Absoft News
PHENIX JEWELLERY - BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - Jewellery Industry.
Monday 14 January 2008
* 70% of the 38 policies had a total limit for jewellery of more than $5000, but five had a total limit of only $1000.
* Only three policies fully cover a $3000 ring — all others limit the value of each item to less than $3000. About half have an item limit of just $1000.
To get jewellery properly covered, people need to specify each item on their policy. This bears additional costs but isn’t necessarily expensive. Costs start from $15 per year for a $5000 ring (depending on where you live and your insurer). With your contents policy, you can also take out optional cover for valuables away from home.
To make a claim, you usually need to supply proof of ownership. It’s a good idea to get a valuation from a registered valuer — tell them the valuation is for insurance purposes and where you’d shop to replace the jewellery. Shop around for the valuation, as there are big differences, especially for expensive jewellery. We were quoted between $50 and $265 for a $15,000 ring.
Since insurers buy large amounts of jewellery each year, they get a big discount from suppliers and therefore may offer you a store credit at their preferred jewellery store instead of a cash settlement. If you’ve a specific jeweller you’d like to go to instead, your insurer may agree. If you’d prefer a cash settlement, the insurer might agree, but only offer you the wholesale value.
SO "Why does the jewellery industry do appraisals for insurance at retail prices when everything is sold for a lot less? Then the insurance company insures the item for the appraised value but pays the claim on the lower replacement price. Very confusing for the clients and for me, too. It also makes the insurance company look bad. . . ."
Jewellery claims may not involve a lot of money, from the insurer's standpoint, but how they are settled can have a huge impact. That is, how the insured feels about the settlement can affect the agent's total business with that client.
Insuring jewellerycan be a confusing business. The causes lie in practices of the jewelleryindustry, expectations of buyers, market trends, world economics, profit margins, insurance principles and practices, and how they all work together—or interfere with each other. Let's untangle some of this.
Absoft provides the Vyper platform to strealine and approach the industry with a solution and provide a niche market for Phenix Jewellery to domainate and operate in. Phenix now has a new tool to facilitate the agent’s role in the jewellery insurance process. The tool, a software
program called Vyper, addresses the industry-wide problem of collecting important, useful, and relevant information for properly insuring & validating the replacement of jewellery.
Vyper is currently deployed in an ASP-environment. The software is undergoing further development as a desktop application incorporating Smart Client Web services based on .net, SQL, SOAP, and related Microsoft technologies, and also employs currently available and emerging national insurance standards.
About absoft group
Absoft is the leading provider of software, services, and infrastructure to the insurance & claims industry. absoft leverages a unique industry presence to deliver meaningful solutions--powerful technology, critical information and robust insights to help organizations effectively respond to business challenges and capture new opportunities. absoft solutions have helped more than 15,000 customers to gain a competitive advantage to accelerate their business performance online.
About Phenix Jewellery Pty Ltd.
Phenix Jewellery is the leading provider to insurance industry for the replacement of lost or stolen diamonds, gold& fine jewelry. The Company delivers the ultimate customer experience, providing consumers with a superior way to satisfy their claims process, including the replacment of personal items such as engagement rings, wedding rings and fine jewelry. Phenix offers in-depth educational materials and unique online tools that place consumers in control of the jewellery claims / replacement process. Phenix has some of the highest quality standards in the industry and offers thousands of independently certified diamonds and fine jewelleryat prices significantly below traditional retail. Phenix Jewellery is a private company based in Australia and can be found online at www.phenixjewellery.com {.au}.
