What Happens When an Adjuster Visits After a Burglary?
They inspect signs of forced entry, review your police report and inventory, and estimate what's owed for stolen or damaged items.
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The adjuster is mainly checking that the claim matches what you reported. They'll look at the forced door or window, photograph the damage, and walk through your inventory item by item. This is where proof matters. Receipts, photos, serial numbers, anything showing you owned it and what it was worth. Without that, the adjuster may rely on estimated values, which often run lower. Jewelry, cash and similar items usually carry a separate, lower limit than general personal property coverage, so check your declarations page for that number before the visit.
What your jewelry limit actually covers
If what was stolen is worth more than your policy's jewelry or valuables limit, the gap comes out of your pocket. Comparing coverage now shows what a policy with a higher limit would actually pay.
What to have ready before the adjuster arrives
Pull together anything that proves what you owned before the adjuster shows up. Photos of the room before the burglary, old receipts, credit card statements showing a purchase, appraisals for jewelry, even a warranty card for an electronics item. The adjuster isn't being difficult by asking for this. The insurer needs some basis for the payout, and your word alone usually isn't enough for higher-value items. If you kept a home inventory, a simple list of belongings with photos or a video from before the loss, this is when it pays off. Without it, you're reconstructing the contents of your house from memory while also dealing with a break-in.
The police report matters more than people expect. Most policies require one for a theft claim, and the adjuster will check that what you're claiming lines up with what you told the police. If you remember another item missing after you've already filed the report, you can usually file a supplemental report or let the insurer know directly. Leaving it out entirely because the original report is already filed tends to cause more trouble than amending it.
Expect the adjuster to ask when you last saw each item and when you noticed it gone. For things stolen from a car or while traveling, bring whatever you have from that trip, a hotel receipt, a credit card charge near where it happened, anything that places the item with you before it disappeared. Coverage for belongings stolen away from home is usually part of the same personal property coverage, often at a percentage of what's covered inside the house, so check your declarations page for that percentage rather than assuming it matches your main limit.
If you have valuables you haven't scheduled, meaning you haven't added them individually to the policy with their own documented value, now is the time to find out what that would have changed. A scheduled item is typically covered for its appraised value with no deductible and no sublimit, while unscheduled jewelry sits under the lower cap the adjuster is already applying to your claim. That difference only shows up when something is actually stolen, which is usually too late to fix for this claim but worth doing before the next one.
What happens after the adjuster's visit
Once the adjuster has the inventory, the photos and the police report, they put together an estimate of what the insurer owes. For general personal property, that's usually the replacement cost or actual cash value of each item, minus your deductible. For anything that falls under the jewelry or valuables sublimit, the payout stops at that cap no matter what the adjuster's own estimate says the item was worth.
You'll typically get a written claim summary showing how each item was valued and what's being paid. Read through it line by line. If something was valued lower than you expected, ask what the adjuster based that number on. Sometimes it's a database estimate for a similar item, and if you find a stronger receipt or appraisal afterward, you can usually submit it before the claim closes. Once it's closed, reopening it is harder, so this is the window to push back if a number looks wrong.
Payment timing depends on your state and your insurer's process, but most claims pay out in stages. An initial payment often comes quickly for the clearer items, like electronics with a receipt, while anything needing more documentation, like jewelry without an appraisal, can take longer. If the insurer needs more time or more paperwork, they should tell you what's missing and why the rest is delayed.
After the claim closes, it's worth a second look at what you learned about your coverage. If the jewelry limit came in well under what was actually stolen, or if items stolen from your car were capped at a percentage you didn't expect, those are gaps that stay in the policy until you change them. Scheduling valuable items individually, with a current appraisal, is the only way to carry their full value without running into that sublimit again.
Before you file the next claim
Check your declarations page for the jewelry and valuables sublimit, and compare it against what you actually own. If there's a gap, scheduling those items now is what changes what gets paid next time.
