Meet The Wedding Pro - Dustin with BriteCo

That ring on your finger is one of the most meaningful purchases you’ll ever make and one of the easiest things to lose, damage, or have disappear without a trace. We sit down with Dustin, founder of BriteCo, to get clear on what jewelry insurance actually covers and what couples should watch for before the wedding, during the honeymoon, and for everyday life afterward.

We dig into the real risks: mysterious disappearance (the most common type of claim), accidental damage like cracked or chipped diamonds, stones falling out after a prong snags, and theft that can happen anywhere from a hotel room to a city sidewalk. We also talk through why travel and water activities are such common danger zones, and what “worldwide coverage” should mean when you’re comparing policies.

Then we compare specialty engagement ring insurance and wedding ring insurance with homeowners insurance riders, including the practical downsides couples often miss, like big deductibles and potential impacts to future insurance pricing. Dustin shares an easy rule of thumb for deciding what to insure, what proof you’ll need (receipt, appraisal, diamond certificate), how quick the online process can be, and how market changes like lab-grown diamonds and rising gold prices can affect replacement value over time.

If you want to protect your jewelry and your peace of mind while planning a wedding, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a newly engaged friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about insuring your ring.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Mission

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to Metropolitan Wedding.

SPEAKER_03 0:03

I'm gonna we are here to educate couples with information from wedding professionals in the industry. Our goal is to make the wedding planning process as seamless as possible by providing you with insight from industry professionals.

Meet Brightco And What They Cover

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Okay, couples, let's get this party started. Well, hello listeners. We are excited to be here with Brightco today. Um, Dustin, would you like to introduce yourself and a little bit about your company real quick for everyone?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yes, of course. So my company, I founded a company called Brightco. Brightco is a jewelry watch and wedding insurance company. Um we started in 2019, 2018, 2019. And we work with jewelers and uh agents and wedding venues to offer jewelry insurance. So think of engagement ring insurance, you know, diamond studs, bracelets, etc., watches too. And then also um we work with wedding venues for wedding insurance. So think of, you know, like wedding liability, like a flip balls in a wedding or cancellation as well. So like if somebody needs to cancel wedding, they offer cancellation insurance as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

So you guys really do quite a few things, which is I think we've talked a little bit before about just all the different things you do. If you're okay with it, I would love to talk today about like the jewelry aspect of it and just kind of break that down for people who are thinking about, like you just mentioned, watches and rings and you know, their their heritage jewelry that they're gonna pass down that they've gotten for the wedding or as a gift or they're wearing or probably their engagement ring.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, would love to drill in.

Loss Theft Damage And Disappearance

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Awesome. Um, so would you would you say that a lot of times it's uh the engagement ring is the first thought that someone has that of something they want to be insured, but then it kind of leads down a road of other things as well?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah, I mean it depend it depends. Um, but generally we're seeing you know, a lot of folks with the engagement ring and the wedding band are like kind of the first. And and also keep in mind, like the person who's buying um insurance or buying their wedding an engagement ring, right? It's a huge purchase for this person. A lot of times it's the biggest purchase they've made today. So, you know, it's a big, sentimental, important purchase, and that's why you know insurance or insuring, you know, an engagement ring or a wedding man is so poor.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

Right. I agree, and it's easily lost.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah, it is it is. We have stories, yes, yes, it is easily lost and damaged, by the way, too. So we've covered damage as well, which is you know, it gets knocked in a small stone on the in the mounting gets knocked out, or or there's a million different damage, you know, reasons and and situations that we've as well.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

And then so does it you does it ever get like stolen? Do you guys have people that are like on the honeymoon and it gets stolen or something?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Oh yeah, we've seen stolen out of um hotel rooms. I mean, to your point on honeymoons, things like that, or vacations. Right. Um, we've seen watches a lot of targeted stuff. Um, and some of it is kind of crazy. Like, I mean, we had one off the top of my mind, uh, off the top of my head, we had one situation where um, you know, guy was walking in Manhattan, he was wearing a Rolex, it broad daylight on like a Wednesday, and somebody just kind of ripped his watch off his wrist, like grabbed and stole it. So definitely there's there's loss, there's theft, there's damage, like all of that is real thing.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

That's sketchy. I'm like, I'm just thinking like it, you know, it gets stolen because you've like locked it up somewhere. I don't know. I don't know what my imagination is, but not my imagination did not go to walking down the street and it being stolen off my body.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

