Very Important Info About Jewelry and Insurance

[rbrilliant]

Appraisals Not Required for Insuring Jewelry Items Under $50,000.

I had the pleasure of meeting with a very professional representative from a large, well known insurance company last month called Chubb. Chubb insurance group has been underwriting since 1882 and is a multibillion dollar, global property and casualty insurance firm. I was meeting her to get on a list of independent qualified appraisers that they use for their in house agents to refer to. During our meeting I was surprised to find out that an appraisal and other important documents were not required for jewelry items under $50,000.00 to be insured with Chubb. Even to such a large company like Chubb, it seemed to me that $50,000.00 was a lot of money for underwriters to insure without some kind of proper documentation, picture, receipt, detailed description or appraisal. Now being an independent appraiser my first thought was how can Chubb insure their clients properly with this policy of not needing an appraisal or documentation? That quickly became an issue of less importance and the question that became apparent was how does Chubb replace items that have the unfortunate event of being lost, stolen, or damaged? This was something that left a lot of individual scenarios in question. How often do items valued around $50,000.00 fluctuate and how does that affect the insured? I took a look at an average diamond with a market value two years ago of $42,500.00 and looked at what that same diamonds market value would be today. I found a significant increase in price and from my calculations it would be impossible for the insured to replace the same diamond in today’s market. After finding the same situations with several different items I spoke with the representative to let her know what I had found. What was stressed to me was their efforts are to make it as easy and reliable for their clients as possible to get their items insured. The representative told me there is always the strong recommendation for an appraisal however, it is just not required. In the end I look at this policy as either the best customer service a company can provide or potentially a very dangerous situation if prices of items with no documentation get lost, stolen, or damaged.

Justin Krall G.G.,A.J.P.

 

[Schatzley]

Justin You will find that Chubb is the premier insurance company bar none. They also chrage for the priveledge of being so higly thought of.

Chubb will pay insured full amount of loss. Since I do a lot of Insurance Replacements I am familiar with Chubb and over 20 other insurance companies.

Chubb is also very particular about to whom they insure.

 

[rbrilliant]

Hi Jack,
Even though I can''t recommend one Insurance company of the next, I am sure with your experience, what you have said is precise. By no means did I want to come across for or against anyone. The point I suppose, was like I said, “I was surprised to find out that an appraisal and other important documents were not required for jewelry items under $50,000.00 to be insured".

 

[luvmysparklies]

Justin-
I wondered if you''d be able to get in touch with that same professional rep (to maybe even become a participant on the forum) so that she could help others who are having such an awful time even getting the insurance. People are typically met with roadblock after roadblock when tryihg to obtain Chubb insurance. "No we don''t insure rings only, unless they''re bought from Blue Nile" "We can''t insure jewelry without insuring your home, car and whatever else" are comments frequently found here on Pricescope. Chubb is raved about as an insurance company, but its maddening to see some folks able to get Chubb, with no problem, others given the runaround before finally obtaining the insurance and then others who just give up because they''ve been refused so many times by various agents and gotten so much runaround. These people are, for the most part,trying to obtain chubb because of the recommendations and kudos about them on pricescope.

I have chubb and its great insurance - if you can get it. However, I shouldn''t have had to make calls to the corporate office and the underwriting dept. to find out that, yes-chubb did in fact offer policies for jewelry only (WITHOUT home, car etc.) and then armed with that information, re-phone my LYING local chubb agent on three-way with the state insurance commissioner''s office to get it!

BTW, (as others have generally advised) I know I could have just had a rider on homeowners or even done jeweler''s mutual, but I am like a pit bull and dig my heels in, when I know that something is available and I am just getting the runaround.

It would be a great help to other pricescopers to have someone from Chubb on here (as I think there is someone else that posts here who is with Jeweler''s Mutual?) to clear up misunderstandings and provide the facts of what is entailed in getting Chubb insurance.

Luv

 

[rbrilliant]

Hi Luv,
I will try my best to get the agent to view this post and the responses. Then she might want to add something of her own and possibly become a participant on pricescope.

 

[NyssaLynne]

When purchasing my Chubb policy I was told I had to have an appraisal and my policy was only for $10,200 when I first bought it.

 

[denverappraiser]

Justin.

Appraisals Not Required by the insurance company for Insuring Jewelry Items Under $50,000.

Actually it should read: Appraisals Not Required by some insurance companies for Insuring Jewelry Items Under $50,000.

Supplying a proper appraisal as part of the insurance contract is primarily to protect the interests of the insured, not the interests of the company. Any insurance policy must be based on some declaration about the property and about the circumstances under which a claim will be valid. It’s true that Chubb will underwrite a policy based on the sales documentation and in some circumstances this is adequate protection for the client but, as you point out, there are plenty of cases where clients find themselves underinsured with this approach. It’s also fairly common for clients to bind policies based on ‘appraisals’ that are incomplete and/or wildly inaccurate. Many insurance companies, including Chubb, are far to happy to accept this kind of documentation because it’s not the company that ends up losing in the end, it’s the clients. I repeat, the appraisal process is not primarily for the benefit of the insurance company.

Chubb is a first class company but they are far from the only player in this business. They aren’t even the largest or the most popular. Most companies require an appraisal for items over a few thousand dollars and clients who have carefully prepared documentation generally find the claims process to be much less cumbersome and the claims resolutions to be far more satisfactory. This is why to include an appraisaal and this includes some Chubb clients who might otherwise have been permitted to enter into the contract with different sorts of paperwork.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

 

[RockDoc]

Hello Justin

I''ve been writing for years how much better the As Agreed or Valued At type policy is far better than the replacement one.

There is a fact about the Chubb policy that whomever you spoke to didn''t make you aware of.

The policy does differ from state to state depending on Chubb''s filings in each state, but their most common conditions in the policy, is that they have an "inflation guard". It is automatic on most if not all of the engagement ring policies they write. This condition provides the insured with up to 50% additional coverage should the price of buying another stone is proven.

Of course, in the event of a claim Chubb just isn''t going to roll over and "play dead" writing a check for $ 60K on a stated value of $ 40K. They are going to require some substanciation of this, but if the higher cost exists in marketplace, then they honor it.

Most replacement policy types will NEVER pay more than the stated amount of coverage. But Chubb will and has.

Different states do have different policies and laws, so an appraisal report has to address those sitations.

But Chubb''s priority benefit is that in the event of a claim, Chubb issues a check and the consumer can purchase the replacement stone anywhere he pleases. With the usual replacement type policy most companies dictate who will replace the stone, and most do let the insured elect replacement or "cash out" at their cost.

With the currently increasing prices, and what is seemingly a very destined sizable increase in large stones (not to mention tightness of availability in the market) most Chubb insureds should worry as the have the inlfation guard coverage in case something happens. Further, most policies that Chubb writes, has a consumer elected choice to increase the coverage ( usually by 10%) each year. I think they can choose the increase without getting their items re-valued. But I do suppose its a case by case situation that could vary based on the amount of coverage previously inforce and the type of policy.

Hope this helps

Rockdoc