Insuring your jewelry and why it is so important...

One of my dear friends e-mailed me a link to a news story about a man that dropped his engagement ring mid proposal, to his soon to be Fiance', off the Brooklyn Bridge. The link to the story is below and you can actually watch the video of his proposal. His sister was video tapping it for him.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Oops-Fiancee-Drops-Engagement-Ring-Off-Brooklyn-Bridge.html

Now not to spoil the ending to this story but he did manage to get the ring back. The ring was mangled from it being run over by on coming traffic, but it was found and she said yes!! Now if the ring had tumbled into the Atlantic instead of the road he would have been out thousands of dollars and one sad Bride to be without her engagement ring to deal with. Thus needing to buy another engagement ring ASAP! If this ring was insured before hand then all he would do is call his insurance company and file the claim and in a matter of a few weeks the Bride would have a replica of the original on her hot little hand.

Insuring your jewelry is very easy. You can go about it in a few ways:
1. Call the insurance company that covers your home and add a special rider to your policy. You could also have a flat $5,000.00 coverage for stolen jewelry already on your home, but may not cover loss or damage. Also check with the company to see how much your premium will go up if the piece was lost or stolen and if this would effect the coverage on your home.
2. Seek out a reputable company that just insures jewelry. There are a hand full that do just this. If you rent or your insurance does not cover loss and damage or the annual premium to cover the ring is too high this is the route you should go.

Diamonds of Palo Alto is insured with a company called Jewelers Mutual. We recommend them to our clientele. They tend to be the easiest to work with and are very competitively priced. Also you can go to any jeweler you want to have your jewelry replaced. Some companies require you to use there jewelers and you have no say in the process.

What you will need to insure your jewelry:
1. Appraisal that includes a very detailed description of the item. The description should include: metal type, shape of stones, size of stones, number of stones, measurements of stones, clear description of color if any, number of stones and orientation of how they are set, era of design, statement of designer and if it is hand made, machined made or assembled, if any moving mechanisms are in good or poor condition, over all condition of piece if clasp are working, any cracks or defects in piece or stones, clear color images of at least three views of the piece to aid the jewelry in re-creating the piece, if any type of certification has been performed on any part of the piece from a laboratory this must be mentioned with corresponding report or lab report numbers and name of the labs documented.
2. Invoice of purchase
3. Original lab reports if any

Also a good rule of thumb when purchasing a piece of jewelry or a expensive watch is to have an appraisal done by the jeweler before you pick up the item and have the piece fully insured before leaving the store. When insuring jewelry only insure pieces that would be a hardship to replace financially. For example, if you purchased a pair of gold hoops for $350.00 and if you lost them most likely you could replace them on your own without the added cost of paying to have them appraised and then paying the yearly premium to insure them. Now, if you purchased a $5000.00 diamond pendant this most likely would be a hardship and worth the appraisal fees and the yearly premium to know if it was lost it would be replaced without financially being a hardship.

If you have any further questions regarding appraisals please feel free to contact me at
shara@diamondsofpaloalto.com

All the very best,
Shara