Engagement Ring Insurance | Coast Comp Insurance Agency

In addition to protecting your house itself, homeowners insurance also covers personal property. Such property includes everything from your books and furniture to clothes and jewelry. In the case of jewelry, however, policies may limit their coverage. If you have an engagement ring, here's how to make sure your homeowners policy fully covers this particular piece of jewelry.

Check Your Personal Property Coverage Limits

How much protection for jewelry your homeowners policy affords will be detailed in the personal property coverage section of the policy's paperwork. You can either look this section up yourself or ask an insurance agent to check it for you. Within the personal property coverage section, there will be two types of limits.

The first will be an aggregate limit that determines the total amount of coverage you have for all the personal belongings in your house, and it should be tens of thousands of dollars. Most policies offer 20 to 50 percent of the home's total value in personal property coverage, so a $100,000 policy would come with $20,000 to $50,000 worth of coverage for your belongings.

The second is a list of item-specific limits for high-value belongings. Depending on your particular policy, you might have specific limits for furs, silverware, money, and other high-value items. Often, jewelry is also on the list. Assuming it is, the corresponding limit for jewelry will be much lower than the aggregate limit.

When checking to make sure your engagement ring is insured, the second limit is the one that's usually more relevant. Your ring's value won't exceed the aggregate limit, but it might exceed the jewelry-specific limit if you have a nice ring and the policy only offers a few hundred or thousand dollars worth of coverage for jewelry.

Ascertain the True Value of Your Engagement Ring

Once you know how much coverage your homeowners policy provides for jewelry, the next step is to find out how much your ring is actually worth. This is likely around the amount your fiancé paid for it, but sometimes a ring's value differs from its purchase price. For an objective evaluation, get a third-party appraisal from someone who can tell you exactly what your ring is worth.

The appraiser will also provide you with a certificate stating the value, which can be used to prove the ring's monetary worth should you ever have to file an insurance claim. Keep the written appraisal in a safe place in case you ever need it.

Determine Any Additional Coverage Needs

At this point, you know whether you need additional coverage for your engagement ring. If your ring's value is less than the jewelry-specific limit on your homeowner insurance policy, the ring is fully insured and you have no reason to look for more protection. If the value exceeds thecoverage limit, you should find more jewelry coverage.

• There are several ways you can procure additional coverage in the event that you need it. The primary options are to:
• Shop for a new homeowners policy that offers more jewelry coverage.
• Adjust the jewelry-specific limits in your current policy. Obtain a rider for your engagement ring.

While all of these options should be explored, a rider (or endorsement) is frequently the most affordable one. Riders provide highly specialized protections - insuring your engagement ring in this case. Because they have such specialized and narrowly defined coverages, the premiums associated with them are often low.

For help determining whether your current insurance covers your engagement ring or making coverage adjustments, contact Coast Comp Insurance Agency. Our team can help you find a new homeowners insurance policy , make changes to a policy, or obtain a rider if you need to.