That's the point, is like there's things that happen that you just and that's why you have church for like for things you just don't ever expect to happen that actually do happen. The biggest, I will say though, the biggest, the number one um claim reason that we get is something that we offer called mysterious disappearance, which is by far the biggest cause of loss, which is essentially just I lost it, but I don't know what happened. You know, it just disappeared. This, I mean, this happens all the time. Where you know, you all of a sudden you look down and you're like, my ring is not on my finger. And then you start backtracking in your head, and you're like, did I have it yesterday? Did I have it two days ago? You know, etc. etc. And you like cannot, and and that mysterious disappearance, like we cover that too.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

I mean, I'd like to call BS on that, except that I've probably done it with a debit card or a I'm like, there's lots of mysterious, mysterious disappearance things in my life where I'm like, oh yeah. I just one day was like, wait, where is that?

SPEAKER_03 5:19

So identify. Oh, I left my ring in a hotel room in the shower. Yeah. Yep. And believe it or not, the they said they didn't have it, but they were gonna ask the cleaner, and the cleaner had locked it up and had it. Aww. And I went back to Oklahoma City and got my ring.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

That's good. Wow.

Sock Mystery Break And Backtracking

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Crazy, huh? You got lucky. Yeah. Yeah, got got lucky.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

I didn't I do have a favorite pair of boxers that are still missing.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Trace it back, Adam. When is the last time you had the boxers?

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Were they insured? And somehow we keep getting just like one sock of a pair.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Oh, that I'm I we get that all the time. I get that all the time. Yeah, we maybe we should do some some insurance for some clothing. But yeah, I get the stock thing all the time. I'm always like one sock.

unknown 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

And it's it's always the expense of running socks, too. Always. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

So then we make a basket of the one sock waiting for the other sock to turn up, and then eventually it gets to a point you just throw them away.

SPEAKER_04 6:27

It's sad because it never turns up. So wherever that mysterious disappearance happened, maybe I should start a garden installation of one socks.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

So Adam, what I what what I do, and I I I probably shouldn't admit this, but when I have like loose like blown sock, I put it back in the laundry, even though I know it's pain, and I hope that it finds its paint through the pro through the laundry process.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Do you imagine drier being like, there you are, buddy?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Like you'll find you'll find your hair. Here, you can go back into laundry.

unknown 7:02

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Oh my god. That's awesome. I'm gonna try that. There, yeah, it's worth a try.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I like to think it works, but I don't know for sure. So I don't know, but give it a shot.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

I like the imagination. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

That's funny.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

So back to jewelry. Um so it we I talked about honeymoon a little bit, but like and you you mentioned vacation travel. Um so as far as like this goes, there's no like boundaries of like, oh, I was in another country when that happened, or you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't really matter where it happened, I'm assuming, or is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 7:47

No, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. Like, we all well for us, for Bright though. I can only speak for our coverage. And I and there are other companies that have restrictions on travel like that. Um, it's definitely it's a good point. Something that you should make sure you have coverage with whoever whatever insurance company you go with. Um, but with Brightfo, we cover for world worldwide. So and honestly, a lot of things happen travel. Um, that's huge cause for loss. Is you know, I mean we've seen stuff with TSA, a lot of things around like like your point before around um hotel stay, water activity, lots of losses around water activities like water activities.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

Like the shower?

unknown 8:30

Yes.

Homeowners Policies And Insurance Scores

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Okay, just checking. So, okay, what is the difference between because some people may have already insured or are thinking about insuring a piece of jewelry or heirloom, you know, whatever, insuring things through their homeowner's insurance. Is this different than that? Better? What are the what are the things to think about when considering those two options?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, it is different. Uh, and actually, I'm glad you asked the question. It's a point of confusion for a lot of folks. Like a lot of people just assume that their homeowners covers it and that like, oh, we have some valuables coverage, you know, and you do, but it's very limited and it's generally not adequate for a piece of jewelry. Um now you can schedule a lot of folks will schedule a separate like rider or scheduled item on your homeowner's policy, and that is problematic too. And this a lot of people do not know, but when you everyone has an insurance credit score, just like you have a FICO score, and insurance companies share this score with each other. There's like a system where if you go to apply for insurance, look at your homeowner's insurance, they will look at your score, and you will get better or worse rates depending on your score. If you if it and there's different like reporting mechanisms and whatever, but if you have a loss and your item is on your homeowner's policy, that will affect your score and it will affect your homeowner's policy. So your rates will almost certainly go up, and you might be eligible, you might get dropped completely. With Ricoers, with us, I think we're the only ones that that don't report claims. So effectively, like we will not change your score at all. So it's kind of like a credit card where if you take a credit card out, but like if something, if you ran behind in your payments or whatever, it would not affect your FICO score, it's the same thing with us. So that's another reason why you wouldn't want to have 700 fullowners. And like I think one of the other things I would mention, there's a few other, but one of the other big things is deductible. So you're subject to your full owners deductible. So if you have a$1,500 deductible and you have called a$5,000 ring, well, you're out, you know, a substantial portion of the total cost. With us, at least at Brightco, we don't have any deductibles, we don't report. Um, it's just a better product, I mean you have better coverage, but it's just a better coverage, like better product specifically made for jewelry and for watching.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Okay. I did not know something. I didn't either.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Credit score, cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, nobody, nobody knows it. Nobody knows it. Yeah, people don't know it.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Sneaky little insurance people. So every time I get a little bit of an attitude with them, does that hurt my score?

