Public Service Announcement. Check your insurance limits.

[SSChameleon]

Also, great advice Honey Badger on taking photos of everything. After handling several theft claims I can say the best thing you can do is take a photo with your cell phone of every serial number TV, Computer, IPAD, and Guns (The NSA probably has the serial number for them, but they wont give them out after a loss) then email the photos to a yahoo or Gmail account. This will make the claims process faster, and it gives the Cops a chance to catch the bad guys. Without serial numbers, the cops really have no way to ever find your stuff.

[jerrymrc]

Thanks for posting, even before i was with allstate, i've always had 100/300/100. Is it possible to have too much coverage?

What I have carried for 20 years. Though these days I may want to raise that. I will say the whole "insurance" thing is starting to grate on me. Years ago you carried Ins to protect the odd occurrence.

The number of people that damn near live off it is staggering. I will not drag up the info but I think my last years cost for "Insurance" was about about $24K. With health running $18K of that.

[osok-308]

My father-in-law is an insurance agent, so I've definitely heard this before, but it's a good bit of advice that should be followed.

[SSChameleon]

Stu, that's some good advice. Full Disclosure, I'm an insurance agent. From my experience I can say anyone who has state minimum coverage and thinks that's ok is like the FUD who has carries a Jimenez arms for self defense.

Liability is relatively cheap. If you really are not sure about your coverage find an agent who has been in the industry for a few years (this is a mass hire/mass fire industry, the weak and stupid wash out in the first three years) and have a review. If you think the guy (or gal) is trying to sell you a bunch of coverage you don't need, get a second opinion.

Last year I had a family with 16 year old girl who ran a stop sign and flipped an SUV with a 72 year old couple in it. We paid the policy limits for them. I had another client who was T-boned by someone texting through a stop light and woke up in Littleton Adventist after 20 days in a medically induced coma. The girl who hit him had state minimums and he went after the parents.

If you are on a budget, raise you deductible. It's far easier to write a $500 check for the higher deductible than the $50,000 check to an attorney or guy you hit.

[Dave_L]

Ill say it over and over but people still don't listen. Make time each year to sit down with your agent and review your policies. Talk about changes within the industry, changes within your household, etc. The agent can't keep tabs on every single customer but the agent can sit down with you, review your policies, make recommendations, etc.

So many people hate insurance that they strip their policy down to go as cheap as possible to "show the man". Ultimately, you only hurt yourself. Pay for the appropriate coverage and you'll be 10x's happier down the road.

[RblDiver]

Which would you consider more affordable, adding on more to your regular auto insurance policy, or getting an umbrella policy?

[jhood001]

Which would you consider more affordable, adding on more to your regular auto insurance policy, or getting an umbrella policy?

I'm sure Stu can weigh in better, but I carry an umbrella policy with State Farm for that reason and for legal fees in the event of a defensive shooting or firearm related accident. I checked with them 3 different times to make sure the umbrella would actually cover such a scenario and at least with State Farm, it does.

And thanks a bunch for the post, Stu!

[SSChameleon]

Some companies offer a discount on auto for adding an umbrella, when that is the case the umbrella is the way to go.

[OtterbatHellcat]

I don't know much about auto insurance, but when CO. went no fault, I raised everything on my cars to 250/250/ 500 and have my deductible way high, $2000 or something like that. I didn't want anyone suing me and having to lose my home and stuff like that.

I know that I'm lacking on homeowner insurance though, but, selling the place soon so........I'll be more on top of quality insurance for my home in the future.

[<MADDOG>]

Great info guys.

I also will chime in with the home insurance bit: people who were affected by the forest fires here in C/S had quite a shock when it came coverage vs $ of rebuild. Especially in Black Forest.