Do you have valuable items, like jewelry, paintings, rare stamps or other types of pricey collections, that you keep in your Spokane, WA home? If you do, you may be surprised to find out that homeowners insurance, condo insurance and renters insurance policies may not provide enough protection for valuable or high-dollar items. In fact, many of those policies, unless they include special endorsements, only cover valuables up to a couple of thousand dollars. Is that enough coverage for your valuables? If it’s not, you may want to explore jewelry and valuable items insurance.
What Are Some Valuable Items that Might Need Specialized Coverage?
If you’ve owned a piece of jewelry or a valuable item for many years or had that item passed down through the generations, you may not realize that you own items that should be covered under a specialty insurance policy, like jewelry and valuable items coverage. Items that fall under these categories include expensive watches, fine or antique jewelry, heirlooms, art, furs, musical instruments, like pianos, guitars and violins, silverware and silver dishes, camera equipment, fine china, crystal, and certain types of collections, like coin and stamp collections.
How to Determine if You Need Jewelry and Valuable Items Insurance in Spokane?
In order to determine if you need valuable items insurance, look through your jewelry, art and collections, and take an inventory. Remember to take pictures of all the items as you create your inventory. You may also want to hire an appraiser to find out the true value of your items. Getting an appraisal also gives you an official document for the insurance company so that they can provide you with the right amount of coverage for your valuables. If you discover that you have a lot of expensive valuables, it may be time to consider getting jewelry and valuable items insurance.
What is Jewelry and Valuable Items Insurance?
Jewelry and valuable items insurance is a special type of insurance that is designed to protect your valuables. These policies are sometimes referred to as valuable personal property insurance (VRPs). These types of insurance policies typically offer more coverage for valuables than a standard homeowners, renters or condo insurance policy. They also cover more perils.
For example, a homeowners insurance policy probably wouldn’t cover your jewelry if you lost it or it mysteriously disappeared. Instead, it would have to be stolen or damaged during a covered event, as outlined by your home insurance policy. Jewelry and valuable items insurance typically covers items if they are lost or if they mysteriously disappear.
In fact, jewelry and valuable items insurance covers the items if someone steals them, they become damaged in any way, if they disappear or if they’re damaged or destroyed due to a severe weather event. This type of coverage is often referred to as “all-risk”, which means the item is covered unless the cause of the damage is specifically excluded.
What are Some Common Exclusions for Jewelry and Valuable Item Insurance?
VRP, or jewelry and valuable items insurance, typically excludes deliberate damage, damage that was caused by lack of proper care, losing the items on purpose, manufacturer defects and damage that was caused by nuclear events and war.
Will My VRP Insurance Cover New Purchases?
Jewelry and valuable items insurance usually protects new purchases. However, the protection is often limited, and it’s recommended that if you buy a new piece of jewelry, art piece, antique or other rare or collectible item, you should call your insurance agent in Spokane as soon as possible after you take possession of the item.
How Much Can I Expect to Pay for a Jewelry and Valuable Items Insurance Policy?
Jewelry and valuable items insurance policies are typically affordable. Most people can expect to pay between 1 and 2 percent of the total value of their rare, expensive and collectible items. This means that if you get all of your items appraised and their value is assessed at $500,000, you could expect to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 per year to insure them.
Insuring Your Jewelry and Valuable Items with Boyd Insurance Brokerage Inc.
If you have valuable items in your home, we can help give you peace of mind with a jewelry and valuable items insurance policy. These policies offer better coverage for high-dollar items, collectibles and rare items than a standard homeowners insurance policy. They also cover more perils. Just imagine losing your wedding ring down a drain, and after removing the trap, you realize that it’s made its way into the sewer, where it will likely never be seen again. What would you do? How would you replace the ring? The good news is that in this scenario, you could file a claim on your jewelry and valuable items insurance policy and receive the funds to replace the ring if your claim is approved.
If you’re ready to get a quote for jewelry and valuable items insurance so that your high-dollar items are protected, give us a call at 509-340-2693.
