Your Jewelry is Worth How Much?

image courtesy of Boykung/freedigitalphotos.net

You might be like a lot of people here in New Hartford, Whitesboro, and Clinton where you have accumulated jewelry over the years. You have your own collection but have also added to it with gifts or bequeaths from your parents or other relatives.

The thing is, all of those little pieces often get stored in your jewelry box without much thought to their value. After all, you accumulate for years, one piece at a time. Before you know it, you have a valuable collection all in one box in your bedroom.

And the burglars are well aware of that, too. Here at Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig, we just had a case where our insured’s home was broken into and her jewelry box stolen. That’s all the burglars took and the loss amounted to around $10,000!

Another problem is that people aren’t aware that their basic Homeowners Insurance policy limits the amount of coverage for theft of jewelry, watches, precious and semi-precious stones. (Furs are also included in this limitation.) The total amount that a standard homeowners insurance policy will cover for theft is only $1,000.

So, what should you do?

Get Special Jewelry Insurance

Call our Personal Lines Account Managers about adding what we call a Jewelry Floater to your Homeowners Insurance policy. First off, take your jewelry to a reputable jeweler and get it appraised. This accomplishes a few good things for you.

One is that you’ll know what you have. Remember how we talked about the ease in which a burglar can make off with just your jewelry box to get his/her hands on the whole collection. The appraisal will contain an exact description of each piece so we can easily tell precisely what was stolen.

An appraisal will also tell you how much each piece is worth. We use the appraisal to determine the insurance value for each piece. In essence, we add the appraisal to your policy in the form of the Jewelry Floater.

The thing we want to emphasize is that in our experience, people often don’t realize how much jewelry they’ve accumulated over time. With estates passing down to family members plus the collection you already have, the value of your jewelry box may surprise you.

Call any of our Personal Lines agents for a price quote for your jewelry. We can either insure each piece or often your insurance carrier will offer a blanket amount for less premium than the per piece cost.

Either way, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your jewelry collection can be replaced if you’re broken into and your jewelry box is stolen.

Until next time,

Your SZW Team

Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig, Inc. is your New Hartford area independent insurance agent. Call us for a quote on insurance for your home, car, business, or life at 315.792.0000.