It is that time of year where many of my client’s will give or receive a very sparkly gift from Santa.
I can’t deny that I get a little excited when a client calls to provide the specifics on their new diamond encrusted whatever.
That being said, now is also the time to start talking about insurance for those beautiful items.
I recommend everyone have at least some type of jewelry schedule or jewelry insurance. It should be a given when talking about homeowners insurance.
There are two ways to do a jewelry schedule, a blanket or an agreed value. Blanket requires less effort but agreed value will provide more definitive coverage.
If you are unsure which direction you should go you need to look at your jewelry collection.
Go home and pull out all of your jewelry pieces and lay them out on the bed. Decide which is your most inexpensive piece? Which is the most expensive piece? What items do you wear regularly? Do you keep any of the items in a safe? Knowing what you have will help you decide what is more important.
You can even do a combination of blanket and agreed value. The one thing I don’t recommend is no jewelry schedule.
Keep in mind that if you have no jewelry schedule, coverage will be found under your homeowners insurance. The missing item would be subject to the policy deductible. The minimum deductible with most insurance companies is $1,000. Also, you have to account for any limitation in the homeowners policy for lost or misplaced jewelry. The policy may limit coverage to $2,500 or $5,000, less the policy deductible. That can really hurt when your heirloom engagement ring disappears.
Before you go and buy your next piece of jewelry go get some type jewelry insurance in place. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
Pamela