(FinancialHealth.net) – Most personal possessions lose significant value right after you purchase them. A car for instance, depreciates the moment you drive it off a dealer’s lot. Even expensive furniture loses much of its value as soon as it leaves the showroom floor.
Jewelry is one of those wonderful exceptions. Unlike most high ticket items, jewelry usually appreciates in value over time.
Why does this matter to you? Your standard homeowners policy places a limit of around $1,500 on the theft of jewelry. Some companies will allow you to increase the theft limit by endorsing the policy to raise the limit to a total of $5,000, with the maximum value of a single piece capped at $2,000.
Even that may not be enough to cover your best jewelry pieces if a thief targets you or your home. So what can you do?
How Do I Get Enough Coverage For My Jewelry?
The only way to have jewelry covered for its full value is to purchase a Scheduled Floater Policy that specifically lists each item and its full replacement value. This type of floater can be purchased for jewelry as well as for furs and collectables.
Floaters also broaden the covered causes of loss. This means you’ll be protected in most cases of loss whether your bracelet falls off and gets lost in the parking lot, you drop your ring down a drain or lose it in some other covered catastrophe.
What Are The Requirements To Getting A Floater?
In order to schedule your items, your insurance company will require you to submit an appraisal to prove the value of the items they’re preparing to insure. Depending on the level of inflation, most appraisers and insurance companies will usually recommend having your jewelry be reappraised every two to three years.
In times of high inflation, prices of precious metals and stones will fluctuate widely. When high inflation is a factor, it’s in your best interest to have a reappraisal every two years to be confident that your treasured items are valued at a replaceable level if they are ever lost or stolen.
Reappraising often may seem inconvenient and expensive, but the cost of an appraisal is nothing compared to the cost of replacing an uninsured or underinsured heirloom.
Talk to your insurance agent to make sure your valuables are properly covered under your policy.
~Here’s to Your Financial Health!
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