How does jewelry insurance work? Answers from an Expert - YouTube

Jewelry insurance works as such: generally at a very high level, it's simply a contract

between you and an insurance company.

What that means is basically, you pay your premiums, and if there was an issue with the

item, if it was damaged, or if it was lost, or if it disappeared, then it would be the

insurance company's duty to be able to repair that item or replace that item for you.

Here would be the things that you would need in order to purchase a jewelry insurance policy.

Typically, insurance companies want to see some level of paperwork, whether it's a detailed

sales receipt, or an appraisal.

Some insurance companies will also ask to see if there is a diamond report, a GIA certificate,

things like that.

Also, at BriteCo like we ask for a quick selfie of the item, a photo.

A lot of times insurance companies would like to just see a photo to make sure that the

item is in good condition and that that item actually exists.

If you've purchased a fine piece of jewelry, or an engagement ring, or a watch, typically

you'd be eligible for insurance for jewelry insurance.

A good rule of thumb is, if it's over $1,000, that is when we would start recommending to

look at jewelry insurance.

There are some other elements that would come into play, such as deductibles and things

like that, that could factor into your decision of whether you should be buying jewelry insurance

or not.

Looking at companies like BriteCo, that have no deductibles, that could always be helpful

in terms of making your decision of whether you should buy jewelry insurance.

But overall, as a general rule of thumb, we recommend starting to look at jewelry insurance

for anything over $1,000.

There are a lot of misconceptions about how expensive jewelry insurance is, is it worth

purchasing, and how much it costs.

And typically a good rule of thumb is it can cost anywhere from 0.5% of the total value

of the item to 2% of the total value of the item.

You definitely want to look around and see who's offering the best prices.

Places like BriteCo offer closer to the 0.5% to 1% and other insurance companies will offer

the 1% to the 2%.

Some important coverage that you want to make sure you get would be loss, theft, damage

and mysterious disappearance.

Mysterious disappearance is really a big one.

Not all insurance companies cover mysterious disappearance, but it's the highest cause

of a loss.

So what a deductible is, is it's a certain amount of agreed-upon money that you will

pay upon a claim.

When a claim happens, let's say your deductible is $500 the cost of the claims you will pay

a $500 towards the cost of that claim.

Now what does a deductible do?

One thing it does is that it reduces your annual premium.

In general, most customers seek policies that are no deductible policies, because it can

be a hassle upon a claim to come out of pocket and pay a deductible.

And at the end of the day, the amount of money that it reduces your premium is not enough,

generally, to warrant having to come out of pocket upon a claim.

Most reputable jewelry insurance companies will ask for some level of paperwork.

Most do ask for an appraisal.

And some will accept a detailed sales receipt.

At BriteCo, we accept both.

As long as the sales receipt is detailed or the appraisal is detailed and there's enough

information.

Having an accurate appraisal is truly the only way to guarantee that your item will

be replaced exactly as it is.

It's actually really important for you as well to have that information for your records,

not just for the insurance company but also so you know, this is what I bought.

This is the center stone or this is the total carat weight, to have that paperwork is pretty

important for you and it's also important for your insurance company.

Any reputable jeweler will provide you with an appraisal.

So if you weren't provided with an appraisal, simply ask your jeweler and they will provide

it for you.

So the types of coverage that you'll want to look at for jewelry insurance is theft,

loss, damage, and mysterious disappearance.

Theft is exactly what it sounds like -- somebody stole your item.

You put your ring in your purse and somebody stole the purse but somebody stole the ring

out of the purse.

That would be an example of theft.

You want to make sure you're covered for theft.

Damage, we see a lot of this at BriteCo where you know somebody knocked an engagement ring

on a door handle or you know dropped it on the floor and a diamond popped out, or you

know, the shank of the ring cracked or the center stone chipped.

Those would be examples of damage.

And most jewelry insurance policies should cover that.

And that will be a coverage you'll want.

Loss.

That would be you know, you've lost the item.

You know, there's some recount of the loss or, you know, there was a fire and it was

lost in a fire.

Mysterious Disappearance is a big important coverage you'll want for jewelry insurance.

Mysterious Disappearance is an extremely important coverage that you'll definitely want if you're

looking at jewelry insurance.

So what it is, is basically, I've just lost the item, it disappeared, I don't know what

happened.

I can't explain it, my ring is gone.

One example of that is, you know, I was going to the grocery store, and I had my ring on

my finger and I looked down and the ring is just gone.

