Now that the holidays are behind us, it’s time to appraise.
If on any night of Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, you gave your true love, say, a flawless three-carat Marquise cut diamond ring, by now you should have arranged to have it officially appraised for insurance purposes.
Appraisals, of course, protect you in case of a theft or loss, and are especially important given the skyrocketing value of precious gemstones nowadays.
The best insurance policies include annual inflation protection. But that might not be enough.
Here’s why: Assume you bought a ring in 2000 that was appraised and insured at $300,000. Fifteen or so years later, it could be valued at nearly $450,000, thanks to your policy’s inflation factor. An appraisal by a jeweler, however, could yield an even higher valuation because prices have risen so dramatically.
Why is that important? Well, if your policy limits are too low, you’d be left covering at least part of the replacement costs out of your own pocket.
That’s why it’s a good rule of thumb to have precious jewels reappraised every three years.
What else can you do to protect your investment?
Kim Kardashian’s recent experience with Parisian robbers offers a good lesson.
The reality-television star was bound, gagged and robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment this past fall. Her losses included a 20-carat ring.
According to Vanity Fair’s account of the crime, of the 15 Instagram photos Kardashian had posted from Paris, “surely the most tantalizing for thieves would have been one posted on the day after her arrival: a sexy selfie of Kardashian West and some of her jewelry — diamonds in her mouth and (the) 20-karat-diamond ring on her finger.”
Kardashian’s husband rap star Kanye West reportedly purchased the ring at Bergdorf Goodman in New York for around $4 million.
The point? Try your best not to broadcast to the world that you might be a ripe target.
Also, if you’re moving a lot of jewelry from one place to another, say to a bank safe-deposit box or to the jeweler for an appraisal, you might do well to hire a security guard.
Speaking of security, experts advise that, when you’re traveling, to always put your jewelry in a safe (the hotel’s, not the one in your room) rather than leaving it on a dresser or bathroom sink counter.
In fact, some policies have a “hotel-motel” coverage exclusion. That means either the jewelry has to be in your possession or safe, or it might not be covered.
There are few more exciting things in life than giving and getting a new piece of sparkling jewelry. But there’s not much fun in worrying about what could happen to it. Standard homeowner’s policies include some coverage for jewelry. But the limits would have been far too low for that three-carat Marquise or anything the bad guys stole from Kim Kardashian.
Mike Rosser leads the Private Client practice at CCIG. Reach him at MikeR@thinkccig.com or 720-212-2068.
Note: Trice Jewelers is CCIG’s preferred fine jewelry appraiser.
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