The Coverages the Standard Stack Misses

Home, auto, and umbrella cover the risks insurers found it profitable to bundle. Several large, entirely foreseeable exposures sit outside that bundle, and each requires a separate purchase most households never make.

Flood.

Excluded from every standard homeowner’s policy, without exception. Coverage comes from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), capped by 44 C.F.R. §61.6 at $250,000 on the dwelling and $100,000 on contents — limits that are badly inadequate for a high-value home — or from the private excess-flood market that layers above it. Two facts drive the decision: a substantial share of NFIP claims come from properties outside designated high-risk flood zones, and lenders only require coverage inside them. Check your property on FEMA’s Map Service Center, and note that most NFIP policies carry a 30-day waiting period, so this cannot be bought when a hurricane appears in the forecast.

Earthquake.

Also excluded, and the relevant peril for anyone on the West Coast. California homeowners buy through the California Earthquake Authority or a surplus-lines carrier. Deductibles are percentage-based — typically 5% to 25% of the dwelling limit, not a flat dollar amount — so a 15% deductible on a $2M home means the first $300,000 of damage is yours. That structure makes the coverage close to useless for moderate damage and essential for a total loss, which is the correct way to think about buying it: this is catastrophe insurance, and you should size the deductible to the largest loss you could absorb without selling assets.

Valuable articles.

Standard policies cap jewelry, watches, furs, fine art, wine, and collectibles at painfully low sub-limits — often $1,500 to $5,000 in aggregate for theft of jewelry, regardless of your dwelling limit. The fix is a scheduled personal property floater: itemized, appraised, agreed-value, usually with no deductible and worldwide coverage including mysterious disappearance. If you own a $40,000 ring and have not scheduled it, you are insured for perhaps 4% of it. Update appraisals every three to five years; agreed-value settlements pay the scheduled amount, which is cold comfort if it reflects 2015 gold prices.

Cyber and identity.

Increasingly available as a homeowner’s endorsement for $25–$100 a year, covering ransomware, identity restoration costs, and — the genuinely valuable part — social-engineering fraud where you are deceived into wiring money. That last peril is excluded from most standard policies and is the one that actually empties accounts, most commonly in real estate closings where a spoofed email redirects the down payment wire. Standalone personal cyber policies exist for households with meaningful exposure.

Employment practices liability (EPLI).

If you employ household staff — a nanny, a housekeeper, a property manager — you are an employer, and you are exposed to wrongful termination, discrimination, and harassment claims that the homeowner’s liability section does not cover. section “As the Payer: The Nanny Tax” covers the payroll-tax side of household employment; this is the liability side, and it is the one that produces six-figure claims.

Kidnap and ransom.

Niche, but relevant for families with public wealth, executive visibility, or regular travel to higher-risk jurisdictions. The real product is not the ransom reimbursement — it is the response-consultant retainer that comes with it.

Travel medical and evacuation.

The gap nobody notices until it is catastrophic: domestic health plans generally provide little or no coverage outside the US, and Original Medicare covers essentially nothing abroad — which matters precisely when a retiree’s travel budget peaks. A few Medigap plans (C, D, F, G, M, N) include limited foreign emergency care, typically 80% after a $250 deductible with a $50,000 lifetime cap, which is not a serious number against a real event. The expensive part is not treatment but transport: a medical evacuation from Southeast Asia or sub-Saharan Africa to a US facility runs well into six figures and no ordinary policy pays it. Buy an annual multi-trip travel medical policy with evacuation and repatriation coverage — a few hundred dollars a year for a couple — or a dedicated evacuation membership if you travel to remote regions. Check whether the policy evacuates you to the nearest adequate facility or to the hospital of your choice; only the second is worth having.

The common thread: each of these is excluded from the policies you already own, each is cheap relative to the exposure, and none of them will be raised by an agent whose commission comes from the bundle. Ask for each by name at your next renewal.