Have Some Valuables? Personal Articles Coverage

Here's a question that came into Personal Insurance Answers:

I'm a 25 year old girl who my family finds to be picky and tough to buy for. Therefore, my family has resorted to purchasing jewelry for Christmas and birthdays as an easier solution. They know I'll like it, which I always do!

I've accumulated quite a collection over the years. So how do I insure my jewelry properly? Is it insured on my Renters/ Homeowners Policy under contents? How do I place a value on my grandmother's jewelry, that, in my eyes, is irreplaceable?

Personal Insurance Answer(s):

Your Homeowners Policy can provide some coverage, but with deductibles and limitations. A Personal Articles Policy might be a better option because it can provide the additional coverage that may be needed. Besides jewelry, Personal Articles Policies can also cover furs, cameras, musical instruments, golf equipment, fine arts, collectibles, sports equipment, and computer equipment.  It can be written as part of a homeowners/renters policy or it can be written separately. All the details of that are here.

Needless to say, I purchased a Personal Articles Policy to cover my valuables and have recommended my friends to do the same!

What to do with jewelry?

If you're like me at all after college there wasn't a whole lot that I owned that needed insuring.  I had recently bought some pants, without holes, and shirts for work (though I worked in small-time radio and didn't really care how people saw me at 4am) and I had a TV and stereo.  There was really nothing that stood out to me as being a target for theft.

But then again, I wasn't living in the nicest of neighborhoods and in fact did have my door broken down one day while at work.

I bring this up because there is one class of property that you would be wise to insure.  Jewelry.