How do you know what insurance you really need?
It’s actually pretty simple. Keep in mind the purpose of insurance is to protect yourself from large financial risks. You then simply need to identify the significant financial risks in your life.
Most people automatically think to protect themselves when they make a major purchase, such as a home or vehicle.
What happens if you injure someone or damage their property?
Liability insurance is the type of insurance that responds if you are responsible for injuries or property damage. Liability coverage is typically included within other policies – such as your home and auto insurance. Frequently though, people aren’t aware there are dollar limits to their liability coverage and that they can be personally responsible for any judgments that exceed the amount of liability insurance they purchase. This is a significant financial risk.
Imagine you seriously injured someone in an auto accident and were responsible for a $500,000 judgment. Do you know how much of that your insurance would pay?
Purchase as much liability protection as you can reasonably afford. (By the way…it’s generally inexpensive to increase your liability protection, but most people don’t think to do so).
You can, and very likely should, also purchase an umbrella policy. Umbrella policies provide liability protection above and beyond coverage provided by your individual home, auto, and other policies. Umbrella policies provide additional liability protection in $1,000,000 coverage increments. An umbrella policy providing $1,000,000 of coverage typically costs less than $200 a year.
What happens if you become sick or suffer an injury?
While most people, either individually or through their employer, obtain health insurance to help pay for any needed medical care a lot of people overlook what would happen to their paycheck if they were to be out of work for any length of time due to an illness or injury.
Disability insurance is valuable insurance protection simply intended to help replace your income if you’re unable to continue working due to a sickness or injury.
What happens if you make a hasty exit from this life?
If there are people that depend on you financially you need to consider how your hasty departure from this life would affect them and consider purchasing life insurance to protect your loved ones.
For most families their need for life insurance is going to decrease over time, when financial goals such as paying for a home, raising & educating children, and saving for retirement are reached.
Term life insurance offers an ideal solution as it is the lowest cost form of life insurance and provides options to lock in the protection and cost for specified periods of time.
Where many people go wrong with life insurance is underestimating the financial resources their family would need.
So, be sure to think about how much money your family would need – both immediately and long-term – if you were gone and what amount of life insurance it would take to be certain they have adequate resources to meet those needs.
Insurance isn’t a particularly engaging or exciting topic. Due to this many people neglect to think through and protect themselves against the major financial risks they face in life. However, insurance doesn’t have to be a particularly complicated or confusing topic. It does take some time to consider and identify your risks and then make informed decisions what insurance protection you need and are able to afford. A good insurance agent can serve as a valuable resource in that process.