Have you ever felt like you have too much insurance? Nobody wants to squander money on unneeded insurance premiums because every dollar wasted could have been invested or spent on something far more fascinating.
On the other hand, failing to obtain the appropriate types and amounts of insurance can be damaging to wealth accumulation and enjoyment of life. What is the best way to strike the right balance? The objective is to limit coverage to only those dangers that we can’t entirely avoid. Risks in the area are covered by the following types of insurance:
These types of insurance are essential since uninsured losses in these areas have the potential to bankrupt us financially.
For Example: Car Insurance
How would we pay for the other driver’s vehicle damage, medical expenses, and lost income, which could total hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, if we only carried the minimal necessary auto insurance coverage limits and gravely hurt or killed someone in a car accident? If we didn’t have health insurance, how would we be able to pay for unforeseen cancer treatments, surgeries, and long-term hospitalization?
The Importance of Sufficient Medical Insurance
Many years ago, I met a man in his fifties who had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses because his wife had suffered a major disease while they were without health insurance. He told me that while she recovered physically, he does not believe they would ever fully recover financially from the repercussions of that tremendous, unexpected blow. He begged, “Make sure you and your family are covered by medical insurance, and encourage all of your clients to do the same. I grossly misjudged the likelihood of medical bills bankrupting us for the rest of our life.”
If we opt not to have insurance in any of the categories outlined above, we must devise a practical plan for dealing with a calamity. It would be silly to declare, “If we don’t get disability insurance, we’ll be fine.” “I don’t require it because I will never become ill or injured.” Of course, no one anticipates becoming ill or injured. It occurs when we are least expecting it.
Can You Be Over-Insured? How to Know if You’re Over-Insured?
“If I am unable to work due to illness or injury, we will move in with my in-laws and use our retirement and college savings to pay for my wife to return to school so she can earn enough to support us,” says one feasible alternative plan. We will no longer assist our children in paying for their college educations, and we will delay retiring for another 10-15 years longer than we had intended.” If we can’t come up with a viable alternative plan that is both realistic and acceptable to us and others who rely on us financially, shifting the risk to an insurance company may be the best option.
Dental insurance, short-term disability insurance, accident insurance, home warranties, extended warranties on automobiles and appliances, credit insurance, travel insurance, and many other types of personal insurance, in my opinion, are all optional. These are good to have if someone else is paying for them, but the premiums are usually rather exorbitant for the benefits supplied, and any loss in any of these areas has the potential to bankrupt us. As a result, if we are underinsured in vital areas while paying for coverage in optional areas, it could be a good idea to drop nonessential coverage and utilize the premium savings to boost critical coverage.
The Right Amounts of Insurance
How do we determine the appropriate amount for each form of basic insurance? In a nutshell, we get as much as the insurance company is prepared to provide us for the lowest feasible price. All of my most valuable possessions should have full replacement value. If my house burns down, I want the insurance company to pay for the entire house to be rebuilt, not just the kitchen. What’s the sense of having insurance if they won’t reconstruct my house the way it was before the fire? I also want to retain as much risk as I can through large deductibles in order to keep my rates as cheap as possible while maintaining high coverage limits.
Although each person’s insurance needs are different and should be discussed with a qualified advisor, the following are some general guidelines:
Auto Insurance
The most important consideration is liability limits. I often propose the largest available liability limits of $250,000/500,000/100,000, as well as the maximum available deductible of $1,000. If your current coverage is substantially less than this, you might be shocked to learn how affordable it is to greatly increase your coverage, especially if you boost your deductibles at the same time.
Homeowners Insurance
Make sure your home is covered for the entire cost of replacement, but no more. Request an updated replacement cost estimate from your agent on a regular basis to see whether your coverage needs to be modified. Keep in mind that your property may need to be insured for more than it is now worth, as replacement cost is determined by the projected cost of labor and materials to rebuild your home from the ground up, rather than market value. I also advocate purchasing the greatest attainable liability limits and a deductible of at least $1,000.
Most homeowner’s insurance policies include a substantial amount of general personal property coverage by default. However, certain categories of personal property are subject to exclusions and limitations. Unless you purchase an endorsement to specifically cover these goods for their full worth, most insurance companies will not pay much for stolen or damaged jewelry, musical instruments, art work, or other precious collectibles. Keep receipts, pictures, or videos of your personal belongings in a secure location offsite so you can readily demonstrate to an insurance adjuster what you are entitled to in the event of a loss.
