New Year's Resolution - Insurance

Every day your life is changing in many ways, and new situations can warrant new levels of protection. Things like increases in your income, increases in your expenses, new purchases, moving, or a new baby can all affect your lifestyle and your needs for all kinds of insurance. Your needs for homeowner's insurance, car insurance, and personal insurance will all change over time, and the New Year is a good time to look at these things and make your changes.
In fact, an executive at Insurance.com recommends that people treat taking a more active role in managing their life insurance as a New Year's Resolution this New Year. That does not just mean adjusting your policies on homeowner's insurance, personal life insurance, and auto insurance to meet your changing lifestyle, but also learning to read and understand your policies and shopping around for better policies, better rates, and better providers to see if you are getting the best deal.

It's time to decide on your New Year's Resolution; adequate insurance coverage in all aspects of your life is vital, and you can get that through understanding your current coverage and getting more where needed. Protecting yourself and your family is important to you or else you would not be reading this, so take the steps that are necessary to protect them by making sure that things are taken care of in case of emergencies. You should know:

• Life insurance should cover both of you. You may not think that a housewife or husband contributes much financially, but you will be disabused of that notion when you are forced to pay for child care, clean house on your own, and take care of the other things that the at-home partner does.


• Don't forget to add life insurance to cover your debts


• Add more insurance to cover a few months of living expenses for emergencies


• You may want to add additional coverage for your children's' college educations as well, if you are concerned about those funds.

Homeowners Insurance Resolution
It is best to get as much homeowners insurance as you can afford. You should also understand your policy, including what is covered under liability versus what is covered under your actual property insurance.

Your Homeowners Insurance Covers:

• The structure of your home


• The contents of your home

Your Liability Insurance Covers:

• Personal liability


• Medical payments of people hurt in your home or on your property


• Damage to others' property


• Personal injury to others

Auto Insurance Resolution
For a similar reason, you should read and understand your auto insurance policy, and shop around for other policies that might benefit you better or cost less (or even both). Insurance.com suggests this, adding that drivers should ask themselves some questions about themselves and their current auto insurance including:

• Does your current car insurance provider offer competitive rates?


• Is the underwriting agency for your auto insurance provider going through any big changes lately that might affect their ability to pay claims?


• Are you eligible for discounts at this time through your insurance provider or others, and are you getting all the discounts for which you are eligible?


• Do you have a 24-hour claim service with your auto insurance provider? Is their staff knowledgeable?

By shopping around and checking out what other auto insurance companies are willing to offer, you can save yourself more time later, as well as money, and even get better service and easier claims processes in the bargain.