Merritt Personal Lines Manual: Who "You" Are and the Insurance "You" Need
The right kind of insurance will protect you -- and your finances -- if you get into a car accident, if someone falls and is hurt at your home, if you need emergency surgery or if you're disabled and out of work for an extended period of time. Insurance also c an protect you if you misjudge a dock when you're out on your boat, if you need to stay in a nursing home or if you die young, leav ing your spouse with small children to raise and a mortgage to pay.
Caveat: Throughout this Manual, we use the term "you" to apply to both the insurance consumer and the insurance agent. We use t his term this way, in part, to reflect the plain English language that ISO Properties insurance forms started using in the late 1990 s.
But we use it in part to remind you (the insurance professional) that you need to think about insurance like "you" the consumer .
Clearly, different kinds of insurance -- and different amounts -- are appropriate at different stages of your life. If you're yo ung and single and don't own a home, you probably only need automobile insurance and renter's insurance. If you own a boat, a jet ski or a snowmobile, you'll need special insurance policy for them, too.
If you own a home, you certainly need homeowners insurance -- although you may opt to purchase dwelling coverage, instead. If you live in an area that's prone to catastrophes -- such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes -- you probably also need to add on coverage for losses from these types of natural disasters.
If you are married and have small children, you're a prime candidate for life insurance -- and probably also for disability inco me insurance.
If your employer provides health insurance, life insurance and disability insurance, you may not need to purchase supplemental co verage. If your company does not provide these things, you'll be shopping for individual policies. And if you're a homemaker who i s recently divorced or widowed, you've probably just entered the market for health insurance and life insurance.
If you're approaching retirement age, you probably don't need disability income insurance any more, but odds are you'll want l ong-term care coverage, in case you need help with the activities of daily living, such as dressing, feeding and bathing yourself -- and so you can choose whether to receive home-based care or enter a nursing home someday.
Each time certain factors in your life change, it's time to reassess your insurance needs and your current coverage. These facto rs include:
- your age;
- your marital status;
- your parental status (including whether your kids are grown and self-sufficient);
- whether you own or rent a home (or two -- or have income property);
- whether you are employed and the kind of coverage offered by your employer; and
- whether you work at home or elsewhere (e.g., if you work at home, you may need to add an endorsement to your homeowners policy o r purchase a separate home-based business policy).
It's important to keep your coverages current -- whether that means letting your insurance company know about an addition to you r home or getting a new policy when you buy a boat.
Insurance Has Become Ubiquitous
Whether or not you want to think about insurance, you probably are asked about it fairly regularly. If you go to rent a car, the rental car company probably will try to sell you collision damage waiver insurance. If you buy a home, the mortgage lender will requ ire you to get homeowners insurance.
When you start a new job, you often have a choice of health insurance plans and group disability plans, as well as the option of participating in a cafeteria plan (which can include coverage for dental care, chiropractor's visits and vision care). If your comp any changes insurance carriers, you may be asked all these questions all over again.
You may even be asked to buy insurance the next time you plan a vacation -- or a wedding.
You've probably also been offered insurance coverage by phone (say, from one of your credit card companies), via the mail and ev en over the Internet. This direct sales approach to marketing insurance of all sorts is becoming more and more common, as insurance companies try to cut costs by eliminating agents -- and their commission -- from the sales process. This new approach to insurance s ales may make prices more affordable in the long run (or at least keep them level). But it also means that you -- as a consumer buyi ng insurance directly from insurance companies -- have to know more than ever about these policies.
The good news is: you can use this site to learn enough about the coverages you want and need to ask the right questions -- and t o buy your insurance any way you see fit. This will be something that you find yourself doing more and more as the insurance industr y completes its move to a self-service focus. The important thing is to get the right kind of insurance to suit your needs -- and to get the right amount of it.
This Manual will help you figure out these things and save you money thanks to:
- easy-to-understand descriptions of the kinds of coverage insurance companies offer,
- worksheets that will help you calculate insurance needs,
- tools to make sure you're dealing with a solid company -- one that will be around when you need to make a claim and collect mon ey,
- tips for cutting your premium costs and
- charts to help you compare policies and insurance companies.
