Insurance Appraisals are generally done to document your fine jewelry in the event it is lost, stolen, or possibly destroyed due to a fire. If you have homeowner’s insurance, or renters insurance, it may include some coverage for “unscheduled” property including jewelry. Generally, “unscheduled” coverage would cover you if your jewelry is stolen or destroyed in a fire. However, the coverage allowance is often only $1,000 or $2,000. In order to protect your fine jewelry investment , most insurance companies require an additional rider on your existing policy. These riders require an independent Insurance Appraisal from a Graduate Gemologist to allow for detailed description and retail replacement value of your fine jewelry item.
An Insurance Appraisal should provide the customer with a value that will assure a replacement of equal quality and value. If the item is irreplaceable, at least the person is guaranteed adequate funds to purchase a comparable item. In this case, an average current market price should be used, so that any number of fine retail jewelers could make the replacement.
For very important and valuable items, the customer and insurance company should negotiate the value. The negotiated value will be the amount the insurance company is willing to accept risk on and the customer is willing to accept the insurance company ‘s premium for coverage.
An Insurance Appraisal should include a disclaimer such as the following, which may protect both the Appraiser and the customer in the event of any legal action: The values set forth herein are estimates of the current market price at which the appraised jewelry may be purchased in the average fine jewelry store and do not necessarily reflect the price at which the appraised or similar jewelry may be purchased at “XYZ” Jewelers . Because jewelry appraisal and evaluation is subjective, estimates of replacement value may vary from one appraiser to another and such a variance does not necessarily constitute error on part of the appraiser.
This appraisal should not be used as the basis for the purchase or sale of the items set forth herein and is provided solely as an estimate of approximate replacement values of said items at this time and place . Accordingly, we assume no liability with respect to any legal action that may be taken as a result of the information contained in this appraisal.