‘Surely paying your house insurance every month means everything is covered. Including my grandma’s ring with a red stone that I never wear, and the gold chains bought sometime in the 1990’s- they are not worth a lot any way’. 

But is that so? 

The difficult truth a lot of us face after a piece of jewellery has been lost or stolen, is that Insurance company needs a lot more details, than one might initially think. 

Was the red stone a garnet, or ruby, how big was it and how can we prove it? Were the lost chains 9ct or 18ct gold, all these facts will have a huge impact on the compensation we might be intitled to.

Moreover, if we are going through a stressful time dealing with a burglary, we are bound to forget about some pieces of jewellery that have been amongst stolen items.

 

So, what is the correct way to make sure all our jewellery is catalogued correctly?

1. Always keep receipts for any jewellery purchases.

2. If any of the stones come with Certificates or Gem Reports, make sure to keep them.

3. Take pictures of you wearing the jewellery (and store the images in a separate folder, so you don’t have to scroll through hundreds of unrelated pictures). The Insurance companies like to see the proof of the jewellery being worn by you.

4. Have the jewellery professionally valued. The insurance valuation might seem like an additional expense to an already pricey purchase, but it could pay off in the long run. A professional valuation serves as detailed documentation of all the items. The replacement value of jewellery, in most cases, will go up in time, and having such a document will help achieve higher compensation and more accurate replacement. 

5. A lot of Insurance companies will require items above a certain amount to be individually listed on the policy. It varies from company to company, so be sure to check the limit on yours. For the jewellery that does not need to be individually listed, it is still a good idea to have them valued or listed under a ‘lot’, or ‘collection’ section of the valuation. 

6. And finally, never keep your documents together with your jewellery. You don’t want to lose your record or let the person who stole it know what they now have in their possession. 

 

 

Another good practice we use at Holts Lapidary, is to never put the address on the Insurance Valuation, just in case, the document gets into the wrong hands.


We hope this will help you keep your Jewellery in order, and should you need any assistance with the Insurance Valuations, or Estimate to Replace, we are happy to help.

 

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