What the experts say

What’s that watch worth?

With gold and silver prices on the rise, your jewelry may be due for an insurance upgrade, said Tali Yahalom in CNNMoney.com. In the past five years, gold prices have climbed 140 percent, and silver is up 208 percent over the same period. Standard homeowners’ policies limit coverage on jewelry and other valuables to about $2,000. So if your “home is burglarized and your jewelry box is emptied, you could get shorted.” Insurance riders extend coverage on specific items, but that coverage is based on the appraised value of the object. Ordinarily, having jewelry appraised every five years is standard. “But when prices are particularly volatile, as with jewelry today,” appraisals should be done every two years.

Big Brother is watching

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The seemingly constant flow of alarming news about computer hacking has piqued broader interest in credit and identity-theft monitoring services, said Ann Carrns in NYTimes.com. You can spot suspicious activity in your accounts by obtaining free credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com. For a more proactive approach, two companies, TrustedID and Debix, are now offering free versions of their surveillance systems. Both “claim to hunt down potential fraud by scanning online sites where fraudsters may be hawking your personal information.” TrustedID employees even “gain invitation to private chat rooms, where stolen data is hawked.” Debix also offers “identity repair service” if your personal information is stolen.

Strong prognosis for health stocks

Health-care funds “may be emerging from the ashes” after suffering big losses in recent years because of the uncertainties surrounding health-care reform, said Shirley S. Wang in WSJ.com. Stocks in this sector had been significantly down from their peaks in 2007 and 2008—some by as much as 65 percent. But this year the picture is far different. Health funds are outperforming all other categories of U.S.-stock funds, up an average of 15.1 percent in the first half of the year. And experts believe the funds will continue to perform well for the next six to 12 months because of their relative affordability and “more stable views of the health-care system.” The sector’s medium-term prognosis will depend largely on the introduction of new medical products. But these funds are often a good hedge during uncertain economic periods because “most medical expenses can’t be put off even in a bad economy.”