Inherited ring - mindblowing insurance valuation - wtf do I do?

[BitShellshocked]

Have namechanged for this and it's not a stealth boast. My mind is a bit scrambled and I'd appreciate the thoughts of the MN hivemind.

I was recently given a few bits of jewellery that had belonged to my grandmother. All v. nice pieces but as far as we knew worth maybe a couple of thousand altogether, max. Anyway, our house insurance is due for renewal so I took them to a local jewellers to get an up-to-date valuation, more out of curiosity than anything else.

3 of the 4 pieces come to around 8k altogether. Lovely surprise! The 4th has had an insurance valuation of 50 fucking K. My mind is completely blown by this and I'm honestly not sure what to do for the best. I had no idea.

The jeweller says that the insurance premiums are likely to be significant, possibly too much for me to afford easily! That amount of money would make a big difference to us if I sold - could give ds a big lump sum towards a deposit or pay off a good chunk of our mortgage. We've talked a lot recently about financial planning for retirement etc and this would really help.

My gut says I don't want to sell it, but am I being completely ridiculous if otherwise it's just going to sit in a safe, locked away? WWYD?

Sorry, but I actually wonder if those who say 'sell it, sell it' are a bit jealous because they will never have or have never had a piece of jewellery like this? And women who are jealous do not give impartial advice. I say this because the OP says 'the consensus here is to sell'. I think the consensus here is 'we are all beyond jealous'.

Definitely check out the tax situation, for you and your DM. Simple start points:

capital gains
inheritance tax

I love jewellery, I'm very sentimental about it. But, if I wasn't going to wear it I'd sell it without a qualm. I also wouldn't bother with the insurance because it's the specific ring I'm attached to and wouldn't want a replacement.

Stuff belonging to grandparents, yeah I probably wouldn't have any issue with selling. Unless it was an item I particularly liked and could envision myself wearing often.
I guess it a bit depends how sentimental you are about them. Personally, although I remember all my grandparents, I wasn't CLOSE with any of them. 2 were gone before I was 11, and the other 2 by the time I was 21.

Somewhat fortunately, my own mum isn't a big jewellery girl. She has her wedding and engagement rings, and on nice necklace. I think I'd struggle to sell any of her own stuff that I remember her wearing.

But just remember OP, just because an item is being insured for £50K, that doesn't mean that it would sell for £50K.

and again, if you do keep valuables and choose not to insure them, check that your policy allows this and won't consider you to be under insured should you need to claim.

Do what's best for you and your family. Your decision, entirely.

Sell

No one knows you have the ring. HMRC will not know or be interested.

Quite

Have you cleaned the ring yet?

I wear a decent sized diamonds and assume people think it's all costume jewellery. I get a lot of pleasure out of wearing them, I clean them most days so they sparkle. It makes a lot of difference.

OP, does the ring fit you? I'd wear it and see how it feels. 💍

My jewellery is insured but I don't worry about loosing it when I'm out. It's all very secure. I do gardening, DIY and sports with my jewellery on. I tend to take my rings of if I cycle or play tennis just in case I fall and slam my hand down on the tarmac as that could break the diamonds.
Diamonds aren't indestructible and if you whacked one hard enough it could break especially if there are flaws in the diamond.

I’d keep my favourite of the 3 pieces worth 8k as a momento and sell the rest to improve life!

I’d sell, to me jewellery is personal and can be a bit of a burden on the people it was passed down to.
My mom wears my Nans rings but tastes are very different now, and not many people remember great grandparents so where does the line end before it gets sold anyway?
I’ll obviously pass mine down as it’s the natural thing to do but I will say if they want to sell and use the money that is 100% their choice.

You mention insurance valuation of 50k.
just bear in mind that could be cost to replace. I had an engagement ring that was sold for about 20% of the insurance value.

Delta41 Gosh 10 pages in and no one thought to mention that ….

If the ring was stolen I wouldn't claim for it. From the insurance point of view it wouldn't exist.

Years ago I had a friend with a similar problem. It was a ring and it was absolutely beautiful. She was young and a new grad. She had a copy made and sold the ring. No one in the family knew of the originals worth.

The value of that ring set her up for life.

I think sell it and all but one of the other pieces.
Keep that and wear it to remember your grandmother.

Pleased for you!

Sell the 50k piece. Keep the rest

I'm a jeweller and we do valuations. If you decided to sell it for a quick sale through a jeweller/dealer, you're probably looking at around 25% of the insurance value (bearing in mind too, as I think you're aware, that an insurance valuation is for the cost of replacing it with a new one, not what it would sell for necessarily). At that value though, as you said, if you could use the money elsewhere then it's a good idea. But at that sort of amount it is most likely a very desirable item, so it'd be worth speaking to auction houses to see what they think it would achieve, as that could be more profitable for you. Insurance could cost a few percent annually of your total jewellery values on average, but could be more, and at that level they would ask you to purchase a safe to keep it in. TH March are a reputable company that specialise in jewellery, if you want to try them for a quote. Some clients do just hold onto it and not insure, it's totally down to whether you want to just take the risk rather than pay out for insurance

So leave it to her kids to sell after her days?
I get what your saying but if the OP is never goi g to wear it then put it to some good use - I’m sure her grand mother would approve as long as the money isn’t wasted

No, leave it to her kids to enjoy and then pass on in the family.

You are not in immediate financial need ,
keep it and and enjoy wearing it ; don’t be too concerned about what people think , you say you thought it was costume yourself !
The insurance company will want you to fit a safe and probably a revaluation every 3 years or so . The premiums won’t be such a big deal and you will have the reassurance of knowing you have a financial cushion if you ever need it.
( I did this , enjoyed my big rock for 20 years then sold it for enough to give my DD a house deposit ).

Sell it

Sell but be aware you are not going to achieve anything like the valuation. Take advice