College Park, MD is home to many things. While the University of Maryland College Park makes its home here, it’s not just a college town. It’s a city in its own right. One of the most frequent questions we get locally about College Park, MD Renters Insurance is whether renters insurance jewelry riders are available.
Insuring Your Personal Property
Most people divide their personal property into two basic classes of property – jewelry, and everything else. Often, the value of the jewelry someone owns will be an amount approaching the value of the rest of their property. But protecting that valuable property isn’t as simple as just adding an appropriate amount to your renters insurance coverage.
The renters insurance policy form has a limitation on coverage for jewelry as the standard policy is written. There’s a limit on jewelry coverage, often as low as $1,000. That’s clearly not enough, but people have to protect their valuables. So what’s the answer?
Renters insurance jewelry riders offer coverage that is more broad than the typical named perils, and allow you to cover items in excess of the limit on jewelry in the policy itself. A rider is actually an endorsement. What’s an endorsement?
An endorsement is an addition to the policy which, in return for payment of premium, amends the terms of the policy in some way. Renters insurance jewelry riders offer coverage for jewelry in excess of the limit written into the policy, but there are additional benefits as well.
Renters Insurance Jewelry Riders
The first thing the endorsement does is adds coverage for a specified amount of jewelry to the policy. This amends the terms of the policy so that the amount on the endorsement is not subject to the limit written into the policy. That’s what gives you coverage for jewelry at all.
In addition, renters insurance jewelry riders are generally written on an “open perils” basis rather than just covering renters insurance perils. In plain language, that means your jewelry under that rider is covered against direct physical loss or damage from any cause not excluded.
What are the exclusions? Nuclear hazard is the one that comes immediately to mind as an example. The exclusions on jewelry riders are quite limited, and unlikely to impact most people. However, like any other part of your policy, it’s incumbent on you to read the addition to the policy and understand what’s covered. Fortunately, the endorsement is a very few pages in length.
One thing to bear in mind is that jewelry riders on renters insurance aren’t designed to cover every possible piece of jewelry. There is an upper limit for the aggregate amount of valuable items that can be endorsed onto your policy. In this case, that limit is often $10,000.
I Have Too Much Jewelry For A Rider On My Renters Insurance, What Can I Do?

Renters Insurance Jewelry Riders Are The Right Way To Cover Your Valuable Items And Easy To Add
That’s where a different option for coverage comes in. Instead of renters insurance jewelry riders, you should be looking at personal articles policies. Fortunately, your insurance expert will know when to transition you into that type of policy. These policies simply sit on top of your existing renters insurance policy and offer additional coverage for specific items of agreed value.
That agreed value, whether on personal articles policies or renters insurance jewelry riders, is based on an appraisal or, rarely, a bill of sale. Generally an appraisal is required for larger pieces in order to write the coverage, but you should already have that appraisal in most cases.
How Complex Is The Application For Renters Insurance Jewelry Riders?
It’s not a complicated process to insure jewelry, whether you need jewelry riders or a personal articles policy based on the value of the item. You reach out, we quote it, you send the appraisals for necessary items, we confirm the quote based on that and ask you three questions pertaining to general risk. You make a payment, and you’re covered.
The sort of questions that will be asked are generally minimal. Things like what you do for a living, and whether the jewelry is worn or generally in a vault. The purpose of both is to clarify the level of risk involved in the policy. If you have appraisals already in a digital form, the whole process takes about ten or fifteen minutes.
Your College Park Renters Insurance does not cover the full value of jewelry unless you add a rider or personal articles policy to add the coverage. This is an important distinction that many people are not aware of, and it’s crucial. Without the right coverage, you may well have no coverage at all!
Renters insurance jewelry riders are generally priced at a few dollars of premium per thousand dollars of value, per year of coverage. It’s not expensive to insure most jewelry, but you do need to take some steps to make sure you have the coverage that you need. Your insurance expert for renters can make the process quick and easy.
Just call (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need College Park, MD renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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