June 28, 2013 is National Insurance Awareness Day. There is no better time to look over your current insurance portfolio, from personal insurance to commercial insurance. People often purchase insurance policies and never look at them again, to see if coverage’s potentially need to be updated. Here are a few tips for updating your insurance policies:
Homeowner’s Insurance
Have you purchased or acquired jewelry, furs, fine art, or oriental rugs? If so, are they listed on your insurance policy? These items may have a specific limit, they may not be covered on your Homeowners Policy without being scheduled, or they may need their own Inland Marine Policy. Update your current coverage to ensure that all of these pieces are adequately covered.
Massachusetts Personal Auto Insurance
When was the last time you thought about your Massachusetts Auto Insurance Coverage? Your limits may have been adequate at the policy inception, but today it may not provide enough coverage. You may need to increase the limits to make sure you’re assets are adequately protected. How about Rental Reimbursement… do you have it and do you know your coverage limit? These are the types of coverages you need to review and update.
Personal Umbrella Insurance
This policy provides another layer of coverage over and above your auto liability, personal liability (home or renters policy), auto liability, and boater’s liability. A personal umbrella liability policy will protect you from out-of-pocket expenses when a covered liability claim exceeds the limits of your other liability coverages. You may not have needed this coverage 10 years ago, but in today’s litigious society we can use all the protection we can get.
Commercial Insurance Policies
These policies require continuous monitoring. The exposures for businesses continue to evolve as they grow and change. Contact your agent and discuss all business exposures to make sure that you have the coverage you need. For example, cyber liability is a risk that a lot of businesses have, but it is commonly excluded under a general liability policy. How about media liability, are you running a social media marketing campaign? If so, this is another coverage that may be excluded under general liability policy. Discuss all of your business risks with your insurance agent to make sure that your business is adequatley protected.
Life Insurance Policies
Have you gone through any major life changes since the inception of your Life Insurance Policy? Do you need to update your beneficiaries? Often people will go through a divorce and forget to update the beneficiary. If you’re on a term policy, be aware of when the term ends. Make sure you give yourself enough time to let us shop for another policy for you. We have access to all the major Life Insurance carriers from an independent perspective.
Financial Planning
We have a full service Financial Planning division. People may not think of Financial Planning in the same category as Insurance, but they really go hand in hand. Financial planning is Insuring your financial future. With an independent advisor you can have a partner to discuss financial concerns, and future expenses that you may want to consider. Such as Long term care insurance, Mutual Funds and 401K roll overs.