Safeguarding Your Sparkle: How to Insure Valuable Jewelry

Homeowners insurance helps protect your home as well as the personal belongings that you have in it. The same goes for renters or condo insurance. However, if you own valuable jewelry like your wedding ring, it may not be fully protected under your home, condo, or renters insurance.

Homeowners, condo, and renters insurance policies usually cap how much they cover for high-value items like jewelry. For example, GEICO’s homeowner's insurance usually only provides limited coverage of between $500 and $2,000 for jewelry that's stolen from your home, and there’s usually no coverage for lost jewelry.

You have two options on how to insure your jewelry — adding a special rider to your homeowners, renters, or condo insurance or purchasing a separate jewelry insurance policy.

A scheduled property rider to your homeowners, condo, or renters insurance provides additional coverage for your jewelry up to its appraised value. Adding the rider to your existing policy will increase your premium slightly. For example, Progressive estimates that a jewelry rider on property insurance adds $50 to $100 to your yearly premium.

Jewelry insurance is a special policy you can get just to cover your high-priced jewelry pieces. It typically costs about 1 percent to 2 percent of the value of your jewelry. A $10,000 wedding ring would cost about $100 to $200 annually to insure.

A big advantage to having a jewelry protection plan, versus adding a rider to your homeowner's policy, is that claims for lost, stolen, or damaged jewelry won’t impact the cost of your property insurance premiums.

You should insure valuable jewelry pieces that can be appraised. That includes wedding rings, engagement rings, diamond earrings, bracelets, or necklaces. Some protection plans may not cover watches, so make sure to check the policy’s fine print.

There also may be a limit on how much coverage one jewelry insurance policy provides. So, you may have to purchase multiple protection plans for multiple high-valued pieces.

Jewelry insurance policies typically provide more coverage for your valuables than you would get with a rider added to your homeowners, condo, or renters insurance. These policies provide “all risk” coverage if your jewelry is stolen, lost, or damaged in almost any event besides those excluded. Some jewelry protection plans also cover preventative repairs such as prong re-tipping or clasp replacement.

A few examples of situations that would be covered under jewelry insurance include:

• Your engagement ring is stolen from your home

• You lose one of your diamond earrings while wearing them

• A diamond falls out of your wedding ring

• You lose your necklace while on vacation

Jewelry insurance policies have specific exclusions including the following:

• Intentional loss or damage

• Resizing, cleaning, and inspection

• Manufacturer defects

• Confiscation by civil authorities

• Nuclear hazards

• Wear and tear

• Damage by vermin, rodents, or insects

• Military action