Insurance for my cushion

[MaggieB]

I recently just got engaged with an absolutely gorgeous 1.7 cushion cut diamond ring created for us by Mark at ERD. We will be posting pics along with a tribute to Mark as soon as we can figure out how to take pictures! I don''t know what the problem is, we are using the macro setting.

But anyway, my fiance has been told by his homeowner''s insurance company (Statefarm) that we are completely covered under his policy. However, I know that a lot of pricescopers get a separate policy on their ring. Can anybody tell me why? Has anyone ever made a claim to replace their ring through their homeowner''s policy? Is it only for theft? A girlfriend of mine lost her ring in the ocean on her honeymoon, and I have a hard time believing that a homeowner''s policy would cover this.

Thanks!

 

[jarbatz]

Congrats Maggie! I actually just got engaged last night with a custom cushion cut from Mark! LOVE IT! Can''t wait to see pics of yours! I haven''t posted mine yet either. Need to get my camera charged up.

ANYWAY...my insurance guy told me I would need to add a "jewelry rider" to my homeowners policy, which covers everything...theft, loss, damage, etc. Every insurance carrier is different so you want to be sure to ask what the coverage includes, how a claim is handled, do they reimburse you in cash based on the appraised value, etc. Apparently, some policies stipulate that the Insurance company chooses the jeweler for you...so you also want to make sure that in the event that you would need to replace or have your ring fixed, that you have the ability to choose who you work with.

And then some PS''r choose to have their ring covered by a totally separate policy. I am not sure of the benefits of doing that over adding a rider but maybe someone will chime in on that end.

Good luck and post pics SOON!

 

[MaggieB]

Congratulations Jarbatz

There are a lot of us happy ERD cushion sisters on this board. I really think that we should form a club. I have already gotten so many complements on my ring. We had it independently appraised yesterday and the guy really went nuts for the quality of the stone. He said it was rare that he came across a diamond cut so well. I''m sure that you love yours as much as I do mine!

 

[MaggieB]

P.S. Love your dog, Jarbatz

 

[gemgirl]

Maggie, congrats on your engagement and your beautiful new ERD creation.

I can tell you for fact, because I''m living in insurance hell right now and I''m the process of changing everything insurance related in my life....... Run of the mill homeowners insurance policies with no additional riders added will only cover your jewelry up to $500.- per piece (that''s a company like Met Life). Then there are companies like The Hartford that sell small general riders to cover any of your jewelry up to $1000.- or $1500.- per piece, depending on what you stipulate on your policy. Then you can buy a separate jewelry rider for individual pieces and insure each piece separately on your homeowner''s insurance, but it''s not the best way to go. Recently, Met Life flatly refused to pay a claim for us for a piece we were paying SEPARATE insurance on for seventeen years! Case closed. They''re an absolutely lousey company to trust with your home or your valuables. If they''re not there when you really need them, all of those insurance premiums are wasted money.

For complete piece of mind and excellent coverage, go with either Chubb- who will give you a check for the appraised value of your piece in case of loss or mysterious disappearance, or Jeweler''s Mutual- who replace your piece with a similiar quality piece. If you took great pains to choose your diamond and couldn''t imagine anyone choosing another diamond to replace it? Then go with Chubb.

Scroll through the first couple of pages in Rocky Talk. In the last week or so, a woman who had State Farm insurance just lost her engagement ring that she had insured with them for $10,000.- When she filed a claim, State Farm offered her $5,000.- to settle the claim. That sounds really shadey to me.

 

[GreenFairy]

Date: 7/17/2008 9:05:00 PM
Author: gemgirl
Maggie, congrats on your engagement and your beautiful new ERD creation.

I can tell you for fact, because I''m living in insurance hell right now and I''m the process of changing everything insurance related in my life....... Run of the mill homeowners insurance policies with no additional riders added will only cover your jewelry up to $500.- per piece (that''s a company like Met Life). Then there are companies like The Hartford that sell small general riders to cover any of your jewelry up to $1000.- or $1500.- per piece, depending on what you stipulate on your policy. Then you can buy a separate jewelry rider for individual pieces and insure each piece separately on your homeowner''s insurance, but it''s not the best way to go. Recently, Met Life flatly refused to pay a claim for us for a piece we were paying SEPARATE insurance on for seventeen years! Case closed. They''re an absolutely lousey company to trust with your home or your valuables. If they''re not there when you really need them, all of those insurance premiums are wasted money.

For complete piece of mind and excellent coverage, go with either Chubb- who will give you a check for the appraised value of your piece in case of loss or mysterious disappearance, or Jeweler''s Mutual- who replace your piece with a similiar quality piece. If you took great pains to choose your diamond and couldn''t imagine anyone choosing another diamond to replace it? Then go with Chubb.

