Time to Spring-Clean Your Insurance?

As you work through the “To-Do” Spring-Cleaning list, don’t forget your insurance policies.  They may need to be dusted off and refreshed, too.  An important part of overall financial planning is to review and adjust your insurance coverage.

Here is a quick list of things to be looking at:

Auto Insurance:

Review your liability limits and make sure they are high enough to adequately cover you in case you cause an accident.  Medical costs have increased substantially, so if it has been a couple of years since you’ve increased limits, you may be underinsured.   Consider an umbrella liability policy for an extra layer of liability over the home and cars.

Do you have older cars with higher mileage?  Maybe the actual cash value of the vehicle has dipped below a level where you are comfortable dropping comprehensive and collision coverage.

Are you paying a lot of premium for a low deductible?  Switching to a higher deductible would reduce your premium and might make more sense for you.

Home Insurance:

Most policies will have an inflation guard built into the policy to increase the dwelling coverage to reflect local construction costs, but is that enough?  You want to make sure you have enough dwelling coverage to rebuild your home after a covered loss.

Check your deductible.   Going to a higher deductible reduces your premium and helps avoid turning in minor claims that could have a larger long- term effect on your premium.

Schedule valuable articles and make sure the amount of insurance on those items is current.  You can schedule jewelry, artwork and computers, for example.

Complete a household inventory of belongings.  It will help maximize a claim if your house suffers a serious loss.

Other Items:

Do you have any motorized vehicles that leave the premises? 

Is your life insurance benefit still adequate?

Are you paying a lot of expenses on your investments?

Do you have Disability Income coverage?

 

Is it time for a policy review? Schedule an appointment with one of our agents and we’ll gladly assist with Spring-Cleaning your insurance.