unknown 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, they've got a little sticker there, they're just clicking and being like, oh, that's going down five times. There's no um Yeah, but we don't but to be clear though, like I I we don't believe in in that like we don't use the score, we we don't report to the score at all, like we don't look at that score, like we don't use it. Okay. Um that's why we don't report to it. So it's like we we don't need it, you know. We have technology, and yeah, so so it's way better going with a company that doesn't utilize that score like right now.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Okay. Good to know.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

So if if I were to say, what's like what is the one thing or what are the things that people forget to insure? Uh as far as like, you know, personal items like that.

What To Insure And Cost Benchmarks

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Um it's sorry, one thing I wanted to clear up quickly. Okay. I want to make sure it's clear. Of course. We we would look at, and most companies look at the insurance score, but we but reporting it is different. And I just want to make sure this is clear. Reporting the claims to the score is different than utilizing the score. So it's a we that's like a sort of nuanced thing, but I just wanted to make sure that that was clear. Um, to answer your question, things that people don't think about insuring, um, heirlooms for sure. Like we see heirlooms where folks are like, well, or things that they don't wear very often, people won't think about insuring, but they're important to insure because things happen in the home. Um and again, mysterious disference happens all the time. So you you know, like and also like even I I am shocked sometimes that people like expensive items that you wouldn't normally have thought, oh, that's something that we should insure that people forget.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Interesting. So, what's the like the rule of thumb of things that you should insure?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I kind of take a practical approach to it. Like, I am like, look, think about how painful it would be to replace that item. So somebody who is just starting out in life and who spent a lot of money on an engagement ring, and you ask the question yourself, how painful would it be to replace this? And if it's like, yeah, that would be pretty painful, well, definitely should have that insured. Um, because you don't want to come out of pocket to spend it, you know, respend of eight, ten thousand, fifty, whatever the numbers. Um from a purely like benchmark perspective, like we usually say anything over a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars is probably worth insuring because it's it's so reasonable. Like, so the price or the cost to insure, it's like a half a percent to one and a half percent, at least price of of the total value. So like you could be talking about like you know twenty-five to fifty dollars or you know, a half a percent of the total item, and that is super valuable. Like, and if it was more expensive than that, I would probably be seeing a difference to it. If I'm like, hey, it's five percent of the total item. Like, that's kind of expensive, but it it really is a good value for your money.

SPEAKER_04 14:33

That makes sense. Like, if it's something that it's gonna cost quite a bit of money to replace, even if it's something you don't wear every day. I was thinking about like some of the things that have been passed down to me. Um they aren't necessarily like brand new and diamonds and whatever, but I would replace them. If it got stolen or whatever, you know what I mean? Like I would want something to sort of replace that even though it was just kind of like you were saying, an heirloom piece or cement sentimental to me. Um I would want to have it remade or replaced or whatever, just so that I still had it in my life. So that's an interesting way to think about things too.

unknown 15:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Just that it's a low enough amount on its total replace cost that why not?

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, I have I have a watch that my wife offered me for my 40th birthday, and I if I lost it, like it it is insured with a lot of my other items, but if I lost it, I would be really upset, and but I wouldn't want to replace it and I wouldn't want to come out of pocket, and so that's why you get the insurance.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

That makes sense. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

I feel like we probably need to get on Brightco after this podcast. What was that, Donna? I said we probably need to get on Brightco after this podcast and insure some jewelry.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

I need to make a list. I'll be like, you have to.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Listen, they're good. And it's super easy. It's super easy.

Wild Claims Stories From Real Life

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Good. So, okay, when people what are like what are some of the reasons people file claims? Like what what are some of the good stories?

