'Cara' is a 44-year-old communications specialist in Vancouver and the elder of two daughters.Photo Illustration by The Globe and Mail. Sources: Getty Images
The beneficiary: “Cara” is a 44-year-old communications specialist in Vancouver. She’s the elder of two daughters born 14 months apart, and married with a young daughter of her own. Cara’s 75-year-old mother, who divorced from their father when Cara was a few years old and then never dated again, lived with Alzheimer’s for almost a decade before dying suddenly earlier this year.
The inheritance: Even though the estate was split equally between the two sisters, Cara’s mother had also thought carefully about making sure each daughter received their share of the sentimental stuff – namely, her jewellery collection, among which are a few key pieces.
“My mom gave my sister her engagement ring because she knew my sister loves that ring,” Cara says, “and she gave me the necklace she always wore because she knew I loved it.” The necklace is a 20-inch gold chain with a large, round gold pendant. One side shows two figures mid-embrace; the other is engraved with a Spanish saying: “Te amo más hoy que ayer, pero menos que mañana” (“I love you more today than yesterday, but less than tomorrow”).
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What she learned: A gift from better times from her husband, you might think, but the real story is far more interesting than that. “My mom was such a traveller back in the 70s, when a solo woman travelling the world just wasn’t something people did,” Cara says. Her mom didn’t say much, but what she did say hints at a screen-worthy romance: “The story she told was she met a man in Spain who was a jeweller. When he proposed marriage and she said ‘No,’ he gave her this necklace instead.” (What did Cara’s father think about that, you ask? “Whatever,” Cara says.)
When and if you inherit jewellery, follow Cara’s move and start with an appointment with a certified jeweller. They’ll take a quick look before making a proper quote for a professional appraisal – not because you have any immediate plans to sell, but so you’ll have proper documentation (of size, cut, shape, colour and weight) should the piece(s) be lost or stolen. A quick call to your home insurance provider will tell you whether the jewellery is already covered by your regular home contents insurance, which it typically is, to a point. Basic coverage is often capped at just a few thousand dollars; Cara’s current limit for “jewellery, watches and gems” is $10,000.
For a $100 flat fee (and a week without her beloved necklace), the jeweller provided Cara with an official signed “certificate of appraisal” containing an estimation of the necklace’s present market value, about $16,000. Not that the number makes any difference to Cara. “I don’t care how much it’s worth,” she says. “To me, it’s priceless.”
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What she’ll do with it: Since the necklace’s value exceeds her insurance provider’s limit, Cara will start by raising her coverage. In her case, the next threshold is $50,000 and will cost Cara an additional $82 a year, which she considers very reasonable. (The insurer may ask for a copy of the appraisal for your file, or they may suggest it be tucked away somewhere smart in case you ever need to make a claim for theft or “mysterious disappearance” – a nice word for losing it.)
With the necklace safe and protected, Cara wears it every day because she loves it – both sentimentally and aesthetically. Those who don’t love their bequeathed jewellery pieces often choose to have them reworked and redesigned rather than forever collecting dust in a drawer, though Cara would probably still choose the dusty drawer option. “If I really didn’t like it, I still don’t think I would alter it. I just wouldn’t wear it,” she says. “Luckily, I genuinely love it because it’s timeless and beautiful.”
So beautiful, in fact, that Cara is already working hard on her real plan for her mother’s favourite necklace. “I’ve reached out to a jewellery maker to use the old gold from Mom’s other, less sentimental pieces to make replicas of the necklace for my daughter and nieces,” Cara says. This way, the next generation will each have a matching necklace to honour their globe-trotting grandmother made of her very own gold.
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