Jewellery valuations
The price of precious metals has rocketed in recent months, and in particular the price of gold has trebled since the beginning of 2006.
A consequence of this is that many jewellery valuations understate the replacement cost, and a number of insured losses recently have highlighted the need to keep valuations up to date.
For new jewellery, the makers will arrive at their price by calculating the material and labour costs and applying a multiplier to arrive at their retail price. Thus small increases in material prices can have a significant impact on replacement values.
In the case of antique jewellery, the value is underwritten by the scrap value, and thus precious metal prices again influence replacement prices.
At Cliverton Insurance Brokers we are recommending that all jewellery valuations should be reviewed and that any valuation more than a year old should be updated to reflect the increased prices of raw materials.