Feathers and Insurance claims

[moremoremore]

I''m just wondering if anyone has had any problems re: insurance claims where a stone has some feathers...which I think are just small fractures....could an insurance co refuse to pay out IF (unlikely) there becomes a problem...b/c the fracture was already there...???

 

[moremoremore]

guess that's a good sign...

 

[LGail]

I did speak to my insurance company yesterday and I asked them if my policy will cover if my new diamond chips. (I haven't gotten it yet but I am really excited to!) My diamond has a feather which will be covered almost entirely by one of the prongs. My concern is whether or not the Insurance company will cover if it chips and they said no

So I need to do a little extra research to see if there is a company that will cover that. I have State Farm by the way.

 

[moremoremore]

OK- that makes me very nervous. I've learned that the likelihood of chipping is slight...but now I am having some reservations...

 

[LGail]

Have you called your Insurance company and asked them? I do have some reservations but I think that the stone is more likely to be chipped in the setting process, and if it is it will be covered by the vendor. After that...well....I guess I can just hope. Or else find an Insurance company that will cover it. If you have any luck let me know. I won't be getting my ring for several more weeks.

 

[moremoremore]

Will do LGail. I wasn't going to send it out for an independant appraisal but I just might now. I have Allstate...I'm really confused about this insurance stuff and what I should look for...What's all this about Chubb? I'll have to look into that too....I can't believe they told you flat out "no"....I am very rough with my stones and have a pretty good size and higher setting than most...I do think that the lack of responses to this post is a good sign though (?)

 

[LGail]

I have no idea. Maybe just the right people to answer your questions aren't online right now

I'm going to call my actual agent back again to have him go in depth over the policy with me. One thing that is covered is mysterious disappearance...meaning, you don't know if you lost it but you just can't find it. Now that seems weird to me. If I were an Ins. Company I would rather replace a dimaond that has proof that it's chipped than replace one that "mysteriously disappeared". Sounds like a set-up for ins. fraud to me. Scary!

 

[moremoremore]

LOL....Well, that almost happened to me once....I put the ring on a little ledge above the bathroom trash can before I took a shower...forgot about it...realized I couldn't find it the next day....it fell to the bottom of the pail...and it was trash day!!!! I would never have known!!!

 

[Patty]

My ring mysteriously disappeared into the bottom of a Kleenex box for 3 weeks.

Then we used all the Kleenexes and it mysteriously reappeared.

 

[WinkHPD]

In theory your insurance company will not replace or repair a diamond that is damaged along an existing fault. In practice I have never had an insurance company fail to replace a ring that was brought to me (usually sent by the insurance company) damaged in any way. I have been doing this for over 20 years, which does not mean that things wont change tomorrow, only that I have never had a problem with this issue in 20 years.

Wink

 

[moremoremore]

that is good to know wink...thanks...also, I'll be sure to send it to you!

You should include a chapter called...inclusions, the ugly truth...lol...in your book!

 

[Odinsmom]

How would the insurance company even know the diamond had a feather. None that I know of require the diamond to be certified or require any plotting of the inclusions before they would write the insurance policy.

 

[CaptAubrey]

----------------
On 7/29/2004 3:37:44 PM LGail wrote:





One thing that is covered is mysterious disappearance...meaning, you don't know if you lost it but you just can't find it. Now that seems weird to me. If I were an Ins. Company I would rather replace a dimaond that has proof that it's chipped than replace one that 'mysteriously disappeared'. Sounds like a set-up for ins. fraud to me. Scary!
----------------

it's sort of a three-strikes-and-you're-out situation. they'll pay the first claim, but your name goes into an industry-wide database that tracks potential fraud. so if you make another, similar claim in the future, your name gets pulled out of the database for greater scrutiny. and should you develop a history of "mysterious disappearances," you'll find it next to impossible to get insurance in the first place.

 

[WinkHPD]

----------------
On 7/29/2004 8:11:59 PM Odinsmom wrote:

How would the insurance company even know the diamond had a feather. None that I know of require the diamond to be certified or require any plotting of the inclusions before they would write the insurance policy. ----------------

Ahh, and there you have it. No they don't and the quality of most appraisals is abysmal. Only a good appraisal with a copy of the cert would reveal such things. Of course a good appraisla with a copy of the cert also makes it possible for you to replace your lost item with one of equal quality. Since you are virtually NEVER punished for having a good appraisal it is better to have one to protect yourself from getting a piece of lifeless crystallized carbon if you should ever have to replace a lost or damaged diamond.

Wink

 

[oldminer]

Most insurance coverage will cover diamonds from loss, theft and damage. Sometimes an insurance company will decide that a particular damage claim ocurred from "inherent vice" in the stone and under the terms of their contract, if you had read the fine print, they refuse to pay. Many of these go to court and a judge or jury may decide. It is costly to chase insurance companies as they are fully lawyered up all the time and few consumers are so well prepared.

I have not seen any claim arising from what was a feather that got larger denied. This is not a frequent happening. You'd need to have had a very carefully done clarity plot on file from the beginning to document this "damage". Since this sort of careful documentation is scarce not many claims like this happen. Feathers are pretty stable inclusions, in general.

Insurance companies make very good money on selling you jewelry insurance. They can afford to be somewhat liberal and many seem to be exactly that. Every once in a while they get a feeling they are being screwed and fight back. They are very difficult to deal with when they feel they don't want to pay up. It is a David vs Goliath battle that is difficult to win.