TVNZ featured a new series on Monday night called `The Claim Game'. It seems like an interesting look at various types of Insurance Claims, what the process is to go through a claim, and how the claims get settled, a real life series.

Part of this Monday's episode was about Karina making a claim for stolen Jewellery. It showed what the Investigator does to approve the claim and it showed Michael Emerson from the Jewellery Valuation Centre interviewing Karina and discussing her loss. It partly showed how thorough the insurance claim process is nowadays.

The sad message at the end was that Karina had $30,000 of Jewellery stolen, but was only going to get $15,000 due to under-insurance. This is a situation we face every day in claims work the Jewellery Valuation Centre does. It is a double tragedy when your precious jewellery is stolen, much of which is sentimental, then to find you can't get the full amount from your Insurance.

Your best protesction is to get your jewellery valued, listed on your insurance and kept up to date.

You can view the jewellery claim segment (it starts a minute or so into this clip) by clicking here .

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) are reporting how strong diamond sales are at international auctions. Why is it that as the worlds economy is still recovering from the economic crisis, it seems the worlds wealthy can't get enough top quality colourless and fancy colour diamonds?

Christie's and Sotheby's, the two premier world jewellery auctioneers have both reported record jewellery sales in 2010. Shortly the 2011 season will begin and several major diamonds are already generating significant interest.

• a GIA-graded 10.09-carat fancy vivid purple pink diamond is estimated to bring US$15 million -- nearly US$1.5 million per carat.
• an unmounted 56.15-carat heart-shaped D color, internally flawless diamond, also graded by GIA, is expected to fetch between US$9 million and US$12 million.

Auction house executives and industry observers agree on a number of reasons why such diamonds can achieve record prices during a period of economic hardship:

1. The international reach of the auction houses.
2. the rarity of top quality gems
3. the greater number of private buyers going to auction.

For more details and the full article visit the GIA Insider website

Last night, Wednesday 30th March, TVNZ ran an article on the popular Fair Go program highlighting high gold values and the common instances of under insurance.

The message from the segment was very positive for our industry. We are faced daily with the problem of clients being under insured. This makes the insurance claim disappointing for the jewellery owner as the settlements are reduced due to policy limits.

This was an excellent message to get out to prime time TV audiences - your gold jewellery has gone up, get it valued or re-valued and make sure you keep your insurance up to date.

Click HERE to see the Fair Go segment on Gold Jewellery Insurance.

Along with fellow valuer Cynthia Cahill, Michael Emerson of JVC Valuers was one of the `Roadshow' experts.

One year ago this month, gold broke past $800USoz and for the following five months it proceeded to climb towards a new record of $1,032USoz by March. But now with a broad-based commodities sell-off underway, it will be interesting to see whether or not gold can even maintain year-to-year comparative gains as 2008 comes to a close. On the week, gold is down 6.9 percent as of 12 p.m. in New York and from one year ago today gold is up only 3 percent vs. a registered gain of 25 percent one week ago.

The Jewellers & Watchmakers of New Zealand Inc. (JWNZ) has become the 39th member of CIBJO, the oldest international jewellery and gemstone industry advocacy group. CIBJO's primary purpose is as a decision-making body to promote international co-operation in the industry and to consider issues that concern the trade worldwide. Foremost among these is the protection of consumer confidence in the jewellery industry.