Insurance:

[Eternal]

Hi again all,
I am not sure if I''m posting this in the right place, so please feel free to suggest a more appropriate forum if there is one.
I was poking around through my jewelry collection, and I realized that while I don''t own any large diamonds, (biggest one is about 71 pts I think)each piece that I own, would cost a few pennies to replace if they were to get lost, stolen, or damaged in some way.
While each piece might not be worth insuring by itself, if you have ten or more pieces, you might want to consider insuring your jewelry collection.
I have never considered this before and thought I would ask if there are particular insurance companies that are better for this type of insurance, if there are different types of insurance to investigate, and how much I could expect it to cost to have an entire collection of jewelry "appraised" rather than go piece by piece.
For instance, I have a little heart pendant that contains perhaps 50 one point diamonds. It would not fetch much at a pawn shop, but if I tried to replace it would cost at least $300. Well, if I had 10 or 15 of them, it might make sense to insure the lot no?
Any input provided will be greatly appreciated.
This whole "quenching" escapade just got me thinking.
Thanks in advance,
~Eternal

 

[kenny]

To save you a search, the two insurance companies I keep reading about here is Chubb and Jeweler's Mutual.

 

[bh9]

Most homeowners'' and renters'' insurance policies have a $1,000 limit on jewelry. You may already be covered -- check with your agent. If you don''t have insurance, it is a worthwhile investment.

Additionally, Chubb would not issue a standalone policy for just my wife''s engagement ring -- it had to be a rider on our renters'' insurance policy. But with a different agent or in a different state, this may not be the case.

If your jewelry is not worth more than several thousand dollars, I am not sure you will find a company to write a policy for a reasonable premium. If, for example, a jewelry policy''s premium was 1.3% of the limit (roughly the factor used by my homeowners'' rider), it may not even cover the administrative overhead of the policy. This would be handled by either charging far more for a premium than you should be paying or by selling you a primary policy too.

 

[sonnyjane]

I have Jeweler's Mutual and have some less valuable pieces insured with them (a $300 ring, $800 earrings) but I also have my engagement ring which is about $6,000. I'm not sure if they require you to meet a minimum, but once you have a policy with them, it's very easy to add pieces of lesser value to your policy. You do, however, need an appraisal for each piece that you add. Since JM works by replacing the item with a like piece, I don't think you can insure a lot as a whole, you'd have to do each item separately.