Making Sense of Coverages and Premium

Many people think premium first and then what coverages can I get. This does not make sense! First determine what risks you do not want to take. Those are usually the catastropic losses to your property or catastrophic liability claims. These are the losses you could never recover from.
Keeping in mind that policies do have limits, how much risk do you have and how much insurance/protection should you buy. A stolen bicycle may be inconvenient, but your home burning down would be unrecoverable. Another thought is an automobile accident where you have injured another party. The legal fees alone to defend yourself can easily be above $300/hour and these cases can last for years.

Again think castophic losses first. The premiums can be controlled by higher deductible, which generally only impact minor losses like the stolen bicycle. Even in the event of an earthquake, where the deductilbe are fairly high. Over time you can recover from the deductible, where you could never recover from the overall damage to your home.

So let's be clear. What are the catastophies your family faces. Get them covered first! Your agent can show you how you can control the premiums with higher deductilbe.

Build a relationship with your agent and discuss what risks you are taking and what risks you are paying the insurance company to take. He can help you apply sound principles to you insurance program. If you are not building that relationship, or you have several policies with several different agents, you are not making sense of your insurance.

It is better to discuss this with you agent before a loss rather than finding out after a loss that you were not covered properly.

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Make Sense of Insurance

Having been an Allstate agent for 31 years, the opportunity avails itself to help people make sense of insurance, in a very general way. There are many different types of policies, some which you pay for and some that are provided for you or that your employer may pay all or part of the premium for you.

I have yet to have a complaint about premiums from someone who had a loss and had the right insurance coverages.

So how do you get there? First of all, understand that insurance is really about sharing risks. Some risks you are going to take your self, some you are going to want to pay an insurance company to take for you.

If my bicycle is stolen, I am OK taking that risk myself. If my house burns down, I don't want to take that risk, so I pay an insurance company to take the majority of that risk for me.

Also keep in mind, just because you have a policy and pay a premium, does not mean everything is covered. You need to discuss with your agent what is and is not covered by your current policy.

You need to build a relationship with your agent and discuss what risks you are taking and what risks you are paying the insurance company to take. If you are not building that relationship, or you have several policies with several different agents, you are not making sense of your insurance.

It is better to discuss this before a loss rather than finding out after a loss that you were not covered properly.

If you found this blog of value please send it to a friend.