Three Types of Insurance You Must Have

When evaluating what kind of insurances we must have, three come to mind, of course, there are dozens of insurances one can buy making it more difficult and confusing to choose which ones we really need. There are three different coverage’s we consider essential: Possessions, Health, and Life insurance.

POSSESSION’S INSURANCE: HOMEOWNER’S, RENTER’S AND CAR INSURANCE

Possession is a broad word, by possessions we mean, homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, depending on your case, and car insurance. When in the market for homeowners insurance you must take a few items into consideration. You need to make sure your homeowners or renter’s insurance will also cover some of your personal belongings: Jewelry, art, and electronics. Let’s begin with the protection of the property in the case that you are a homeowner. Here you have two options: to buy a cash value policy or a replacement policy.

A cash value policy will pay for the value of the property at the time of the incident that means, if you bought your property for 500,000 but at the time it got ruined it was worth 450,000 that’s how much your cash value policy will pay for. The other option is to buy a replacement policy, this is more expensive but it guarantees you that you will be able to rebuild your house from scratch at a comparable quality of the one destroyed. When buying either one of the policies, don’t forget to tell your agent of any home improvements you have made. It’s important that your homeowner’s insurance also covers personal items such as jewelry, art and electronics.

Every insurance company is different, but personal belongings are usually covered up to 75% of their face value. In the event that you are in the market for renter’s insurance, you need to make sure that your renter’s insurance also covers the belongings mentioned above: jewelry, art and electronics. Last but not least, it is important to keep a list of the personal items that you have and considered to be included in your homeowners or renter’s insurance. This will make it easier in the event that you do need your items to be replaced because they were stolen or destroyed in a disaster.

CAR INSURANCE

By State law, any car owner that holds a driver’s license must have car insurance. According to experts you should base the amount of coverage that you need on the assets that you have. The more assets, the more coverage. Here’s what’s recommended:

You might be familiar with this numbers:

50/100/25 they refer to the amount of damage covered by the policy. 
$ 50,000 bodily injury liability for one person injured in an accident 
$ 100,000 for all people injured in an accident 
$ 25,000 property damage liability Every state has its own minimum liability coverage.

Again, when buying car insurance keep in mind the amount of assets that you have, don’t over buy but also don’t under buy. Uninsured/Underinsured motorist: You might be in for a big surprise even if you have car insurance but the person who hit you does not. PLEASE ask your agent about Uninsured/Underinsured motorist coverage. When buying car insurance, do consider your driving habits, the amount of driving that you do and the area where you live.

HEALTH INSURANCE

President Barack Obama just signed the Health Reform bill, what does this means? 
It means that millions of people will have to buy their own health insurance. Health Insurance can be very expensive, especially if you are an older person or if you are a woman who wants to get pregnant. Under the new health reform bill, pre-existing conditions will have to be accepted, that’s a good thing, unfortunately it won’t be enforced until 2014. Children with pre-existing conditions will not be excluded under any insurance policy; this takes effect in mid-September 2010.

Children 26 years or younger will be able to stay on their parent’s family policy, this took effect immediately. There are no regulations as to what the cost might be for covering children 26 and younger. Bottom line, the new health reform law won’t go into full effect until years to come, in the mean time, people get sick. You need to buy a health insurance that will cater to your specific needs, there are many insurance companies out there eager to get your business, but do consider their deductibles, co-payments, lifetime maximums and of course the limitations of their coverage.

LIFE INSURANCE

Do you have assets, children, dependents that you want to make sure they will be okay financially?

If you answer yes to any of the above, you definitely should consider buying life insurance. Buying life insurance could be as confusing as buying health insurance. I will try to make it easier for you. There are two types of life insurance: Term Insurance and Permanent Insurance. Term Insurance offers death benefits only if you die. Permanent insurance also know as whole life insurance, also offers death benefits and a savings account. If you are still alive when the insurance expires, you get some of your money back. How much? It depends on your premium. Let me share with you a scenario for a female 37 years old and for a male 33 years old:

The monthly cost of $250,000 level life insurance for a young lady of37 years is $22.56 per month. 
The cost for a 33 year old male for $250,000 is $22.35 per month. 
This is for a 20 year policy where the monthly cost stays all 20 years and pays upon death for any reason, not just accidental death. 
There is an exclusion for suicide within the first 2 years. 
After 2 years they pay for that also. It would be $13.18and $12.77 for a 10 year policy or $$31.52 and $33.81 for a 30 year policy.

Buying any kind of insurance can be a very confusing experience. Having a reliable and trust worthy agent can make the difference between making your decisions really protect your assets.

Yanni Raz is a mentor for many homeowners and real estate investors in the real estate industry. Studio city California is where you can find his classes and other great events he is planning.
These days Yanni Raz helps homeowners to save their homes from foreclosure, so short sale homes and REO’s are his daily practise. If you need help and/or advice about your home, you should contact Yanni Raz to help you.

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