It's not on my finger anymore.

And I looked all over, I looked in the parking lot, but it's gone.

That would be an example of Mysterious Disappearance, it's certainly something you want to make

sure you have covered.

You have jewelry insurance, and you're covered when you purchase the policy.

Up until that point, if you haven't purchased the policy, you wouldn't be covered.

But the second that you purchased the policy, even if the policy documents hadn't been issued

yet, you are still completely covered.

So we recommend at BriteCo, to go ahead and buy the insurance as soon as you can, just

so there is no coverage gaps and so you are fully covered.

A lot of times, things can happen pretty quickly, especially if it's a new piece, you know,

somebody's not used to wearing that new item.

Losses could happen within the first day, within the first week.

So I mean, it's pretty common actually for that to happen.

So we recommend getting jewelry insurance pretty quickly.

Does jewelry insurance cover a lost diamond out of a ring?

Generally, the answer is yes.

Somewhere like BriteCo we would cover a lost diamond out of your ring.

I would definitely consult with your policy and look at your policy coverage.

But in general, a jewelry insurance policy should cover a lost diamond or a damaged diamond

earring.

The answer is definitely yes, you will, you will want to contact your insurance company

and let them know if you could provide them with updated paperwork which your jeweler

should provide you with that would also be quite helpful.

And then for your sake, you'll definitely want to make sure that the value of the item

is updated so that you're up to date with your value that if a loss were to occur, that

you would have the appropriate amount of insurance.

We get the question a lot of 'Do you have to mail in your item to get insurance?'

and the answer is definitely not with BriteCo, and you shouldn't with other insurance companies,

although every insurance company works differently.

BriteCo tries to make your life easy and we don't want you taking risks to send items

through FedEx or UPS.

What we do ask for though, is just a simple photo of your item and that is good enough

for us.

Most insurance companies will ask you to get your item reappraised every couple of years.

Some insurance companies like BriteCo actually have smart algorithms that will automatically

adjust the pricing for you.

So you never actually have to get an item reappraised.

One thing we do recommend though, is periodically getting your item checked and getting the

centerstones checked or any of the stones checked, and also getting it cleaned.

So it looks shiny and new.

Every situation is different.

A lot of it actually depends on the jeweler, in terms of if they need to custom design

a new item, if there needs to be CAD renderings, if there needs to be things that require your

approval.

There's also some unique situations that could happen upon the loss.

Whereas if there's a theft or a burglary, most insurance companies would ask for a police

report or something of the sorts.

But typically, you should have, from start to finish, it should be a very quick process

-- somewhere in the range of two weeks or so.

So that question has changed a bit over time.

Traditionally, it's been whoever's purchased the ring has purchased the insurance along

with it.

Now, by no means is that the standard anymore, we're seeing a lot of either the ring giver

or the ring receiver both would purchase insurance.

But the key thing is to make sure that insurance is purchased on it, it is a great value and

being .5% or 1% of the total overall value.

It provides some decent and valuable peace of mind that we certainly would recommend.

That question depends on the insurance company.

At BriteCo we certainly cover necklaces, as well as rings and earrings and bracelets and

pendants and watches.

So it really does depend on the insurance company.

If your necklace or pendant is typically over $1,00, we recommend starting to look for insurance

for that item, especially for a policy with no deductibles.

For an item at the amount of call it $1,000 or $2,000 to carry a $500 deductible typically

doesn't make much sense.

So if you were to have a loss, let's just say how does the replacement work?

At places like BriteCo we let you work with whichever jeweler you choose, we will work

with any jeweler of your choice.

If it's your local jeweler or your family jeweler, or an online jeweler, we will work

with that jeweler.

Now not all insurance companies, and this is really critical, will work with your jeweler.

Some jewelry insurance companies have something called a preferred network.

At BriteCo we do not believe in preferred networks.

But a lot of some of the larger insurance companies do have preferred networks.

And what that means is that they push you and they want you to replace your item with

their jeweler of choice or their network.

The reason they do that is because they get preferred pricing.

They're trying to reduce their loss cost.

Now that is not fair to you.

You should be able to work with whoever you want.

Definitely make sure up front that the insurance company that you're looking to work with will

work with your jeweler and ask them.

Do they work with preferred networks?

You can ask that insurance company, you know how do they work on a replacement.

Hey, I'm Dustin Lemick, the CEO of BriteCo Jewelry Insurance and a third generation jeweler.

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