Umbrella Liability Insurance
What is an umbrella, exactly? It protects you against any personal responsibility that exceeds the limits of your auto and home insurance coverage. Other sorts of personal liability, such as libel or slander, are likewise included, but business-related conduct are not. The amount of coverage available ranges from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000. I usually recommend at least $1,000,000 for persons who make a solid living but don’t have many assets, to help avoid having their wages garnished in the event of a significant judgment against them. Of sure, persons with a lot of money should get higher limitations compared to their net worth.
Do you think that’s excessive? Isn’t a liability limit of $250,000 per person more than enough to cover any car accident? True, it would cover the majority of accidents, but not all of them.
What if you kill the person you hit or injure her so badly that she is unable to work for the rest of her life? What amount of money should her family be entitled to? That is dependent on her age and financial situation.
Let’s pretend she’s 35 and earns $100,000 each year. Is it unrealistic to believe that if you hadn’t hit her, she could have worked for at least another 20 years? If you earn $100,000 per year for the next 20 years, you’ll have lost at least $2,000,000 in prospective earnings. What about medical expenditures, pain and suffering, and vehicle damage, in addition to the loss of income? If you were the victim in this situation, what would you want for your family? Would you be greedy if you demanded at least $2,000,000 as recompense for your loss, or would that be a fair amount? I believe it is completely logical, as do the courts.
How do you know if you’re over-insured?
You’ve paid off your debts or have less responsibilities. If you have fewer commitments than when you got the policies, you are most likely overinsured on life and disability insurance.
You may not require as much life or disability insurance if you no longer have a mortgage, do not need to pay for your children’s school, or have big debts. Also, if you’re retired and your income isn’t dependent on your capacity to work, you might not need this form of insurance.
Your homeowner’s insurance coverage overestimates the cost of construction and replacement. The amount of your insurance benefit is determined by the cost of rebuilding your home on the same lot if it is destroyed by fire or another covered event. You may be overinsured if the cost of building your home is less than what the policy covers.
The same can be said about the expense of replacement. This is the amount you’d need to replace all of your belongings if the covered event occurred. Make an inventory of your home and total up the cost of replacing your belongings, then compare that figure to the amount indicated in your insurance policy.
Your auto loan insures you for more than the value of your vehicle. When you buy a car for the first time and need a loan, you must have comprehensive and collision coverage. Damage caused by incidents other than collisions, such as a tree falling on the automobile, is covered by comprehensive insurance. Collision insurance pays for damage to your own car caused by an accident you cause or one caused by an uninsured driver.
Neither of these types of insurance is required by law. A lender is the only one who requires it. There is no incentive to have comprehensive or collision coverage if you have paid off a loan and the automobile is no longer worth fixing if it is damaged.
Is there such thing as over-insured?
First and foremost, let me state unequivocally that it is preferable to have your car over-insured rather than under-insured. If you’re underinsured and collide with a car full of passengers who suffer significant injuries, you may be compelled to file for bankruptcy because you’ll be responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
There’s a lower chance of disaster if you’re over-insured. You’re protected against more circumstances than you really need, and you have more coverage than you’ll ever use, if you’re over-insured.
Of course, the biggest disadvantage of being over-insured is that your monthly insurance costs will be too high. You’re overpaying for auto insurance that you don’t require.
What happens if I am over-insured?
But, surely, insurance firms would want customers to pay greater rates because their property’s worth has increased? No. Over-insurance can be a’moral hazard’ for insurers, as the policyholder may be inclined to file a false claim in order to profit from a loss.
This is known as the f-word fraud in the insurance industry, and there are protections in place to prevent it. The fact that most insurers would only reimburse policyholders for the actual cost of the loss is one of the most important precautions. Depending on the insurer, the value of physical property (building and contents) can be based on total replacement costs or sum-insured. The rental income is calculated using the actual rent collected.
Let’s imagine you have a $1 million insurance policy on the property. If the property is a total loss, an assessor will estimate the replacement cost, which might be $750,000, and the insurance payout will be based on that value rather than the $1 million it was insured for. In fact, even though you paid premiums predicated on the property being worth $1 million, it is only worth $750,000, and the insurer will only pay you $750,000. You’re not going to get the extra $250,000. As a result, you’ve spent extra for no additional advantage.
