Not Reviewing Your Insurance Can Be Costly
Print View - Published: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 at 7:15 PM
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The personal insurance contracts you possess may need to be adjusted annually if possible. The life, health care, disability, car and home insurance that you possess may no longer do what you need them to do. Each contract should be reviewed and adjusted as necessary.
Your family's requirements for life insurance may have changed since the last time you reviewed it. You may have too much life insurance. You may have too little life insurance. You may have the wrong kind of life insurance.
If you are earning more money you may need to adjust the face amount of the life insurance you possess. One of the more important reasons for life insurance is to replace lost income. Having too little life insurance can mean that your spouse and children have too little income.
If you have more obligations now than when you purchased your plan you may want to update your contract. A now larger family can increase your requirements for insurance. The reverse is also true. If your children are now adults and son their own, you may require less insurance than you did before.
When is the last time you thought about your medical insurance contract? Your health insurance policy may have a maternity rider that you no longer need. Or, it may not have coverage for maternity and you are planning to expand your family.
Your policy's deductible may be too low or too high. You can easily over insure yourself by purchasing a plan with a deductible that is too low.
The limits on your contract may be lower than you require. The cost of a hospital stay goes up each year. Physicians charge more each year. Unless your plan has no caps it may fall short if you have a major health problem.
Disability insurance gives you an income when you are unable to work due to a medical issue. If your income has grown, your disability insurance should also rise.
If your need for income is now lower, you may want to decrease your disability insurance. If you are able to live off of your investments now you may no longer require this coverage.
Your automobile insurance plan has probably been updated when you bought and sold automobiles. It may not have been adjusted to make sure that you have adequate liability limits. It may not have been changed as your automobiles have grown older and perhaps no longer require physical damage protection.
Your homeowners insurance needs adjustment on a regular basis. The amount of coverage you have on your dwelling needs to equal the cost of rebuilding your home. (Not the cost of purchasing a similar dwelling.) This amount changes from year to year and your policy should be updated.
If you have bought jewelry since you bought your homeowners' policy, you may want to make sure that you have enough coverage. You may need to purchase a rider or a separate plan to cover your jewelry. The standard homeowners' insurance policy will only cover a small amount of jewelry.
Checking with other carriers to get the best price is an important part of reviewing your insurance. Your needs change from year to year. So do the prices of the various insurance companies. Although it is more important to be sure that you have the right type and amount of insurance protection, it is also important that you not pay too much for it.
The only way to ensure that your insurance policies are still adequate for your needs is to review your needs and your insurance policies one by one. Being over insured means your insurance is too expensive. Being under insured means that you get smaller checks when you file claims.
About the Author
You can lower your insurance costs by getting prices for auto insurance in MS or RI homeowners insurance on the author Alston J. Balkcom's website. You can also call 866-945-2930 to get a free auto insurance quote.
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