Jewelry is a great way to accessorize and express yourself through carefully crafted pieces. However, some jewelry is timeless, like a watch, engagement ring, or wedding ring. These pieces generally run at a high cost, so protecting them is at the utmost importance. This is where jewelry insurance comes in!
Why Should You Insure Your Jewelry
Accidents and tragedies happen. Plain and simple! Items can be stolen from your home, your hotel room, or off a counter while you’re washing your hands. Think of insurance as a parachute! If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should consider jewelry insurance, let this guide aid you in your decision making. Some people believe that they shouldn’t insure it because their jewelry isn’t worth a lot of money. However, it’s important to remember that you’re adding in the total cost of all your items, not just the cost of one. Therefore, once you put in all the prices together, it could be cost beneficial to insure it, just in case. Nobody ever wants to think that they are susceptible to theft, but it can happen to anyone.
Still on the fence about insuring? Consider these scenarios:
- Would you be devastated at losing a sentimental piece of jewelry?
- Would you be unable to replace it due to cost?
- Are you concerned about settling for a replacement at lesser quality?
Where Can I Insure Jewelry?
Most home and rental insurance insurance has a section for jewelry. This policy reimburses you in the event that your jewelry (or any other included items, like electronics) is lost or damaged due to one of the outlined perils. Outlined perils include theft, fire, vandalism, or weather related events. However, most claims involving jewelry occur due to theft.
These policies cover your jewelry in the event of those perils, but they do not cover any damage occurring to wear and tear of an item. So for instance, if your bracelet has scratches on it, your insurance won’t cover it. However, if someone steals your bracelet, your insurance covers it!
However, if you’re looking for full coverage, you can opt for “extra coverage” on your home insurance. This would be important in the event that your expensive jewelry was stolen. It isn’t recommended for all your jewelry to be covered under extra coverage, just the expensive pieces that cost significantly more than the coverage limit would take care of. For example, if your engagement ring is worth $12,000 and it was stolen from your home, your insurance would give you the full $12,000 as a reimbursement.
If you do not have your jewelry listed under extra coverage, your insurance will likely only pay a maximum of $1,500 under a base policy. This is also known as coverage limit, or sublimit.
The Cost Breakdown of Jewelry Insurance
Something that holds people back from extra insurance is believing that it is cost prohibitive. While there’s no way to guess the exact cost of jewelry insurance, there are variables that affect the cost. These variables include:
- State and zip code to determine crime rate and chance of theft
- The age of the building or home
- Deductible price, low deductible, higher price and high deductible, lower price.
- Current coverage amount
- Adding on extra coverage increases price, due to taking on a higher risk
A general cost understanding for jewelry is that the jewelry insurance costs 1-2% of the value of the piece of jewelry. Therefore, if you have an engagement ring valued at $10,000, insuring it costs as little as $100 per year to insure.
Insurance That Specifically Covers Jewelry
If you don’t want to add additional coverage to your home or renters insurance, you are able to take out a separate jewelry insurance policy with a stand-alone company. Here are six of the top jewelry insurance options, provided by The Balance
- Best Overall: Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company
- Recommended for Comprehensive Coverage: Lavalier
- Best for Processing Claims: JIBNA Personal Jewelry Insurance
- Top Insurance for No Deductible Coverage Coverage: Chubb
- Best for Less Expensive Jewelry Items: Nationwide
Tips for Protecting Jewelry
Here are the best tips for protecting jewelry, as provided by Geico:
- Insure your jewelry for the right amount of money
- Make sure to have your jewelry appraised if you do not have a current receipt
- Keep a copy of your receipts for jewelry
- Take pictures of the item
- Keep the jewelry in a safe spot, like a lock-box or safe-deposit box.
- Only bring jewelry that wear everyday when traveling
- Never leave jewelry in your luggage
- Have the jewelry pieces inspected regularly