How Do I Find Out What My Jewelry Is Worth?
Get a written appraisal from a jeweler or gemologist, which most insurers require to schedule a piece above standard limits.
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Getting the value your policy needs
A written appraisal is what an insurer wants, but it needs certain things in it to hold up at claim time. Look for the item described by its specific features, not just "gold ring with diamond." That means metal weight, stone cut, carat, clarity, and color. Photos help too. A jewelry store can write one, and so can an independent gemologist, who tends to be more neutral since they're not selling you anything. Expect to pay a fee, often a percentage of the item's value or a flat rate per piece. Keep the appraisal updated every few years, since gold and gemstone prices shift and a stale number can leave you underinsured. Once you have it, that figure is what gets sent in to schedule the item on your policy.
That ring is worth more than your policy pays
Most standard policies cap jewelry claims around a couple thousand dollars total, no matter what it's worth. An appraisal only helps if the policy you compare it against will actually schedule the piece.
What if you don't have an appraisal already
If the burglary already happened and nothing was ever appraised, you're not out of luck, but proving value gets harder. Insurers will take other evidence. Original purchase receipts, credit card statements showing the purchase, photos of you wearing the piece, even the box or warranty card if it listed materials and stones all help. None of these carry the weight of a written appraisal, but together they can support a claim, especially for items under the standard sublimit where the insurer isn't asking for much documentation anyway.
For anything above that sublimit with no appraisal, the insurer will likely pay out based on whatever evidence exists, which is often less than the piece was actually worth. This is the gap that catches people off guard after a theft. They assume the ring is covered because it's personal property, find out the policy caps jewelry at a set amount, and then discover they also can't prove the higher value because nothing was ever documented. Two separate problems, both avoidable before anything is stolen.
If you're starting from scratch, do it room by room rather than trying to remember everything at once. Open jewelry boxes, drawers, safes. Take photos of each piece next to a ruler or coin for scale, which helps establish size later if needed. For anything that looks like it could be worth scheduling, meaning anything a standard sublimit wouldn't cover, that's when an appraisal earns its fee. For everyday pieces well under the cap, photos and receipts are usually enough.
Cash and other valuables work differently and are worth knowing about while you're doing this. Most policies cap cash claims at a few hundred dollars. Scheduling doesn't apply to it the way it does jewelry, so losing it to theft usually just means it's gone. Collectibles, rare coins, and fine art often have their own sublimits too, separate from jewelry's, so check the declarations page for each category rather than assuming one number covers all of it.
Figuring out what you actually own
Before any of this matters, there's a more basic question. Do you know what jewelry you actually have? Most people don't, not fully. Pieces end up scattered across a jewelry box, a dresser drawer, a safe deposit box, sometimes a parent's house. A few minutes spent walking through where things are kept, before anything happens, is what makes every other step possible. You can't appraise or schedule what you've forgotten you own.
Once you've found everything, sort it by what it's worth, roughly. A costume necklace from a department store and a grandmother's diamond ring don't need the same treatment. For anything that looks like it could sell for real money, meaning anything near or above your policy's jewelry sublimit, that's a candidate for a professional appraisal. For the rest, a photo and whatever receipt or gift note exists is probably enough, since it'll likely fall under the cap anyway.
Inherited pieces and gifts complicate this, since there's often no receipt at all. A gemologist can still assess an heirloom the same way they'd assess anything bought new, by examining the metal and stones directly rather than relying on a purchase record. If the piece came with any paperwork from the original owner, an old insurance rider, an estate document, a letter mentioning what it cost, bring that along. It won't replace an appraisal but it can support the value a gemologist arrives at.
Keep a copy of everything somewhere other than the house. Appraisals, receipts, photos, all of it. A safe deposit box works, so does a cloud folder, or an email sent to yourself. The point of this documentation is that it survives whatever happens to the house, and a burglary isn't the only risk. A fire or flood that damages the house can just as easily destroy the paper proof sitting in a drawer next to the jewelry itself.
One thing to check this week
Pull your declarations page and find the jewelry sublimit. Compare it to what your pieces are worth. Anything over that number needs an appraisal and a call to get it scheduled.
