Insuring Your Jewelry with Scheduled Coverage

Warning: You may not have the insurance coverage you need for your jewelry.

Although a typical homeowners insurance policy provides coverage for personal belongings, the coverage amount may not be sufficient when it comes to expensive items like jewelry. With scheduled coverage, you can obtain the insurance you need for your valuables.

Personal Property Limits in Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners insurance provides coverage for both your house and the personal contents inside. Coverage for personal items can even apply when you’re away from your home, for example, if you’re belongings are stolen while you’re on vacation.

Given this, you might assume that your homeowners insurance policy provides all the coverage you need for your jewelry – but that assumption could cost you.

The biggest problem has to do with the limits in your policy. Let’s say your house is worth $500,000. You want to make sure you have enough coverage to rebuild if your house is destroyed in a fire or hurricane, so you insure it for that full $500,000. That’s a smart move but watch out – this limit doesn’t apply to every type of coverage provided by the policy.

Your homeowners insurance policy probably has a separate limit for personal contents, and this amount is typically less than limit for the house structure. For example, your $500,000 homeowners insurance policy might have a $250,000 limit for personal contents. That might still sound like it’s enough for your jewelry, but your policy likely contains a separate limit on individual high-value items, such as jewelry, fine art, and even electronics. As a result, your jewelry might actually have a much lower limit, possibly only $1,000 – and that may not be nearly enough.

Secure the Coverage You Need

Although a typical homeowners insurance policy may not automatically provide the insurance coverage you need for your jewelry and other valuable items, you can obtain the right coverage by scheduling the items that need additional coverage, which means listing the items and their coverage separately.

Act now to get appropriate coverage for your jewelry:

Take an inventory of the pieces of jewelry you need to schedule.
Get appraisals for your jewelry.
Contact your insurance broker to make sure you have the right coverage.

Talk to your BNC insurance agent to learn more about scheduled coverage for your treasured valuables.