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Oh my gosh, we have so many. Um, my number one favorite one, and this doesn't even sound real, but it is, it's sort of the dog ate my homework situation, except the homework was a diamond$50,000 diamond engagement ring. Oh my gosh. Um dog literally ate uh diamond ring. They recovered the ring, which is my favorite part of the story. And they were I I remember this really specifically because I mean I admittedly I don't get involved in all of the claims. Um, but some of some of them that are stupid not to, I sort of follow, and this is one of those. Um, they recovered the ring. We paid to have it reconditioned and professionally clean and all of that stuff as you can imagine. Um that was one uh another one that sticks out in my mind was um a couple had a toddler, and the toddler got a three box and literally took the box over to the toilet and started flushing it all down the toilet.

SPEAKER_04 17:12

Kids, why are they so fascinated with flushing stuff down the toilet? You're like, no, we've gotta dig up the whole like neighborhood now. What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah. She's just sitting there like, body dog, just gonna keep flushing his down the toilet. Yeah, like this is fun. This is a fun game. Um one one other that sticks out is um, well, actually, this is this wasn't one of our claims. I actually saw this on social media the other day. Is this was super cute. Like, um must have been like first or second graders. Um this little boy had and and I think that the the father, father of the girl was the one who posted on social media. So the little boy literally wanted to ask the girl in second grade to marry him, and he stole the mom's ring, his mother's ring, and brought it to school and asked the girl to marry him with with the mom's ring, with a diamond ring that was like a$15,000 ring. Um, they didn't lose it, they didn't lose it, they recovered it, but this boy, so stuff like that. Just kind of weird, kind of quirky stuff.

SPEAKER_04 18:25

So did she say yes and bring home this ring? And the uh the family was like, Whoa, what is happening?

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Yeah, so she said she said yes, brought home the ring and told her parents it was like, oh Billy and I are getting married and he gave me this ring. And I think both parents were like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

We can we see Billy's phone number, please? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Well, that's a pretty funny one. So would you would you consider that um theft or accidental?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

That's a great question. That is a great question. I don't even know what we would consider that one.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

Wow. That's a weird one. Oh my gosh. So which is more common?

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Oh god. Do we consider that one a reach out for social media so we can use some like PR around it? That's that's what we would do.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

That's just good marketing.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Good marketing, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

So which is more common, accidental or theft?

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Um, I think we we see more, so like you see the most is mysterious disparance, like I said. And then I I you do see more accidental damage.

unknown 19:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Um, you do see a lot of damage claims. Um death we think we we don't see that much death, although it happens. I mean, we've seen we've seen somebody like break into a house and like take an entire safe. Um yeah, yeah, like took all took a total safe. We also I mean, we also had coverage and we covered all the flames in um the Palisade fires. You know, there was there was when everything burned, like there was jewelry in there too, obviously. And it was really really nice area with nice homes. Um we had some coverage of the flames come from there too.

Damage Examples And Maintenance Myths

SPEAKER_04 20:16

What qualifies under damage? Like I'm sure loss of stone is a no-brainer, but like I don't know, you get it caught in a vice or a I I don't know. You hear guys getting their wedding rings messed up a lot.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah, like catching it on doors when you're walking through door frames. Um, you actually would be surprised. Like damages uh uh diamonds can chip and crack. And so people I mean, diamonds are known to be the hardest thing on the planet, which they are, but there's a difference between hardness and toughness. And so they can actually like you can't really scratch a diamond. That's like the hardness piece of it, but you can crack and chip them, which is the goes to the toughness part of it. So we see a bunch of chip stones, um crack diamonds, and we saw a stone that cracked. She hit it on um I forget what she hit it on, but she hit it on something. Um, what else could happen from damage? I mean, we've seen like if it falls off your your finger, or you're taking it off and it falls on the ground, things like that. Um you know, what there's a lot of different potential areas where it could be damaged.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

I've lost a stone out of mine before. That's not fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh yeah, for instance, the pong is getting snagged and then the stone getting loose or falling out. Like that's really fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Yep, that's what happened to mine.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

Do you guys have like um parameters in place if they have to get it checked every so often or anything like that in order to keep the insurance long term?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

You we don't have anything where you have to go back. We recommend it and we have wide network of so um we always want to be helpful and we you know we'll send reminders, the email sometimes, we'll put specials in our newsletter and stuff like that for our customers, but we don't it's not like a warranty, thankfully, like where you have to every year go get it checked or it it it's void. There's nothing like that at all.

