When She Says Yes

You’ve decided it’s about time and bought your lady that special piece of jewelry as beautiful—and valuable—as she is. You might think an engagement ring is automatically covered by your homeowners insurance because your policy says it covers your “personal property.” Think again! While that is the case for most of your things, like furniture and clothing, it might not be for highvalue belongings like fine jewelry.

You should enhance your policy with an “endorsement” to cover jewelry. It’s like a separate, mini-policy for the jewelry. Your typical home or condo policy might only cover as little as $1,000 if the ring is damaged, lost, or stolen.

This expands your coverage so jewelry is fully protected by the policy, up to the value of the item. If you have a lot of smaller pieces you can get a blanket policy to cover them all, instead of having each one individually specified.

Make sure your jewelry coverage is designed as Agreed Value, not actual cash value (ACV) or replacement value. That will allow you to choose to either get a check for the full value of the item, or get a replacement item just like it. You might also prefer to have a $0 deductible so don’t have to pay a deductible to get a replacement ring.

While selecting the best coverage for you can be tricky, it is critical to know the real value of all your jewelry. To keep an accurate idea how much it is worth:
• Have all jewelry appraised in-store when you buy it
• Have your jewelry re-appraised every 3 years and update insurance coverage as needed
• Store your high-value jewelry in a hidden fireproof lockbox, or in safety deposit box