Insurance You Might Need and Not Know It

If you think auto, home and health insurance cover all of the bases, you may need to think again. You’ve done your due diligence, negotiated rates and even bundled policies to save on premiums. You’re off to a good start, but unless you’re carrying more than just these three types of policies, you may not have done everything possible to protect yourself and your family. There’s a world of risks out there. Fortunately, there’s a way to help protect yourself against many of them — with the right type of coverage. Here are some often-overlooked protections that can provide a valuable lifeline during a crisis.

Your personal savings could be at risk if someone takes you to court for an accident that you cause or one that happens on your property. If someone sues you for more than your auto or home policy coverage limits, you might even have to liquidate your home and savings to pay the difference. To prevent this disastrous outcome, you can often acquire an affordable umbrella policy that will pick up where your auto or home policy coverage ends. Typically, they cover up to $1 million in damages, although lower and higher amounts are available. 

You may have some disability insurance through your employer. Evaluate the coverage you have — or is available to you — and compare that to what you might need should you become unable to work. Why? According to the Social Security Administration, 25% of 20-year-old workers will become disabled before they reach retirement.1 Those aren’t exactly reassuring odds. If you’ve been making contributions to Social Security, you may also be eligible for some federal benefits. However, there’s a rigorous qualification process, and the amounts offered may not be enough to meet your monthly expenses. A disability insurance policy is a smart hedge against losing your income due to injury. 

The cost of residential care in old age is daunting, and our current system often sends patients to the brink of bankruptcy. Because the cost of long-term care is so expensive, the price of insurance for it can be high too — how high depends, in part, on your age and health when you purchase the policy. Hybrid LTC policies are now available that offer a death benefit should the long-term care coverage not be needed, making them a combination of LTC and life insurance. As you approach retirement, this should be one of the topics you discuss with a qualified insurance agent — someone who can evaluate your needs and also research and compare policy options. 

There are types of policies available other than the ones above. The best way to fit your insurance protection to your needs is to speak with an independent insurance agent with experience in different lines of coverage. We Insure agents are not tied to a single insurance carrier, so they can shop for your policy from a wide variety of top-rated carriers to find the best coverage at the best price for you. 

Source: 

1. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10029.pdf