It’s tough enough that a chapter in your life is ending and things will be getting worse before they get better. Speaking as someone who has been through this, I can assure you it does get better. The day the lady in the relationship decides to stop wearing her wedding and engagement ring is a landmark moment and what happens now and what you are meant to do with your jewellery, is something that comes up time and time again. However, what you decide has no bearing on what must be done in the eyes of the law. In some cases when there either aren’t many articles or indeed the jewellery in question isn’t worth very much, they are forgotten about, but in a lot of cases where people have lots of jewellery and/or have spent a lot of money on big pieces, these could cause and most likely do cause points of conflict.
When filling in the paperwork during the divorce process there’s a form called a "Form E" which is a disclosure form for all assets. This requires you to give a breakdown of what you have and what each article is worth. When a joint decision can’t be made the court requires that both parties get an independent valuation from a jeweller, not on the insurance replacement price, but on the resell value of what the items are worth today as this has a bearing on the financial settlement which you are both fighting for. It’s natural for the parties to try and have the jewellery over or under valued so as to effect the financial settlement in their favour, however the true value is not what the valuation says it’s worth or indeed the receipt, but what the resell value of the article is. It’s like when a car is the asset. The new price when I bought it from the dealership was £35,000 yet after I owned it for a few years and kept up the servicing on it, the "book" price is now around the £18,000 and if I tried to sell it I may not get offered more than £15,000. Well it’s the same with jewellery.
When dealing with diamonds, we do use an equivalent to a book price when working out valuations be it for insurance replacement or for second hand values, and no one in the trade will pay more to you for you your jewellery than they would pay a supplier, so this is really what determines the correct "value" of your jewellery. If you would like anymore information, or indeed if you need a valuation done for your Form E, then please feel free to get in touch with me. I don’t charge for a consultation, I only charge once you instruct me to act for you. And as I said earlier, I’ve been through the process and understand it from both ends. My role is to help make things go a lot smoother for you. If you would like an appointment, then please do call for a free consultation in our central London Hatton Garden office and we would be glad to try and help you. Our details are on the main page of the Lewis Malka London website.
Lewis Malka is a recognized expert in making diamond rings as well as being a famous jeweller to the stars. All his blogs are his own opinions. He is a member of the London Diamond Bourse (LDB) and is currently the Chairman of the Young Persons Committee within the Diamond Bourse. You can follow him daily on Twitter and Instagram. If you would like any bespoke jewellery made, then please visit his website.