If you are like me, insurance is easy to take for granted. After we buy it, we don’t think about it much.

We recently sat down with our insurance agent to review our policies and were surprised at how many changes we needed to make. We insure our cars, business, home and rental properties. We found we needed to make adjustments in a few areas, asked a few ‘what if’ questions and learned more about how our coverage works. It was time well spent.

In our ‘online’ world it’s easy to try to bypass ‘brick and mortar’ businesses and real live agents in an effort to save money. But we found our agent was indispensable, helping us understand our policy coverage and saving us quite a bit of money.

I urge you to take the time to have your policies reviewed. If you need help finding a reputable agent or company please feel give me a call.

Oh by the way, If you know anyone interested in selling or buying a home let me know and I will provide them with excellent service.

Things to consider

v Liability. Homeowners are at risk if uninsured workers or visitors become injured on the property. Make sure you are comfortable with the limits your policy provides, you may be able to extend this coverage with an affordable Umbrella policy.

v Umbrella Insurance. Umbrella policies are designed to extend liability to the insured. We maintain one for our rental properties and one for our business. These policies cover liability claims that exceed those of our regular policies for home and auto. Some injuries these days can have staggering costs for medical and rehabilitation and these costs can go way over the standard liability coverage.

v Renters Insurance. Renters and Landlords should consider the benefits of a renter’s policy. A landlord should encourage and can require tenants to obtain these affordable policies (as little as $10 per month). Tenants can cover their belongings and liability. A relative of mine was delivering a package to a rental home and was bitten by a viscous dog. The tenant had no insurance so the tenant is exposed to considerable liability which could flow through to the landlord.

v Structure Valuation. Insurance provides for the cost of replacement if a home incurs a loss such as a fire. This replacement cost is tied to construction costs, not the assessed or appraised values of the home. Be sure to review this with your agent as these costs change over time. We found that one of our rental properties was underinsured and one was overinsured.

v Water losses. It can be very useful to have someone regularly inspect the nether regions of your home such as crawlspaces. If a slow water leak does damage over a long period of time, it may not be covered. Sudden leaks from a faucet for example will probably be covered.

v Personal property loss. Imagine trying to remember each item in your home to make a list for the insurance adjuster following a fire. Most people don’t do well with a task like this especially following a tragic event. Consider photographing every room from many angles and uploading them to the Cloud (Internet Storage) so they can be accessed from another location. Our insurance company provides this service at no additional charge along with forms to use to list your items if you choose.

v Other. This is a quick list to get you thinking, there’s much to consider so I urge you to spend some time with your agent. Other items to discuss are; earthquake insurance, flood insurance and special riders for those million dollar heirlooms.