Marsh warns of jewellery underinsurance

Marsh has warned jewellery collectors of the risk of underinsurance in the wake of spiralling diamond and precious metal prices. Over the past 12 months, the price of large diamonds has increased by an average of 30% while platinum has almost doubled, far outstripping general price inflation.

Sara Dunn, client executive in private client services at Marsh, explained: “It is the responsibility of the policyholder, not the insurer, to ensure that their sums insured adequately represent the cost of replacing items. If they do not, in the event of a claim, they will receive no more than the sum insured or the single article limit, leaving them out of pocket.

“Generally, insurers will apply index linking to insurance policies based on the General Index of Retail Prices, rather than an