How to Insure Valuable Jewelry

Even if you aren't a jewelry connoisseur, you might have pieces left from family members that are worth quite a bit of money. Home owner's insurance usually covers a portion of valuable property, but to protect your jewelry you might consider adding extra insurance for your valuable jewelry. You can either add a "rider" to your current home owner's insurance or you can choose to insure your valuable jewelry on a completely separate policy.

First, you need to decide if insuring your valuable jewelry will be necessary. Look up your home owner's or renter's insurance policy and find out how much of your personal property is covered. If someone were to steal your jewelry, would the policy cover its value? Even if it does, what if other personal property is stolen? A typical home owner's insurance policy covers up to one thousand dollars of jewelry if it is stolen, but not if it is lost in another manner.

A renter's insurance policy will probably cover about half that. Since many people have single pieces of jewelry that amounts to far more than one thousand dollars, you'll need to determine how important it is to insure it. If you have lots of valuable personal property in your home, you are probably less than covered. In that case, a rider or a separate policy would be prudent to protect your assets.

Your next step is to have your all of your valuable jewelry appraised. It is important to find an independent appraiser whose decision will be accepted by the insurance company, so you might want to contact them for referrals. Plenty of the people who claim to perform jewelry appraisals are not properly trained; therefore, their determination is worthless. Remember that a piece of jewelry does not have to contain a valuable gem in order to be appraised.

Once you have the value of each piece, you'll need to decide how you want to insure your valuable jewelry. As mentioned above, you can add a rider to your current home owner's insurance policy, or you can take out a separate policy. Sometimes, you'll get a discount if you go through the same company that provides you with other types of insurance, though you might want to go with a provider that deals only with insuring valuable jewelry. The Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company is one example.

Make sure that the insurance policy you purchase for your jewelry covers not only theft, but also loss and damage. Most home owner's insurance policies only cover theft, which is another reason separate policies are needed.

Obtain quotes from as many insurance agencies as possible and then choose the one with the best rate, premium and deductible. Take photographs of each piece of jewelry and keep them in a safe place -- you might also need to submit photographs to the insurance company, though this isn't standard.

Remember, also, that the value of jewelry can change within a period of years, so you may want to have each piece re-appraised on a regular basis. You'll need to make adjustments to your insurance policy to reflect those changes.