Scroll through the first couple of pages in Rocky Talk. In the last week or so, a woman who had State Farm insurance just lost her engagement ring that she had insured with them for $10,000.- When she filed a claim, State Farm offered her $5,000.- to settle the claim. That sounds really shadey to me.

Hi, that was me that GemGirl was talking about! Ugh, such a yucky experience on top of an already yucky experience (losing your precious e-ring, that is!).

In any event, there''s 2 things going on here.

First, a homeowners or renters policy alone will not be sufficient to cover your e-ring - most standard policies cover only up to a relatively small amount of value (usually $1500-3k MAX combined jewelry/coins/furs - not much!), AND your jewelry would only be covered under the circumstances for which you could file a normal homeowners claim, such a fire/theft/natural disaster/etc. The type of disappearance I experienced, and your friend in Hawaii experienced, falls under a classification called "mysterious disappearance," and if she or I had only had a standard homeowners'' umbrella policy, we''d be dead in the water (no pun to your friend intended).

This is why you need a separate rider/article policy for each piece of valuable jewelry you wear, such as your e-ring or wedding band. This will give you coverage of your ring any time, any where, no matter whether you drop it in the ocean while scuba diving or accidentally leave it on a bathroom sink while having dinner at a restaurant, or even if you were to look down at your hand one day and see that your diamond had fallen out of it setting. This kind of insurance requires an appraisal, and you pay a premium for a certain $$ coverage bracket (ie, $6k-$8k, $8k-10K, etc). BUT here is where my experience turned bad. I had my e-ring insured on a rider to our homeowners policy through State Farm (an otherwise wonderful company, we''ve filed normal homeowner claims with them before and had no problems), at an "insurance replacement value" (that was the exact verbiage on my appraisal that was sent to them to open the policy) for one amount, but when I unfortunately lost my e-ring, and I had to settle my claim to get a new one, they offered me about 40% less of that "insurance replacement value" that my ring was insured for!!! Their out? In the fine, fine print of the rider policy contract, State Farm was only obligated to pay their "insurance replacement COST" for the lost article, hence the vast difference in price. So all the time, I was paying for what I thought was one $$ amount of coverage for "insurance replacement value", but they never had any intention of paying me that amount should I lose my ring - which I did - which is when I found out about that deceptive policy loophole. They kept insisting that most jewelry appraisals are grossly inflated, so they really have to defer to the specific "trusted, State Farm jeweler" who is going to be doing the replacement work in order to determing a "fair and accurate" amount of what the ring is truly worth - and choosing to completely ignore the appraisal that their underwriter took at face value to accept my policy in the first place! Sorry, if he or she had a problem with a "grossly inflated" appraisal, shouldn''t that have been caught before they decided to insure the ring at that amount? None of it made much sense, at least to me and my husband.

Ugh, anyway, I know it is definitely a problem in the jewelry industry that sleazy, shady jewelers overinflate appraisals so naive customers think they''re getting some incredible deal, but from being a PS lurker and jewelry nut for many years now, I know appraisal for the ring I lost was fair and accurate market price, but what can you do?

Ultimately it ended up working out for me, I won''t go into any more specifics since this post is already wayyyyy too long, but my learnings were that you need to be QUITE CLEAR when you create your article policy with the agent as to the "what ifs" - what if I lose my ring, will the insurance company automatically pay out the appraised value? If not, why? Do they differentiate between replacement value and replacement cost? How is the replacement amount that is offered to me arrived at? What is my recourse if I disagree with what the insurance company wants to settle my claim for? ...... And any other "are my bases covered" questions you can think of - some I sure wish I had asked myself!!!

I am still looking for new insurance for my replacement ring - it is insured again through State Farm but as soon as I can switch over to Chubb or a similar company with a "no haggle" style of claims settlement, you had better believe that''s what I''ll be doing!

 

[diamond_lover1]

Date: 7/17/2008 10:31:57 AM
Author:MaggieB
I recently just got engaged with an absolutely gorgeous 1.7 cushion cut diamond ring created for us by Mark at ERD. We will be posting pics along with a tribute to Mark as soon as we can figure out how to take pictures! I don''t know what the problem is, we are using the macro setting.

But anyway, my fiance has been told by his homeowner''s insurance company (Statefarm) that we are completely covered under his policy. However, I know that a lot of pricescopers get a separate policy on their ring. Can anybody tell me why? Has anyone ever made a claim to replace their ring through their homeowner''s policy? Is it only for theft? A girlfriend of mine lost her ring in the ocean on her honeymoon, and I have a hard time believing that a homeowner''s policy would cover this.

Thanks!

im pretty sure u would need a jewelry rider on the policy to cover the full value, otherwise its only insured up to a certain amount. i went with jewelers mutual for my ring, didnt want to take the risk of being dropped by my homeowners if i ever had a claim, and its covered for theft,loss of stone etc thru JM. i was denied a homeowners policy before because they saw that i had a $500.00 claim once!!