Pricing Deductibles And Location Factors

SPEAKER_04 22:26

See, that works for me. I know I'm bad at chores like that where I have to like every year go do things. Maintenance. I'm not great at keeping up with maintenance. But anyway, I'm sure I'm not alone. But it doesn't mean I shouldn't. I should. Um do a lot of well, well, well, hold on. Sorry, Adam. We kind of talked about homeowners' insurance. All right, let's talk about the cost. So when someone is insuring something, we talked a little bit about like what percentage, is that across the board as far as like um no matter what kind of piece of jewelry you're covering, are there different levels of coverage, or is it basically like once you've insured this piece, it's this percent per its value no matter what happens? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So it depends it depends. So with a specialty, so with Right Go, the good rule rule of thumb is half percent, one and a half percent. We're generally more affordable than the market. Um most I would say specialty insurance carriers like that have a standalone jewelry product like ours, would be one to two percent uh rule of thumb. And then it could go up like some homeowners or some other it could go up like three percent, but um, and it and a lot of it depends, and mostly depends on like the underwriting. Um, you know, it's like any other insurance company where it, you know, there's some underwriting where it's not just like a flat fee or flat, like flat price for it. It is um, and then it scales up based on the value. So it doesn't really matter if it's like, at least with rice bar, I should say, if it's 5,000 or 20,000 or 30,000, you know, that it's all depending on underwriting of the person. Um, you know, for example, I'll give you an example. If if somebody's had, you know, claims in the past or claims history that will factor into underwriting, or um, the insurance we would look at from a pricing perspective, not from a claims perspective, from a pricing perspective, look at the insurance credits um to help price the policy to make sure the pricing is appropriate. Um things like that, and then but but ultimately, I mean the good rule of thumb, I mean, if you want to just take a complete average, just take one percent. So one percent of the total insured value, and you're probably gonna be somewhere around that.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

And does that change like if you have uh based on a deductible rate like insurance usually does, or what did you say about deductible?

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Okay, yeah, good question. It can change based on deductibles with right code, like we want things to be super, super easy, super streamlined, like just like no frill. Like we don't say, you know, we just want it to be transparent. So we don't do any deductibles at all. All the right code policies are zero deductible policies. Um, other carriers would potentially offer, and and I should say too, zero deductibles is probably the best price in the market. Other carriers will offer deductibles to try to bring the price down because they know you know if you lose it, you're gonna have to pay a thousand bucks deductible, two thousand bucks. Um, it's a way for them to mitigate their risk. So you can, and that was a it's a very good question. You can be lower pricing based if you're gonna have it. And and other carriers definitely.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Okay, so it is an option if they want it, but that's not like the default that you guys play by.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

No, and I mean look, if you can get into zero deductible policy, you should do that. Like it's it's you know, you don't really want to come out of pocket. I mean, it's fine, but if you can find a good product, like a good coverage at a good price with no deductible, like that's kind of that would be what I would recommend you were looking at at a at a policy.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

That makes sense. So if I live in a more like expensive part of the country versus like we uh talked about, we're in like the Springfield Ozark Nixah area. So the cost of living here is lower versus like New York or California. So is it more expensive there? Does it matter where you're at? Do you have coverage? If I live in Paris, can I use Brightco? It's like four different questions.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

But great question. No, no, it's a good question. Uh so the pricing again, like the underwriting and the pricing, um, will matter based on where you live in in the country, and that's for most insurance product. It because and for us specifically, there's a a different risk set of risks if you live in New York City versus if you live in you know somewhere like in somewhere else. Um because of the yeah, or Spring Fair exactly. Um the risk associated with it is different.

unknown 27:48

It's just a difference and crime.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

I mean, even if we just look at basic crime. Um so the pricing will be different depending on where you live in the country. Now, we only offer our policy to US citizens, but it covers worldwide. So if you're a US citizen and you live in the United States, you're you're eligible for one of our policies. Um so we wouldn't sell a policy to somebody's citizen brand. Okay. But if you're a US, if you live in the United States and you're traveling, then 100% that you would have coverage for worldwide traffic, things like that.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Cool. That answers that. Is there an or is there anything surprising about pricing that people don't think about?

SPEAKER_00 28:32

I honestly think the surprising the surprising part about the pricing is how affordable. I think people think it's way more expensive than it actually is.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

I think you're right.

unknown 28:40

I agree.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

I think that's why people don't necessarily uh consider it or think about it until it's too late. But that is definitely why I think uh there's a misconception. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

I mean it's Yeah, I agree. I mean if it's if it's a ten thousand dollar ring and you're paying fifty dollars a year, I mean everybody's different, but to me, that's worth it.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Right. Very worth it. Especially the second you lose it. It becomes real worth it.

