One of the biggest concerns we have as insurance agents is ensuring that your home has the correct type of coverage and sufficient limits to provide adequate protection.  Being properly insured and knowing the value of the house and possessions can provide some peace of mind during what could be an extremely stressful period.

We recommend reviewing your insurance policy annually to ensure you have current coverage that is sufficient. As you do so, you want to ensure that you will be in the same position before suffering the loss.  For example, if you have to rebuild your home, you will want to ensure you have full replacement cost coverage for your home.

As you review your policy, here are the main areas to focus on

1. Rebuilding Your Home
Ensure you have sufficient coverage to rebuild your home if it were utterly destroyed. This should include items such as building materials, appliances, fixtures, and the ability to remove existing debris. Depending on your location and the local housing markets, the rebuilding costs can sometimes exceed the market value.

2. Replacing Your Possessions
Most contents coverage is included in your insurance policy as part of the structure’s value.  It’s essential to verify that you have replacement cost coverage, as opposed to actual cash value coverage.  Replacement cost coverage will reimburse you to replace the damaged property with one of like kind and quality. In contrast, actual cash value will only pay the value of the destroyed property after deducting depreciation costs.

When you do have to make a claim, some companies will require you to itemize everything you had before they pay anything. Since remembering what you own can be what’s cult during what’s already a stressful time, experts suggest routinely doing an inventory of your home.

Taking pictures or videos of your home and its contents is a more effective way to remember them than itemizing everything on a piece of paper.   There are also free online tools available to assist with this.

3. Liability
Most companies start with $100,000 of liability coverage. Homeowners generally have more risk than they realize, especially if they have a pool, trampoline, young drivers, or pets that could cause damage, for example.

It’s also essential to consider an umbrella policy, which typically provides up to an additional $1,000,000 in coverage above your homeowners policy.

To determine if your insurance policy provides the right coverage, please get in touch with our office to learn more.