Is Jewelry Covered Under Your Home Policy?

a woman's hand with a diamond ring on it
Is Jewelry Covered Under Your Home Policy?

A fine piece of Jewelry usually represents a wonderful life event. An engagement, Family heirloom, Anniversary, or something like a successful year of hard work. It means something to you and holds a lot of value not only sentimentally, but also can be worth a lot of money. To lose that item could not only bring immense grief, but could also represent a large financial loss. While insurance can’t do much in terms of the former with emotional loss, if properly protected can absolutely prevent the latter and help replace that treasured piece.

With your property policy (Home, Condo, Renters insurance) there may be some coverage there for your valuable item. A standard home policy will provide protection against a covered cause of loss such as fire, theft, windstorm, or smoke. However, to keep policy prices at a reasonable level,  there are special limits of liability with this base coverage for jewelry. Depending on the specific carrier this can range anywhere from $1,500- $5,000 which is a relatively low limit when talking about gold, platinum, diamonds, and Rolex watches.

 

“What can I do to better protect my jewelry from loss?” I am so glad you asked!

With protecting valuable items there are really two viable options you can opt for that will provide significantly better strength with your coverage.

 

1- You can raise the limit of liability on your property policy.

This would be the less costly option. Most insurance carriers offer endorsements on your property policy to raise the limits of coverage for valuable items. However, there will still be a limit on the max payout per piece and overall loss.

For example you can purchase an endorsement to raise the blanket limits for Jewelry but that max payout would still only be $6,000 per piece, and $15,000 in total if you lost numerous pieces.

Stronger coverage? Yes. Ideal? Not really.

 

2- Purchase a Personal Articles Floater or Schedule your items on your home policy.

While this option does cost more. It is absolutely the best way to ensure your jewelry has the most expansive coverage including causes of loss that wouldn’t be covered by your home policy such as accidental losses like mysterious disappearance (you lost it) or leaving it in a hotel room.

When looking to purchase this style of coverage, you will be asked for either an appraisal of the item, or a bill of sale/ receipt. This is required because the policy will cover the item to its full value and having the item appraised or recently purchased will assign the proper value. While each carrier is different with their rating of items you will generally see the annual cost of coverage land around $10-$15 a year per $1,000 in coverage.

 

Having your jewelry properly protected will prevent a lot of heart (and head) ache if something were to happen to that item. If you would like to explore your coverage options in a little more detail you can reach out to any one of our professionals at The Staples Agency and someone would be more than happy to discuss your optimal choices.

Congratulations on a wonderful life event! Let’s make sure it is properly protected.

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