When To Buy And How Fast

SPEAKER_04 29:15

Oh my gosh. Oh shoot. Yes, of course. So okay, so that they get it before the second they lose it. When do you recommend like getting it, getting the insurance? Do they wait until it's like fully resized, or does the groom go ahead and insure it before they've even given it to their fiance, or what's the thought process on that?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I I I like to recommend, and everyone's a little different, like the sooner you can get it the better. And I usually recommend getting it for like as your take, like when you take possession of the item, like I would have I would have insurance at that point. So if you're taking possession of it, but if it's at the jewelry store, you know, it's insured with the jewelry, you don't have to worry about it so much. Um but when you pick it up, then it's that's on you. So um I I would say when you take possession.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

Because have you seen the videos of like people proposing and the guy just like they're on they're like by a river and proposing, and then he somehow fumbles it right at the last there and just goes down the river. Have you seen this? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

I I've I've definitely seen some like different TikToks of like people proposing on a pier. Right. And like it falls down into the ocean, and you're like, okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

People out there that are planning on proposing just know it's never too early.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

You've got a dangerous proposal plan.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

They're like skydiving and they want to put the ring on the finger on the way down.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

Could you imagine being on the plane as it's going up and you're like, oh, I forgot.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

He's not even laughing. He's like, you people are weird.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

We've seen people we've seen people try like like put their valuables in like checked baggage, which is wildly crazy to me.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Yeah. Oh yeah. Why would you do that?

SPEAKER_04 31:17

Yeah. Because we've all had our checked baggage ruffled through. Oh. Our snacks eaten.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:25

You know? You're like seriously. You got into my box of like peanut butter bars, man. And then they leave a little they leave the little paper that's we were here. They're like, call someone, I dare you. Fine. Hope you enjoyed my snacks. Um, so so if you didn't get it insured, there isn't really anything that's too late until the second after it's gone. Is that true?

unknown 31:56

True.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

Yeah, true. That's good to know. There's never too early, and it's never too late unless it is.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah, I mean, it's uh like we always recommend, like I said, to get it at you know, when you're taking session. But like if you have right now, if you have buying jewelry or you have an engagering or whatever it might be, it's not insured, like you can easily get it insured. Um, it it does the other thing too. It takes a couple, well, at least with us, it takes a few minutes. It's not like brain damage trying to get this policy in place, which a lot of people think that insurance is super pain in the butt, and a lot of times it is. But um, this should this is not hard to work.

SPEAKER_04 32:35

So, how do they prove what it's worth?

SPEAKER_00 32:40

So this is where we get kind of fancy. We have pricing algorithms, and because we're you know, we're specialists in the space, my background actually, I come from the jewelry world. My grandfather started my family's retail stores in Chicago in like the 1950s. Um, so we built these pricing algorithms. So if you we would ask you to provide some paperwork, it could be a receipt or appraisal, it could be older paperwork that you've had for a while. And we will it will our underwriters like plug it in as kind of an automated process. And it will give a price, it'll basically say this is the the current market value. Um now, if you have an appraisal or anything else, but we can use that as well. But um, we would help establish that value based on like the market price, and that would be it. Or if you have a receipt, you just bought the item, you just purchased the wedding, you know, the wedding band, whatever, and it, you know, you got a receipt from the vendor, or if you got an appraisal from the vendor, we can use that as well.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

So that seems easy. If you just purchased it, you obviously have the receipt. That's like the no-brainer. If you've got heirloom stuff that doesn't really have um, that doesn't really have a receipt anymore, or you know what I mean? Does your so your system would kind of if we put in like I don't know, say it's a gold necklace, do you put in like the weight of it, or is it better to go have it appraised at like a jeweler?

SPEAKER_00 34:09

We can we recommend going to have it upraised. Like it's it's good hygiene too. And like if you have like heirlooms, you should have it on face anyways.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Um, just to have some paperwork on it. But ultimately the idea is like, hey, if this was lost, do we have enough information to help you replace it? So and get a replacement for what you had. Um in things like that with heirlooms, it's a little bit more upfront work, but it's probably worth it in the long term, and good hygiene just have some information on it anyway.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

So they go online, they fill out the things, they click go, and then it's just like from kind of that moment forward.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Is that so you're waiting for you go online, you go online, you put in like three pieces of information. Um, it will give you like an initial quote, just so you can be like, oh, okay, this is about how much it is, and then finalize the quote. You kind of there's a five or six questions, finish the application, like two minutes, and then it's like, okay, this is the final price. And then if that sounds good, you still have like you know, you can pay for it and you're covered. And then you have two weeks to um what we call take a selfie with the item. So you just take a photo of it, um, and then we log that photo for you so you have a photo of what the item is, and then also a receipt, a diamond certificate, an appraisal, or some sort sort of paperwork, we ask. Um, and then that's it. So, like you can buy it, two minutes, you're covered, you have a couple weeks to upload a photo of it, and then provide some level of paperwork.

unknown 35:52

Okay. Easy enough.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

It's pretty simple.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Yeah, it's pretty simple.

