Are you a sparkler?  You know, a bauble bearer?  Some people really enjoy wearing jewelry and for others, its not a big deal and thats the secret to why insurance companies require that you take special steps if you happen to be the bauble-bling queen or king.

Everyone has dishes, a couch, and clothes so when homeowner’s policies were written, they covered all the regular stuff under a blanket amount with a boring but descriptive name of “personal property”.  I said they covered the regular stuff not everything.

You see…for those items that aren’t considered regular stuff, the insurance policy-writing gurus decided to limit the coverage to specific amounts….read real small amounts…to force people to spend an extra amount of time and money to protect these special items.

So…what’s a special item.  Yep, the biggest category that most people own is… (hint: read the headline of the article 🙂 ) jewelry!!!  Yep, they gave a whopping $500 or so of coverage for theft of jewelry under the catch-all coverage for “personal property”.  Oh, they also have limiting amounts of coverage for furs, silver, coin or stamp collections, bonds, money, and many policies limit coverage for guns.

To properly cover these special items, you’re going to have to buy coverage under either a scheduled items endorsement to your homeowner’s policy or with a separate policy.  You and the insurance company will need to agree upfront what the value of each item is and list it in the schedule of covered property with its serial number, item description, and its agreed value.  The most difficult and expensive item to insure is jewelry because it requires an appraisal from a gemologist to establish value.

What’s the cost?  For most companies, the cost to insure jewelry is around 1.75% of its value.  For this you will get a very broad policy with few exclusions and a low deductible.  You will also get world-wide coverage and for some daring companies you will get universe-wide coverage!  (when we figure out how to commute to other planets, their language will become more limiting 🙂

To insure your jewelry, silver, and other valuables, call Hettler Insurance Agency in Lubbock, TX at 806-798-7800.  Or you can check us out on the web at www.hettlerinsurance.com.