Properly Structuring Insurance to Cover Your Assets

Along with taxes and spring cleaning each year, should come a time of introspection into your assets.  Do you carry the right amount of insurance to sufficiently protect yourself and your possessions against unexpected perils?  I am talking about the third “must do” besides death and taxes...Insurance and how to make it part of your asset protection program.  

I am surprised at how many people have no idea about what their insurance covers, what endorsements they are paying for, or what deductibles they have.  They spend thousands each year between health, accident, auto, home, liability and commercial insurance and much of their attitude is that “it’s all the same”...”motor oil is motor oil”.

They think that until they need to make a claim and are furious to find out that they weren’t covered properly for what they thought.  My brother-in-law recently had a burglary at his home and they took a gun safe with close to $30k in guns inside.  His agent had even been to his home and marveled at his collection...then sold him a policy with $2500 worth of firearms coverage.  He didn’t bother to sell him the necessary floater policy that would have protected him. 

It’s not surprising, though.  The lawyers have made the policies so verbose by having to spell out what is and isn’t covered and in doing so, forced the average American to make a real time commitment when deciding to investigate for themselves.   Most never do.

My point is that you should each year, review your coverage and ask your insurance agent to shop your policy thru multiple carriers.  See what the difference is in premium by raising your deductibles. You may be able to purchase additional endorsements and get more coverage for less money than what you are paying now.   You will keep the insurance companies honest and likely create your own, self-driven, economic stimulus rebate each year!  For more on proper use of insurance for Asset Protection you may want to check out Asset Protection 101 by J.J. Childers

So have you even felt the sting of not being covered for something you thought you were covered for?  If so did you utter the now famous phrase, “you're fired” to your agent?