Lab Grown Gold Prices And Annual Updates

SPEAKER_04 35:57

So, over the years, is the way like people buy jewelry online versus going into a store? Does that change anything for you guys? Or the like lab grown has become super popular? Things like that?

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Lab grown, yeah. Lab grown is super, super popular. Um, I mean, that is it hasn't changed anything with our process. Like our process, I mean, it's the same with kind of what I just detailed, it doesn't really matter for the most part, but it's changed things in terms of like consumer purchasing behavior, for example. Like, you know, lab grown not that long ago was like that is the thing. And now it's probably like close to 50% of the market is lab drone diamonds. Um, now we can get into a whole discussion about whether lab drones are good or bad, or you know, what's the value? Do they hold value versus natural diamonds? And I'd happy to go into that. Um, because it it is interesting. Um, so that's changed. Also, gold. I don't know if you've seen what's going on with gold and like market price of gold has gone wild. Like it was over five thousand dollars now for use. Um, it's just you know, and the market value has gone way, way up. So values have changed quite a bit. Um, you know, which is another reason why we we we will help you establish, you know, once we write a policy every year, we're the only insurance company that I know that does this, is um our insurance provider that does this. Is we will update your pricing annually. So when when you renew your policy every year, we'll say, hey, look, gold went up, you know, three percent, your center diamond went up two percent. We would recommend increasing the value from 10,000 to like 10,700 or whatever it is, and our algorithms produce that. So we have like very bad market prices for you. That's good, like kind of service that we provide. Um, but yeah, Ladrone, the rising cost of gold, um online purchasing has become obviously a huge thing. Um and so all those purchasing behaviors have have changed, but doesn't really change things for us from a cost perspective.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

That makes sense. Does whether or not somebody wear something like for only does it ask these questions even? Like if it's something that is their engagement ring that they're gonna wear daily versus a special occasion piece that they only wear, you know, a few times a year, is it insured the same? Is there any difference?

SPEAKER_00 38:41

It's insured, it's insured the same. Like our questions up front are very simple. Like we don't we want to keep it really light, like we don't we let you wear it however you want. Like we don't get into that at all. Like we we just feel like there's like a handful of questions that are key for questions that we care about. Things like um, like we'll ask is have you committed a felony, right? Like that's for us to know. Um, have you had more than you know, more than two claims um the past five years? So I think there's like four or five questions like that. That's it. So other than that, it's just like, okay, you know, where have you want? We will, I will say though, actually, we will give a discount though. So if you stored in a safe, there's two questions out of six questions, whatever, that are discount questions. Um, one is do you have an alarm? And the other one is do you have a safe? And you know, if you have an alarm, that's great. We want to give you a discount for that. If you have a safe, that's also great. We want to give you a discount for that.

Discounts Safe Storage And Social Sharing

SPEAKER_04 39:40

Oh, okay. That is nice. So it doesn't matter if I'm on social media showing everyone my new engagement ring and making myself a target. We don't you don't ask that?

SPEAKER_00 39:55

No, we don't, we don't mind. We we we encourage sharing on social for sure. We don't want you to make yourself a target, though. Let me be clear about that.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Um I bet that is something different in the way, you know. I don't know. We're just so visible and like here I am about everything now. No one's discreet. Oh yeah. Which probably changes the need for insurance.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

It does. I mean it does, but people are definitely all over social media showing their engagement photos, the rings, all that stuff. And by and large, I think it's I think it's actually great. Like, but of course, like don't don't turn yourself into that for sure. But I think most of the time people are somewhat okay there.

SPEAKER_04 40:43

Yeah, it happens very often. Just don't put your address and that you're on vacation.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

If you don't with you post your vacation when you get home from vacation.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Or buy insurance.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Or buy insurance, yes, absolutely. I love it.

Why People Skip Insurance And Final Advice

unknown 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

What are some of the reasons people just they think they're not gonna buy insurance? Like, what are the reasons that people give you as the yeah, I'm okay?

