Wedding Checklist - Ring Insurance

If there is one thing that makes my head hurt, it would be researching insurance.  There is insurance for everything and I mean everything!  

Adam Lambert insured his voice for $48M, Jennifer Love Hewitt's smile is insured for $10M, even Heidi Klum's legs are insured for over a $1M each.  

Yes, we are making our way down the checklist and insuring your ring is something that should be on everyone's "to do" list.  Better yet, you could put it on your honey's "honey do" list.  This doesn't mean that your insurance agent has to be the first person you tell but he/she does need to be informed.  

There are a few steps that you need to take to cover this investment:

• First get an appraisal - your local jeweler should be able to assist you with this.  You could also go to a private gemologist.  After a few days, you should be provided with a document stating the value of the ring and the diamond that you will pass along to your insurance agent.
• Do a bit of research - if you have homeowners or renters insurance, find out if these policies cover your jewelry.  You may have to have a "rider" that you would state specifically what you are covering.  You do this with many valuable items in your home so you may only need to add your ring to the already existing list.  Does it cover lost items?  What actually will you receive in place of the ring - check, jewelry from a specific jeweler, etc?  What is your deductible?
• Document, document, document - Keep all of your paperwork (receipts, copy of the appraisal, any paperwork on the diamonds themselves) on file as well as provide a copy of everything to your insurance agent.  If you have a safety deposit box or safe, store the information there.  Remember to also take a photo of the ring.  

You can also get jewelry insurance independently from your homeowner's insurance.  Whatever you decide to do, make certain that you research all options before settling on one.  

Since you are going to have your ring for - a lifetime, you will want to have your ring appraised throughout the years.  This would be for inflation purposes, you want to be sure that if something happened to your ring years down the road, that you are given a ring at its current value.  

Hope this helped - time for me to go update some paperwork...where did that ring go?