Do I need to get my items valued?

We're often asked "should I get my jewellery valued?".

The short answer is "we don't know" - the longer one is about knowing what you want to know for, and whether there's a legal, contractual need to, such as for your insurance policy.

(If you're pondering the question 'what's it roughly worth?' you may want to take look at this article and this other one too.)

The most common driver for 'need to' is insurance and it really comes down to what your insurers want you to do, and knowing your policy. There may be contractual reasons in your insurance policy that you need to.

You'll need to know your wording - specifically the Single Item Limit and also the Gross Sums Insured. The Gross Sums is the total amount of jewellery cover you have at, normally, replacement value. So if you bought it all again, it's what would you have to pay to replace all your pieces. The Single Item Limit is, in that list of items, a value that no one item must exceed. 

If your items are close to or over Gross Sums, you'll consider either buying more cover or switching providers. If you're not happy with an additional premium the same applies - you can consider buying more cover or switch providers. Some policies are more expensive but offer more cover, or higher Single Item Limits. So this may be an option as it avoids paying for valuation services. 

With the above information you may have a rough idea of whether you are close to your limits. If you're not sure, as a preliminary step you can do some basic research online, trying to find like for like items for sale. And of course you can always ask a professional valuer to do this job accurately and specifically, for a fee, like us (see here). 

We'd recommend photographing all your items, from different angles and possibly with a ruler for scale. Weighing them helps too. And then a document containing a list of the items, referencing photos and papers you may have, in case you lose it. This will help any insurance claim.

We can't answer a question around 'should I sell it as it seems a good time' - if we had a crystal ball to know whether values are going up or down, and when, we'd probably be long retired on a beach!

Sometimes people have other needs, such as probate, or family division (divorce). You can read about how to go about them, and a bit of background, by following this link for family division or this link for insurance/ probate. 

Please note we're not insurance experts, our advice is based on experience only, so you should check your insurance policy carefully, seeking professional insurance advice if needed.