Being in the jewelry business, it is inevitable that out of thousands of clients that we have, we encounter from time to time someone that has a jewelry claim that needs to be processed. There are many things that can happen when owning a fine piece of jewelry such as a loss or theft, damage, lost stones and even mysterious disappearances. Most insurance companies are always easy to work with when it comes to such claims, but in recent months, we have found that more and more people are underinsured... meaning that they cannot replace the item in question because they did not have ample coverage to replace what was lost or damaged. This leads to a client feeling very frustrated, and understandably so. People are under the assumption that their jewelry is insured, so in the event of a claim needing to be processed, the insurance company will take care of it. Why are we seeing so many cases like this in recent months? The answer may surprise you!

The rising prices of precious metals in the last year have been mind-boggling. As of now, gold is over $900.00 an ounce and platinum is over $2100.00 an ounce! Most experts are predicting that prices will continue to rise in the coming months so that, along with diamond prices continuing to rise and labor costs going up, it only makes sense that the cost of fine jewelry is moving up along with them. What you need to do is make sure that your jewelry is adequately insured so you can replace your item in the event of a loss. We recently had a client that lost her engagement ring that she had for almost 20 years. As upset as she was, she was distraught after finding out that she had the ring insured for the original purchase price from 20 years ago! To replace her ring, she had to write a check for more than $10,000.00 AFTER getting the insurance money!

How do you protect yourself from getting into this situation? You have to be proactive in being responsible for properly insuring your jewelry.Your insurance company is not responsible for updating the value of your jewelry, you are. We offer an appraisal updating service that is quick, easy and inexpensive. Call us to make an appointment, bring you jewelry items along with any appraisals and paperwork that you have, and we will re evaluate your jewelry at today’s market value. You then submit the new appraisal to your insurance company and your premium will be adjusted to the current value. This will give you piece of mind in knowing that you can replace your jewelry in the event of a loss. Bear in mind that the appraised value is the replacement value. That is, what it would cost you to go to a jeweler and purchase the same brand new item. It is NOT what you would expect to get selling it, nor is it an offer to buy. There are other types of evaluations done in situations like that, such as appraising for estate purposes. Please make sure that your appraised items are all updated within the last 18 months, if not, call us to make an appointment to bring your appraisals up to date. Lastly, if you haven’t worn that old piece of jewelry just sitting in your drawer, trade it in or sell it! Precious metal prices are at record highs. You might be pleasantly surprised as to how much you can get for it!