I was at the SJTA Atlanta show recently and sat down for a lengthy conversation with Donna Roy, Area President of Jewelry, Fine Art and Numismatics at Arthur J. Gallagher, an Insurance Brokerage Firm. Donna is the head of the Fine Art and Jewelry team that deal exclusively in the ‘valuables’ business.
Donna’s team handles jewelry stores, diamond & jewelry wholesalers, manufacturers, coin/bullion/metals dealers, refiners, and large personal collections to name a few. They can also handle your commercial insurance needs and are very familiar with the protections needed for your business.
Gallagher was founded in 1927, and acquired the Jewelers Block team a few years ago, because of their 30+ years of experience in the jewelry industry. I don’t know why I’ve never known about them before. As far as I knew, there were only a couple of options available to us. I never knew this option was available, until now!
One thing really unique about Donna, and her team, is that their office is right in the heart of the Diamond District in New York City. Right there in the 10036. They are in and out of the 580 Building almost every single day. They are ‘eyes on’ daily to what is happening in our industry, right at the epicenter. In addition to servicing the larger NYC area, they work with jewelers around the country and are always happy to provide references.
Of course, one of my first questions was regarding shipping coverage, mainly coverage while using the United States Postal Service. The answer was yes, Donna advised that many insurers they work with are still offering this coverage. They are literally walking through the district for hours every day and they see how the various couriers make their deliveries. They talk to the people that are actually handling the boxes. They talk to the people that manage all of those deliveries. They see what is happening on the ground, all day, every day and are passionate about trying to make sure the voice of the jewelry industry is heard. Not many insurance reps can make that same claim.
Donna, and her team, which includes her daughter Brianna, who was raised to be passionate about the jewelry trade (and brings me snacks at the jewelry show), are insurance brokers that represent multiple companies that underwrite the very policies that we all need. Because they are brokers, they have options that you might not even know are available to you. Just call Donna and her team and let them show you how they can help you with your insurance needs. They are happy to perform a health check on your current policy at no cost to you with no strings attached.
And, you don’t have to just be a retail brick and mortar store. They write policies for wholesalers, online businesses, individuals that work out of their homes and even policies for all of the ‘road dogs’ that are still out there logging the miles. Those guys are my heroes, by the way. Still out there, still making house calls.
While we were talking, I asked about ‘best practices’ that we could employ to help ‘cushion the nightmare’ in the event of a loss. Here are a few things that she said we all need to do better:
Establish the value of the piece at take-in
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I should do that, but I almost never do. Donna explained in the event of a loss “she’s seen time and time again that the customer’s diamond becomes the Hope Diamond.” At take-in, the sentiment is not the same as it would be in the event of a loss. A $5K ring is a $5K insurance settlement, not the $105K payout the customer will expect if you have to start the negotiations ‘after’ a loss has occurred.
Insure your package for the correct $$$ amount
I’ll admit that I’m guilty of just picking the top dollar amount of my coverage on most of my packages. It doesn’t change what it costs me to ship if I insure it for $1,000, or if I insure it for $50,000. The reason is you are creating a shipping record of the value of your shipments that insurance companies pay attention to. If you’re always insuring $5,000 packages for $50K that can, and will be, factored in to your exposures every year when your policy is up for renewal, which directly affects your premium. Accurate exposure reporting is crucial to obtain the best rates and correct coverage. Let’s pretend in the course of a year you legitimately ship 18 packages worth $5K, and only 2 packages worth $50K, but you claim $50K on all 20. In the real world, your exposure was $190,000 that year. To your insurance company, their exposure was $1,000,000. These statistics affect your premium every year at renewal. That was something I never really thought about. I’m now much more precise when I’m assessing the value of my packages.
Keep records of shipments very separate
Finally something I’m doing correctly. Having had to deal with the aftermath of losses, Donna told me that most people keep their repair records in the same place that they keep their repairs. In the event of a robbery or a burglary, the bad guys tend to scoop up everything in sight, and sort the wheat from the chaff at a later date, in a land far, far away from your business. If your repair box gets stolen, and all of your repair logs are in that box, your nightmare just got worse.
That reminded me of what was drilled into us at the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology. When transporting jewelry, always keep it on your person, and not in your car, no matter how well you have it hidden. If your car gets stolen, this would not be an insured event unless unattended auto coverage is purchased, which is an expensive coverage that not many of us purchase. But if your car is stolen, the jewelry is just as gone.
It was an interesting conversation about options that I never knew were available. I’ve written many times about how all of us are ‘trapped in our boxes’ 5 or 6 days a week. We all get tunnel vision about what’s out there, about what is available to us that we never discover because we’re all spending 50-60 hours a week running our businesses. That’s the beauty of going to the shows. You see and experience things you didn’t know about before you went, like new options for your business insurance.
Contact Donna Roy at 212-763-3421, or her cell at 914-424-6023, or by email at Donna_Roy@ajg.com.
Now, on an unrelated topic, I have an idea I’d like to throw out there and see if I’m crazy or not. Mike Rowe, the host of the TV show ‘Dirty Jobs’ has a foundation that raises money for scholarships, and in turn, sends people to trade schools instead of the university. Here is a statement from his website;
For the tenth year in a row, we’re launching the next Work Ethic Scholarship Program and giving away another $1,000,000 in scholarships this year. We’re looking for hardworking men and women who will keep the lights on, water running, and air flowing – people who will show up early, stay late, and bust their asses to get the job done. It’s not for everyone, but we know hard workers are out there.
What’s missing from that list? Hell, what’s missing from our industry? Young people learning the trade of becoming a ‘bench jeweler’! Can we, as an industry, muster enough support to get Mike Rowe to pay attention to the dire need for new bench jewelers? I think so, but I need some help. I don’t know Mike, and I don’t know anyone that does. How do we make this work? I’ll take all the help I can get.
