Make an insurance movie
Document your assets with a digital video camera
By Joli Ballew
In a fire, flood, burglary, or other disaster, you could lose your cars, your house, your computers, belongings like electronics and music, and even a shoebox full of family photos. When you attempt to replace those losses, it can be helpful if you can produce some documentation of what you owned—receipts, recent photographs, or the knowledge of when and where you purchased or obtained the more expensive items. Gathering all this information, if it’s even available, is a task beyond many mortals.
There is an additional way to document your belongings to supplement photos and receipts. Make a digital movie of what you own.
Using a digital video camera, you can tape the items you own and edit the movie with digital video editing software such as Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, which comes with Windows Vista and Windows XP. Then you can copy the edited movie to a CD, which can be used as partial evidence that you own the items you claim. You can (and should) store the CD somewhere safe—a safe deposit box, a fireproof safe, a trusted friend's house, or mail a copy to your insurance agent.
Note: Archiving your assets could be a practice that becomes a regular habit. You could update your archive, for example, every autumn when the time changes, or perhaps on the same day you change the batteries in your smoke detectors. And, after the first time you've created a video archive, you need only shoot new acquisitions to add into your edited movie. The process takes little time and doesn't cost much—particularly when you consider the potential cost of not doing it.
What you'll need:
| • | Digital video (DV) camera |
| • | CD burner |
| • | Digital video editing software |
Getting started and capturing the raw footage
With your DV camera charged and in hand, walk around your house and property and film everything you own. Narrate, while filming, stating as many of the following details about each of your belongings as you can:
| • | Where and how you purchased or obtained it |
| • | The date you obtained it |
| • | How much you paid for it |
| • | The approximate worth now |
| • | What it would likely cost to replace it |
Transferring your movie from your camera to your computer to a CD or DVD
Once you have your raw video footage, you've only got a few more steps left.
1. | Transfer the video from your camera to your computer by following the directions that come with your video editing software. You'll need some sort of transfer cable that both your computer and camera support—USB, FireWire (also called IEEE 1394), or analog video if you're using an analog camera. (If your computer does not support the sort of video cable that your camera uses, you can buy a PC card to add this capability.) |
2. | Edit your movie. Remember, this is for your insurance agent. He or she probably isn't interested in stunning effects, transitions between clips, or any other fancy editing techniques you may have picked up along the way. If you're in a hurry, you can skip the editing altogether and move on to the next step. However, if you edit the movie, you can save your project, and then simply append new footage that you shoot when you next update the video. |
3. | Copy the movie to a CD or a DVD (CD is the cheaper of the two). You may be able to do this through your video editing software. If not, follow the directions on your CD or DVD burner. |
4. | Preview your CD or DVD to ensure that all the video footage you shot is there. |
5. | Make a copy of the movie and send it to your insurance agent. Keep the other copy in a safe place, outside of your home. |
That's it!
If you own a digital video camera, there's no reason not to use it for documenting your assets. With luck, you'll never need that CD or DVD, but you'll appreciate having it if you really need it.
