Your New Year’s insurance checklist
Review your portfolio annually to make sure you are covered sufficiently
It is typical to use the dawn of a new year to reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one. Those goals may involve weight loss, career changes, home improvements or purchases, or family growth. One additional goal should be to schedule a review of your insurance portfolio.
Reviewing insurance may rank with getting a physical in terms of excitement, but just as a physical helps you know and understand your current physical health, an insurance portfolio review can help you know and understand the state of your financial security.
There should be no misunderstanding about how insurance protects your financial security. Home, auto and business insurance can help repair or replace those physical assets in the event of a loss. The liability component of those policies can also protect your financial assets in the event of litigation.
Life insurance can help your survivors cover an insured’s final needs, pay off financial obligations, and replace an income for a period of time. All these facets are designed to protect survivors’ financial security.
Reviewing your insurance portfolio can help you have what you need and know what you have. Maybe you built an addition for your home. Reviewing a home insurance policy can ensure the correct amount of coverage is in place.
Auto accidents account for the most insurance claims filed. Vehicles are becoming more expensive every year as are health costs associated with accidents. What may have been a simple accident years ago may now result in losses in the tens or hundreds of thousands. If an auto insurance policy’s liability coverages are insufficient to cover a claim, a person might have to liquidate personal assets such as savings account to satisfy a judgement.
The best way to determine what level of liability protection an auto insurance policy should carry would be to consider what might be at risk – savings, retirement accounts, a home, and more. The more assets a person has at risk means higher auto policy liability limits should be considered.
That consideration could also lead to the addition of an umbrella liability policy, which opens to provide $1 million or more to satisfy a claim.
Changes in income, debt and family may lead to the need for additional life insurance, something a review with a qualified insurance agent can determine.
An insurance portfolio review should not be considered as a way for an insurance agent to sell another product. Its primary focus is to educate and illuminate.
So put that review on your New Year’s “to do” list.
Alan T. Girton is a veteran agent with Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance. To learn more, visit https://www.infarmbureau.com/agents/Alan-Girton-Howard-Kokomo-IN