NYCaviator wrote: Sat Aug 30, 2025 5:39 pm
I ended up purchasing a new watch that’s worth about $8k. I have a collections policy with our primary insurer, PURE, that has a blanket jewelry limit with a “per article” limit of $10k. It’s about $275 a year.Losing the new watch (or any of our other jewelry) would not be financially devastating, but it would be annoying. I’m curious what others use for insurance. Hodinkee (underwritten by Chubb) used to be great for watches, but I’ve read mixed things about their claims and responsiveness.
Would getting a policy through Jewelers Mutual, or some other company outside of who we use for home/auto/etc., be a smarter decision in the event of a claim? Is there a company that is recommended for jewelry policies?
We have a Valuable Items rider to our homeowner’s insurance.
Each item is listed, with the full replacement value, and values are determined from something like a sales receipt or an appraisal. A lower basis for the insured value is possible, such as the value if we were planning to sell the items.
Everything on the list is insured for full replacement value. If we don’t want to try to replace it, we don’t insure it. And now that we are downsizing, we’ll be downsizing the goodies, too. Also, I don’t care so much about insuring things so that heirs (non-family items) will get things. I doubt any heirs would even want my “style” of jewelry! (But those decisions are tricky… TBD!)
(NOTE: An appraisal for full replacement value insurance coverage is more than for if you plan to sell the item.)
We’ve had a few losses, and it couldn’t have been hand’led more smoothly.
We also have “all losses”, so “mysterious disappearance” is included. No proof of theft/burglary or similar is required. For the regular coverage, there must be a police report, not just “I can’t find it” or “I dropped it when I did XYZ.”
I did contact Jewelers Mutual some years ago after reading a lot of positive things here on BH about them.
Well… it was one of the most aggravating commercial/business experiences ever.
I got all sorts of nasty lectures that definitely seemed to me to be geared to someone who was planning insurance fraud, for starters.
And then, when I “failed to follow up and BUY the coverage from the rep”, she KEPT calling and calling and calling some more. I finally had to phone management to get them to stop her. That was a first!
Meanwhile, when for example, I was traveling by car, and an entire street block of cars had their windows smashed and <whatever> grabbed, our insurance didn’t just act promptly, but they provided some suggestions and support. When someone took me to the local PD – major city – they told me that they had a lot of that “recently” and it seemed to be associated with a particular group.
Anyway, in addition to sending cash for the reported losses, but the rep offered some advice. She told me to keep track of things for a few weeks or even longer. She said when a suitcase/etc., is stolen, it’s often hard to remember exactly what was in it. Thus, if in a month, I was searching and searching for, say, a manicure set… then to think if I may have taken it, and if so, call them (the insurer).
Point is, they were actually somewhat comforting, which was quite a surprise.
It was more than just a jewelry claim, so I was pretty upset, especially when the police mentioned the suspected group. (Fortunately, the incident location was *not* near where I was staying, and there wasn’t any link to that address in anything in my car.)
And when I lost one of a pair of diamond stud earrings, they offered me a choice: send them the remaining stud and they’d “try to match it’, or, if there was no sentimental value, perhaps I’d like a new already-matching pair? If so, please return the remaining earring.
So I received a check for half the insured value along with a mailer to return the remaining one, and once they received that, I received a check for the other half.
Our underlying homeowner’s insurance is similar. In general, the occasional claim is handled so easily, it surprises us each time (not there have been that many, but over several decades…).
I know many people (especially BH members) don’t think full replacement value is worthwhile (or even the underlying jewelry in the first place, but I digress).
I have the insurance so that I can USE the <whatevers> and NOT worry so much about being reluctant to wear or use something because “something might happen to it”.
For us, this is also part of our SWAN strategy: Sleep Well At Night.
No point in having nice thing(s) if it/they will cause a lot of worry.
RM
