Mother’s Day is approaching and while most of us will not be buying expensive jewelry for our mothers, it’s a good time to think about whether or not the jewelry that mom is wearing is properly insured – if at all! Often one of the first jewelry purchases for any couple is an engagement ring. Most of the time, this large purchase for the young couple goes onto an insurance policy because the jeweler will often provide an appraisal and the young couple immediately gets the items insured.
Once life goes on and other jewelry “joins” the couple’s collection, does it get added to the policy? It depends…we often see that inherited or gifted jewelry does not get added in many cases because the value is often unknown and/or not of the same type of life-changing relevance as is the gift of an engagement ring. The value however can be much more than we realize especially if mom gifted a piece from her own collection.
So how do you insure jewelry when you don’t know the value? First of all, get appraisals,from a certified professional. There are several certifications depending on what type of jewelry is being valued. Second, once you have the value of each item that you wish to insure, you need to decide whether to schedule the item on your policy with replacement cost coverage or agreed value coverage. With replacement cost, if the item can be replaced with like kind and quality at a lower amount than the appraisal, that is what the insurer will pay, but with Agreed Value coverage, the insurance company pay the amount shown on the policy it the covered item is lost.
So this mother’s day, you may want to think about your jewelry and whether or not it is covered properly. If you have any questions about that, please do not hesitate to give us a call.