Many insurance policies have a condition that states, “If you over-insure, we will not pay you more than it costs us to rebuild, repair, or replace.” We will not reimburse any premiums paid in excess due to over-insurance…”
Other insurance companies will normally require property owners to agree on the amount covered up front, and will not insure a home for much more than its actual value.
The goal when purchasing landlord insurance should be to get the proper coverage at the right price. Here are some pointers for calculating the amount insured:
- Calculate the cost of replacing your home and belongings on a new-for-old basis.
- The building sum should be calculated using current construction costs rather than market value. Ask a local builder or specialist how much it would cost to rebuild your home if you want exact figures.
- Include only the property/structures developed on the site, not the land itself.
- Take into account any structural changes done to the property, such as outbuildings, pergolas, and fencing.
- For the contents, use replacement costs, and keep in mind that a landlord’s policy only covers the property’s contents, not the renters’ things.
- Compare the results of at least three insurance calculators using an online calculator (such as the Cordell Sum Sure building insurance calculator on the ICA’s Understand Insurance website).
*While we took great care to ensure the information above was accurate at the time of publication, changes in circumstances and legislation after the published date may have an impact on the accuracy of this article. We’re here if you need us; if you have any questions, call 1800 661 662.
Is it better to be over or under insured?
We talked about the dangers of underinsurance earlier this month. We’ll take a look at the other side of the coin and talk about insurance in this post. This is significant not just for property owners and their short-term insurance coverage, but also for policyholders who are covered for death and disability benefits. We’ll concentrate on short-term insurance in this article.
Overinsurance is described as a situation in which an insured has purchased so much coverage that it surpasses the risk or property’s actual cash value (or replacement cost).
Your automobile was written off in an accident and is insured for R200,000. The assessor determines that the vehicle can be replaced for R160,000.
Only R160, 000 is paid out as a result. However, you have been paying premiums for an amount of R200,000, and the premiums for the additional R40,000 were paid erroneously.
Overinsurance is a threat to the insurance sector, particularly when it comes to insurance fraud. Overinsured insureds may be tempted to file a bogus claim in order to profit from a loss.
The following are the main distinctions between under and over insurance:
- Underinsured means you’re insured for less than market value, whereas overinsured means you’re covered for more than market value.
- Underinsured risk reveals itself when you file a claim and discover that you will be paid less than the insurance claim since you will be responsible for some of the damage.
- When you have too much insurance, you risk paying too much in premiums since the market worth of the insured property is less than the amount insured.
- You might be terrified of being underinsured, so you decide to insure for more than you need.
- Property owners sometimes overlook the depreciation and diminishing market worth of their assets.
- It’s critical to remember that prices fluctuate constantly, as do the costs of replacing something that has been destroyed, lost, or stolen.
It is your job, not the broker’s or insurer’s, to make sure your property is insured for the right amount.
- Examine your policy’s terms and conditions to learn about what your insurer considers “over-insurance.”
- Check your insurance policy once a year and ask your broker or insurance provider to make sure your property isn’t overinsured.
- If your vehicle is financed through a financial institution, you should also inquire about your financial obligations to the bank.
- Keep a file of purchase invoices but don’t forget to ask your insurance how much it would cost to replace these items!
There’s no reason you shouldn’t feel secure in the knowledge that you’re properly insured. Keep in touch with your insurer, ask questions, and make sure your insurance coverage is up to date! Now is the moment to purchase your insurance policy and make sure it’s in line with your current financial situation!!
Why is it bad to be over insured?
No one wants to pay for more coverage than they require. When you have over-insurance, you are ultimately paying a sum that is much larger than the worth of your property. Simply put, you’re squandering your funds.
Aside from the financial burden, over-insurance tempts the policyholder to file bogus claims in order to profit. This is what policyholders call “moral hazard,” and insurance firms call “insurance fraud.” There have been cases where homeowners purposefully set fire to their homes, faked catastrophes such as break-ins, and so on in order to collect insurance and earn compensation. Keep in mind that insurance fraud in Florida is punished based on the property’s worth if it reaches $100,000, it’s considered a first-degree felony.