your deductible. An increase from $500 to $1,000 could save up to 25 percent on your premium payments. 2. Selecting

Standard homeowners, renters and business insurance policies do not cover damage from earthquakes.

($000) Rank Group/company Direct premiums written (1) Market share (2) 1 California Earthquake Authority $573,960 20.0% 2 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance 228,898 8.0 3 Zurich Insurance Group (3) 217,978 7.6 4 American International Group 150,861 5.3 5 Travelers Companies Inc. 143,022 5.0 6 GeoVera Insurance Holdings Ltd. 118,128 4.1 7 Liberty Mutual 100,496 3.5 8 ACE Ltd. 86,556 3.0 9 Swiss Re Ltd. 84,249 2.9 10 Chubb Corp. 58,990 2.1 (1) Before reinsurance transactions, includes state funds. (2) Based on U.S. total, includes territories. (3) Data for Farmers Insurance Group of Companies and Zurich Financial Group (which owns Farmers' management company) are reported separately by SNL Financial. Source: SNL Financial LC.

($ billions) Rank Date Location Magnitude Insured loss (current exposures) 1 Feb. 7, 1812 New Madrid, MO 7.7 $112 2 Apr. 18, 1906 San Francisco, CA 7.8 93 3 Aug. 31, 1886 Charleston, SC 7.3 44 4 Jun.  1, 1838 San Francisco, CA 7.4 30 5 Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge, CA 6.7 23 6 Oct. 21, 1868 Hayward, CA 7.0 23 7 Jan. 9, 1857 Fort Tejon, CA 7.9 8 8 Oct. 17, 1989 Loma Prieta, CA 6.3 7 9 Mar. 10, 1933 Long Beach, CA 6.4 5 10 Jul. 1, 1911 Calaveras, CA 6.4 4 (1) Modeled loss to property, contents, business interruption and additional living expenses for residential, mobile home, commercial and auto exposures as of December 31, 2011. Losses include demand surge and fire following earthquake. Policy conditions and earthquake insurance take-up rates are based on estimates by state insurance departments and client claims data. Source: AIR Worldwide Corporation.