Jewellers Insurance
Jewellery is the one retail trade where the insurer is more interested in your safe and your window than in your turnover.
Why Jewellers Are Written Differently
A jeweller holds more value per square foot than almost any other shop, in items that are small, untraceable and immediately sellable. Insurers respond to that with conditions rather than exclusions: how much can sit in the window, how much must go into the safe, what grade that safe has to be, and what happens to the stock overnight. Those conditions are the policy. Get them right and the cover is straightforward. Breach one and the claim is the problem, not the premium.
The trade is usually written on a jewellers block policy rather than a standard shop package, because a shop wording is not built for this and will cap the stock at a figure no jeweller can work with.
What Jewellers Insurance Covers
Stock on the premises
The core of the policy, usually split between stock in the safe, stock on display in the shop and stock in the window, each with its own limit. Insurers price the split as much as the total.
Customers' goods
Items left with you for repair, valuation, remodelling or cleaning. They are not your property, you are liable for them, and a standard shop policy typically excludes property in your care, custody and control.
Stock away from the premises
Stock in transit, at a trade fair, with a workshop or being carried by a director. Nearly always a separate and much lower limit, and conditioned on how it is carried.
Shopfront, glass and damage on entry
The window itself, the display, and the cost of making the premises secure after a ram raid or a smash and grab, which frequently exceeds the value of what was taken.
Money and personal assault
Cash on the premises and in transit, with assault cover for staff. Robbery rather than burglary is a real exposure in this trade and insurers treat staff safety procedure as part of the risk.
Public and employers' liability
Customers in the shop and staff at work. Employers' liability is compulsory from the first employee, at a £5 million statutory minimum.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
The overnight removal condition
Most jewellers wordings require stock above a stated value to be in a specified safe outside trading hours, and often require the window to be emptied entirely. A burglary where stock was left on display overnight is the most common declined claim in the trade.
Safe grade and rating
The schedule names a safe grade and a cash or stock rating. Changing the safe, or storing more than its rating allows, breaches the condition even though the safe is locked and the stock is inside it.
Window display limits
A limit on the value that may sit in the window during trading hours, and often a separate one for individual items. Exceeding it is easy to do with a single high value piece.
Alarm and signalling conditions
A specified alarm, usually with police or monitored response, maintained and set. An alarm that was not set, or a maintenance contract that had lapsed, will be checked after any theft claim.
Stock carried loose
Carrying stock in a pocket or an ordinary bag typically falls outside the transit extension. Insurers usually specify how it must be carried and by whom.
The Security Survey Is Part Of Buying The Policy
Above modest stock values insurers will want a survey before they commit, and the survey is not a formality. It covers the safe and its rating, the alarm specification and whether it is monitored, the glazing, shutters or laminate on the window, and whether there is a secure area for customers to be served from.
This is worth treating as useful rather than as an obstacle. A surveyor's recommendations are usually the cheapest risk improvement available, and they frequently pay for themselves in premium rather than only in protection.
It also fixes the terms in writing. A jeweller who has had a survey knows exactly what the conditions mean in their own shop, rather than reading a generic schedule and hoping their arrangements match it.
Customers' Goods Are The Quiet Exposure
A repair bench changes the risk, and it is the part jewellers most often under-declare. Items left for sizing, restringing, stone replacement or valuation are somebody else's property in your possession, and you are liable for them whether the loss is theft, fire or damage during the work.
The exposure is larger than it feels, because repair items arrive in ones and twos but accumulate. A tray of other people's rings waiting to go out can quietly be worth more than a section of your own display, and it is almost never in the window where it would be counted.
Declare the customers' goods limit on what sits on the bench at its busiest, not on average, and remember that sentimental pieces come with a claims conversation that is harder than the money suggests.
Second Hand, Antique And Watches
Dealing in pre-owned stock raises two questions insurers will ask. Valuation, because an antique piece or a discontinued watch has no list price and a claim turns on what the agreed basis of settlement is. And provenance, because handling stolen goods is a different conversation entirely, so insurers expect proper purchase records.
Watches in particular have moved. Certain brands now carry values that behave more like bullion than retail stock, and insurers have responded with lower single article limits and tighter display conditions for them specifically. If you hold any, name them rather than letting them sit inside a general stock figure.
Where you have unusual or very high value pieces, an agreed value basis with a current valuation on file removes the argument at claim stage. Doing that afterwards is not possible.
What Moves The Price
We do not publish a starting price for this trade, because a figure that is not drawn from policies we actually placed is worth nothing to you. What we can tell you is what the premium is built from.
- Total stock value, and how it splits between safe, display and window
- Safe grade and rating, and whether the window is emptied overnight
- Alarm specification and whether response is monitored
- Location, and the claims history of the street or centre
- Whether you take in customers' goods for repair
- Your own claims record, which in this trade is examined closely
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 and you will have a real figure rather than a range.
What We Need To Quote
- Total stock value, split between safe, display and window
- Safe make, model and cash or stock rating
- Alarm specification, and whether it is monitored
- Maximum value of customers' goods held at any one time
- Whether stock travels, and how it is carried
- Any theft or robbery claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Public liabilityCustomers in the shop, and the care, custody and control exclusion explained.
- Shop insuranceThe general retail package, and the sums insured most shops get wrong.
- Business interruptionThe cover that decides whether a shop survives a fire or a flood.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you sell and we will tell you what actually needs covering.
Common questions
What is a jewellers block policy?+
It is the trade's own form of cover, written for a business holding small, high value, easily resold stock. It handles stock in the safe, on display, in the window and away from the premises as separate things with separate limits, and it covers customers' goods. A standard shop package is not built for this and usually caps stock well below what a jeweller carries.
Do I have to empty the window every night?+
On most jewellers wordings, yes, or at least everything above a stated value. It is a condition rather than advice, and a burglary where stock was left on display overnight is the most frequently declined claim in the trade. Check the exact wording on your own schedule, because the threshold varies between insurers.
Are customers' items left for repair covered?+
Under a jewellers block policy, typically yes, up to a stated limit for customers' goods. Under a general shop policy, often not, because property in your care, custody and control is a standard exclusion. Set the limit on what is on the bench at your busiest rather than on an average week.
Why does my insurer care about my safe?+
Because the safe is most of the protection. The schedule will name a grade and a rating, and that rating caps how much may be stored in it. Holding more than the rating, or replacing the safe with a different specification without telling anyone, breaches the condition even though everything was locked away.
Does it cover stock at a trade fair?+
Usually under a stock away from premises or transit extension, at a much lower limit than the shop figure and subject to conditions about how it is carried and whether it is left unattended. Tell us before the event, because this is one of the easiest limits to exceed by accident.
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