One day, you return home after a wonderful morning at the beach and realize that your wedding ring is missing from your finger! Panic! Where could it be? It was a custom made matching set of rings that you and your spouse personally picked out and now it’s gone. Despair not, for you have your jewelry insured right? Right?!
Jewelry often carries a tremendous amount of not only monetary value but also emotional value and memories. However, they are also often under-insured or not insured at all. While we are often proactive about insuring our other valuable possessions such as our home, our cars and our health, jewelry is sometimes forgotten about.
[Related: 5 items you didn’t know your home insurance covered]
What are the benefits of insuring your jewelry?
One of the primary benefits of insuring your jewelry is that you get to avoid the type of nightmare scenario mentioned above. If it is adequately proven, insurance companies will even cover the cost of replacing your custom made jewels from the same jeweler that originally created it.
UAE expats have comparatively very low amounts of jewelry or other personal possessions insured. Expats often consider their stay in the UAE to be temporary and as such, may not want to invest in insuring their possessions. But if you travel a lot or leave your home unattended for long periods of time, having your personal jewelry insured can save you a lot of regrets later on.
What options are available in the UAE?
Home contents insurance normally covers jewelry along with other home possessions. However, if it is a particularly valuable piece of jewelry such as an expensive anniversary gift, a family heirloom etc., you should consider insuring them separately and storing them in a safer location such as a bank safety deposit box. Such policies are known as declared sum insurance whereby you define a specific list of items you’d like insured based on their estimated value. Regular home contents insurance, on the other hand, does not require the policyholder to disclose all items in the house. Instead, it covers all home contents up to a maximum amount.
[Compare home insurance policies in the UAE]
The leading insurance providers in UAE provide home contents insurance with prices starting from AED 20 per month. The cost of declared sum insurance can vary largely based on the value of your individual possessions. It is imperative that policies are purchased before any unfortunate incidents occur or they will not be covered. Home contents insurance in the UAE applies even to tenants of rented property and not just for home owners.
When deciding whether to insure, check whether the value of your home contents insurance already covers the value of your jewelry. If not, it might be worth getting them insured separately.