Today’s video is jewelry coverage. Jewelry coverage is covered underneath your homeowner’s policy, renter’s, or condo policy, but there’s very limited coverage for jewelry under those policies.
Typically a homeowner’s policy will cover $1,000 or maybe $2,500 per item, and usually there’s a maximum of $5,000 total coverage. That’s very common under a homeowner’s, condo, or renter’s policy.
So what do you do if you have more jewelry than that? A lot of people do. You do an item on your homeowner’s policy called “scheduling” a piece of jewelry. That means it’s listed separately on that policy.
Now in order to do that, you’re going to need an appraisal from a jeweler. That appraisal should include a brief description of what the item is, as well as the value of the item. You give that item to the insurance agent and they can add that on to your policy.
Why should I do that? Well, you may have more jewelry than what’s allotted underneath the basic coverages, but there’s also some other great benefits to scheduling a piece of jewelry.
If you have it scheduled on your policy, it’s covered for more types of loss. Typically under the basic homeowner’s policy, fire and theft are the main losses that the jewelry is going to be covered for. But there’s a lot more things that can happen to jewelry. We see these claims all the time.
A stone falling out of a setting on a ring. One of the most common claims we see. Basic policy? Not covered. When you schedule it under the policy, it is covered. You lose a ring down the rain. Basic policy, not covered; scheduled, it is covered.
I had a friend of mine whose ring fell in a campfire. We had it covered because we scheduled that policy. The diamond cracked with the intense heat. On a basic policy, that would not have been covered.
You’re at the beach and you lose your ring, it just slips off your finger or whatever. Again, covered it if it’s scheduled, not covered under the basic policy.
So there’s lots of reason why you want to schedule that piece of jewelry. It expands the coverage quite a bit. Also, there’s typically no deductible on that piece of jewelry when you have it scheduled. So if your basic policy has a $5,000 deductible, when you have that item scheduled, it’s not going to have a deductible. Usually they pay from the first dollar. That’s a big benefit.
So if you have more jewelry than the basic policy allows, engagement rings, wedding rings, those type of things, necklaces, make sure you talk to your agent. Discuss this. Jewelry losses are one of the most common losses we see.
It’s not very expensive to add jewelry coverage, either. So make sure you talk to your agent and see if that’s something you need.
I’m Ron Philleo with Video Insurance Agency.
