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Appraisal for Mounted Diamond Advice

truenorth

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 5, 2016
Messages
19
Hi all,

I am in the process of getting insurance for my engagement ring and want to find out if I need an independent appraisal.

David Klass provided me with an appraisal cert that prices the whole piece as $9,500 USD, which is around $3k more than what I paid for it. Is this sufficient for insurance purposes with Jewelers Mutual or do I need an independent appraisal?

If an independent appraisal is necessary is it still viable with the diamond being already mounted?

Thanks in advance

TN
 

denverappraiser

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Messages
9,150
The bar for the insurance companies is incredibly low. They’ll take almost anything and none that I know of none that requires any sort of independence. They barely even require credentials. It’s you that should possibly be picky.

The appraisal description amounts to the purchase order for the replacement. If it’s lost or stolen, the description from the appraisal will be used to define what is ‘like kind and quality’ for the replacement. This means the most important pieces for you are actually the description and the photographs. Look at the sellers report, read the description, look at the pictures, and ask yourself if someone else were to replace the item with ONLY that information, are you likely to be happy with the results.

Most insurance type appraisals are done on mounted diamonds. There are some limitations, and some assumptions get made, but it’s not generally a problem.
 

Lookinagain

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,428
For insurance purposes, I think it wisest to ask for an insurance replacement appraisal. If your ring was appraised by DK for $9500 but you could replace it for say $7,000 why pay premium on the additional $2500. Generally most (maybe not all) insurance companies will only pay you what it costs to replace the ring so paying the additional premium on a value you may not ever get seems like over paying to me. Of course as mentioned, you want a very accurate description of the ring and stone so that you can make sure what you get is a true replacement and not just something similar. For instance, if your diamond is an OEC, you want to make sure that that is specified.
 

truenorth

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 5, 2016
Messages
19
Thank you both for your advice, very helpful.
 
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