If you have significant jewelry where do you keep it - safe deposit boxes are not safe apparently

[Anonymous]

Citibank

We hide some at home. We have a wall of framed artwork done by the kids. Some pictures are more "special" than others because of what's hidden behind them.

When we were buying the house the wife gestured to me and led me into the lower level and said "we left some posters up on the wall for you" and looked at me meaningfully. I was like "Oh, thank you but you can take your posters with you!" and she said "No, if you don't want them you can take them down." I shrugged and said okay. Took me like two weeks to remember and go back and take down the posters. Keys to the safes were taped to the backs of the posters.

[Anonymous]

Why can't she just get a safe deposit box rider on her homeowner's insurance? The insurer would rather have the jewelry in there than at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't she just get a safe deposit box rider on her homeowner's insurance? The insurer would rather have the jewelry in there than at home.

Can't do that without appraisals for each item and you will be surprised at how expensive those are.

[Anonymous]

Nondescript box in kids closets. We were told by our insurance company that thieves rarely go into kids rooms because there are few high value items to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't she just get a safe deposit box rider on her homeowner's insurance? The insurer would rather have the jewelry in there than at home.

Can't do that without appraisals for each item and you will be surprised at how expensive those are.

If the jewelry is valuable, that’s a false economy. Get the appraisals, put the items on your insurance schedule, and then put them in a safe in your house or the safe deposit box if they’re not things you usually wear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't she just get a safe deposit box rider on her homeowner's insurance? The insurer would rather have the jewelry in there than at home.

Can't do that without appraisals for each item and you will be surprised at how expensive those are.

If the jewelry is valuable, that’s a false economy. Get the appraisals, put the items on your insurance schedule, and then put them in a safe in your house or the safe deposit box if they’re not things you usually wear.

Agree. I suggested it and I'm under the impression that the insurance for jewelry will be cheaper if they are in a safe deposit box vs. at home or elsewhere. If you don't already have the jewelry insured, isn't it at risk anywhere if "safe" means getting money back for it if it's lost/gone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother use to hide jewelry in her home and then she got dementia and couldn't remember where she hid it. We searched and searched with no luck.

I hid my daughter’s phone recently and it took me six months to find it.

[Anonymous]

OP. Mom doesn’t have much disposable income but does have a lot of very valuable items. She tried getting estimates for appraisal and they were high. Sure she could sell a piece and pay for the appraisals but I don’t think I can convince her. I will inherit them but I am too poor to pay either. She has had them for decades. Brought from Austria and through a few house moves. Always at that bank I believe.

Will tell her to continue keeping at the bank and the few pieces at her home hidden. The only reason I started this thread is because I saw someone post the other day about a man getting contents of safe box at bank stolen and no protection or something. But I bet many keep valuables at the bank and few have appraisals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember where they stored the gold watch in pulp fiction?
https://youtu.be/YFtHjV4c4uw

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother use to hide jewelry in her home and then she got dementia and couldn't remember where she hid it. We searched and searched with no luck.

I hid my daughter’s phone recently and it took me six months to find it.

Did you, um ... ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For in home storage guy from the insurance company told my friend after a robbery to store her jewelry in a kitchen drawer. She so embraced this that when she redid kitchen she had a fake insert created in one of the new cabinets with dedicated cubbies below.

Make sure you tell all relevant family members about this. My relative has done this, and I worry that if she gets sick or dies and the house is sold, that nobody will retrieve the valuables.

Yeah, we found some of my mother's jewelry in pants pockets (in the back of the closet, not that she had worn with the jewelry) long after she was able to tell us where the rest of it was. I'm sure we threw some out accidentally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safety deposit box. When we were robbed, they came straight to the master bedroom dressers and closet.

Yes. Me too. They did not enter the kid's rooms.

[Anonymous]

My sister and I cleaned out Grandma's place after she passed and we tried to look through every book, took apart framed pictures, looked through the tool box, etc. found cash and memories randomly. Grandma had dementia, and who knows how much we missed. Mostly $100 bills hidden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Mom doesn’t have much disposable income but does have a lot of very valuable items. She tried getting estimates for appraisal and they were high. Sure she could sell a piece and pay for the appraisals but I don’t think I can convince her. I will inherit them but I am too poor to pay either. She has had them for decades. Brought from Austria and through a few house moves. Always at that bank I believe.

Will tell her to continue keeping at the bank and the few pieces at her home hidden. The only reason I started this thread is because I saw someone post the other day about a man getting contents of safe box at bank stolen and no protection or something. But I bet many keep valuables at the bank and few have appraisals?

A straightforward appraisal will run you about $80-$100 per piece. Appraise the most valuable pieces and get insurance on them.

[Anonymous]

Why is a safe deposit box in a bank unsafe? Honestly curious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. Mom doesn’t have much disposable income but does have a lot of very valuable items. She tried getting estimates for appraisal and they were high. Sure she could sell a piece and pay for the appraisals but I don’t think I can convince her. I will inherit them but I am too poor to pay either. She has had them for decades. Brought from Austria and through a few house moves. Always at that bank I believe.

Will tell her to continue keeping at the bank and the few pieces at her home hidden. The only reason I started this thread is because I saw someone post the other day about a man getting contents of safe box at bank stolen and no protection or something. But I bet many keep valuables at the bank and few have appraisals?

A straightforward appraisal will run you about $80-$100 per piece. Appraise the most valuable pieces and get insurance on them.

It would probably be less per piece if you have multiple items. I was the executor of an estate and I paid a gemologist around $1,500 to appraise 40 items.

Shop around — you don’t need the best appraiser in town, you need someone certified that the insurance company will accept.

However, if you have a lot of high-value items, you should also see if the insurance company has a dollar limit on what they will insure without providing for additional security (it’s usually a couple of hundred thousand). In other words, to get insurance, your mother may be required to keep the jewelry in a safe deposit box or acquire a security system for her house.