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Well, the first there's two main one is they just never literally never think about it. Uh-huh. Um, and they just for don't even know even thing. Um, two is they're like, oh, nothing's gonna happen. Like, it'll be fine. Like, nothing will happen. Like this, I'll be responsible. Right. Um, that's always when it's like, I swear, I good with like I I'm really careful and all that people are really careful, but things happen. So it's I think that that's kind of the main thing is people just kind of don't think things will happen. Like, you know, the this is a super extreme, and I used this example before, but like the folks in the Palisade fire, California, like did they think that their house was gonna burn to the ground? No, absolutely not. Of course not. No, no. So, anyway, point I'm trying to make that's extreme. But like the point I'm trying to make, like things you have. Um that's why you buy insurance.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

It is. Don't don't think I'm gonna insure it later or it's too expensive, or that your homeowners is gonna cover it. Like, definitely go and at least check out the price. You can always click out of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:22

And not uh, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 42:31

Nothing will hurt that. Um I think definitely like protecting memories and your just peace of mind as you're as you're going on vacation or or wearing it all the time. Like I don't want to have to take it off. I want to be able to wear it, just having the peace of mind that it's okay. If it gets damaged, it's we'll get it fixed. It's not a problem. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

That's actually an incredible point, is that you want to enjoy wearing your item. Let's just stay in engagement. You want to enjoy it, you don't want to worry about it. You don't want to worry about it ever. Like you want to enjoy it. So if you have insurance being like, okay, I can I think that's a really good point. Um, how do you buy it for fit?

SPEAKER_04 43:15

It really is. I think that you know, talking about all the different things that could possibly happen and probab probably won't, but that's the that's the chance you're taking, right? And so if you just want to make sure that you're not having to think about it or worry about it, just don't have to. If you had Yeah, I I agree. So if you had to give advice to everyone are newly engaged, if you're gonna give them like one piece of advice on our on our journey here of jewelry insurance, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

I'll give you two. One is I'll give you two. One is don't stress so much about Like try to enjoy it. That's completely separate from jewelry, but like that's definitely we deal with a lot of folks that are getting married and everything else stressing out so much. Like don't don't stress. Like and also for the things that you can alleviate the stress like insurance, you should you should do that. So um try not to stress so much and then if you can you can alleviate some of the stress by spending fifty bucks on insurance, then you know I would recommend sure.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

And what's the second thing? Or was that both things?

SPEAKER_00 44:35

Well the first the first one was no stress, the second was was alleviate stress by buying insurance. Yeah. Those are the those of you that do got it.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Perfect. So let's be stress free.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

I like that idea. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Especially with a wedding. I mean, stress-free in weddings.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

I mean, if you can't they're stressful anyway, so if you can eliminate any of the stress, then just do that.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

Do it, do it, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

And I think his third thing would be if you have unmatched socks, try the age-old throw it back in the wash.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

It'll find its mate. It's mate just got lost in there.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

My my my I think my children may be listening to this and they already do that. Because I find myself constantly, why do I keep washing this same sock?

SPEAKER_00 45:30

I gotta make sure my I gotta make sure my wife is I'm gonna catch, I'm gonna catch some flat for that.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

She is just gonna be like, that's what's happening.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Those are the cleanest socks ever.

Where To Get A Quote And Closing

SPEAKER_04 45:46

They are they smell good. It's a good smelling sock. All right. So if there are if our listeners want to check out the price of insuring their jewelry or they have any other questions that they want to look through your stuff on, what's the best way to kind of look you guys up?

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Yeah, I mean they could just go right to our website, which is just write.co, B-R-I-G. And literally there's a button right there that says check your price. And you can click on that and check your price and it takes 30 seconds. Um also, like there's tons of information on the website. There's FAQs, there's there's a chat as well if you want to just ask the question or one of our questions for people. Um there's there's so yeah, just write.co and tons of resources there. I love it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 46:35

I think you guys made everything about as easy as you could.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

We try, we try, we do.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

You do. Well, thanks for hanging out with us today and giving us all the info about, I don't know, all the all the things we might lose.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Oh, thank you guys. I appreciate it. I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

Thank you. Thanks, Dustin.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Thanks, guys. Bye, have a good day.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

You too.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

Thank you for joining us for Metropolitan Weddings Engaged Podcast. Be sure to click subscribe so you are notified when our new episodes drop. For more information and to get connected with merchants for your wedding, visit metropolitanweddings.com. You'll find information on upcoming wedding shows, access to our blog, Facebook, and IG.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

Also look for the latest issue of Metropolitan Weddings on newsstands near you.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Email any questions or suggestions for topics to Hello at metropolitanweddings.com.