Last week my good friend's house burned to the ground along with pretty much everything in it. Amazingly enough, he and his wife, new baby, and dog were all unscathed.
The sad news is that his absolutely incredible $15000 dollar home theater is absolutely destroyed. Bye, bye, beautiful Krell, Martin Logan gear, and Plasma TV.

He was smart enough to purchase insurance for it, but he's now involved in a rather complicated battle with the insurance company. Apparently they want proof that he actually owned the equipment that he insured. Previously they asked for no receipts or pictures, and just took his insurance premium money, with the $15000 reflected in these payments. Now, when a claim is being collected, it appears that the insurance company's adjusters are far less client friendly. Tough business, I can understand why.

Of course I'm biased here, but doesn't it make sense that if they were going to take your money in insurance premiums for a home theater, that they'd demand proof that you actually owned the home theater before the first payment? And not after a several years worth of charging you premiums without question? But I rant...Hopefully his lawyer is better than theirs.

His advice to me, which I thought I'd share to all, was to keep every receipt for every item, and take either digital or regular photo's of all your household items, and keep them in a safety deposit box that could withstand a fire. Apparently that's what the insurance company suggested he "should have done". He suggests using a safety box at a bank but you can buy "black boxes" or whatever.

I'm sure this has come up before...someone should start a poll here about how many of us actually insure our gear...