After two decades buying diamonds and estate jewelry, David transitions to independent appraisal full-time. The premise: clients deserve accurate valuations from someone with no incentive to inflate or deflate them. Independence becomes the practice's central differentiator.

JP Morgan Chase contracts Just Appraisers to manage post-loss recovery valuations for jewelry, watches, gemstones, and personal property lost in the World Trade Center attacks. The engagement shapes the post-loss methodology the practice carries forward and leads to the founding of Catastrophic Appraisal Solutions, LLC.

Catastrophic Appraisal Solutions deploys to New Orleans for large-scale post-loss valuation across displaced and damaged collections. The team builds technology and field infrastructure to scale recovery work — methodology refinements that feed back into standard insurance and post-loss appraisal procedures.

The Catastrophic Appraisal Solutions team reunites in Chicago for a complex post-loss appraisal project. Smaller in scale than Katrina, but the kind of unusual engagement that continues to mature the methodology.

Catastrophic Appraisal Solutions is engaged for post-loss recovery work across affected collections. The network of field appraisers, valuation tools, and intake processes refined over the prior decade is brought to bear — viable research approaches and a seamless process applied to streamline the work at volume.

The practice settles into Sedona, Arizona as its sole physical lab — by appointment, with the same in-person standard of examination the work has always required.

Retired ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser®. Past service on the ASA International Board of Governors. Ongoing engagements with insurance carriers, federal law enforcement, patent attorneys, and individual clients across the country — in person at the Sedona lab, or remotely via secure video consultation. Same independence as 1998 — same standard of evidence behind every value.