Let me start by saying I know a lot about insurance and what I don’t know my Allstate team knows in spades.
But that fact is neither here nor there. I’d like to tell you a story.
One evening after I had put my two young children to bed and was spending a quiet night at home with my (then) husband, something neither one of us would have ever expected happened.
We smelled smoke.
My husband took a quick look and indeed, our home was on fire.
We grabbed the girls, left our home, and called the fire dept. as we got out the door.
The fire engines came in record time, and we watched as our beautiful home filled with the special things we had received as wedding gifts, items we bought on trips abroad, and the stuff of everyday life too, clothes, toys, furniture (the crib! ) went up in flames.
May you never have this experience but as the cliché says you must always expect the unexpected.
I won’t try to kid you and tell you that it was easy. I felt incredibly blessed that we got out safe and sound, but yes, I also knew that what loomed ahead would be challenging. Replacing a television was no big deal, replacing items that were associated with memories of people and places, would not be so easy to do.
What I’m getting to here are some very pragmatic tips for everyone that doesn’t think it can happen to them. It can.
Check your insurance coverages and make certain you have everything that you need.
Most people don’t look at their insurance policies after they purchase them, even when their needs and circumstances change. I encourage you to review your policies every year and speak with your insurance agent about any changes that have occurred that may precipitate a change in your coverage. We do a yearly review with all of our clients and it is amazing the number of revisions that have to be made.
Expect the unexpected
Try to not scrimp on the insurances that won’t cost you very much, but are important to have.
Additional living expense coverage was a lifesaver for us. We were out of our home for 2 years and if we didn’t have this coverage, we would have been out of pocket for a significant amount of money. Temporary housing can be very expensive and before you make any hard and fast decision about whether you should purchase the additional living expense coverage, you need to assess if you have enough savings or a budget if you need to rent a home for a year.
Expected he unexpected
Do you have art or jewelry that should be covered over and beyond what is included in your homeowners policy?
We didn’t have expensive artwork, but I did have quite a lot of jewelry that was lost forever. My jewelry protection insurance provided me with the ability to replace the jewelry that was important to me as I started to “get back to normal.”
Expect the unexpected
It’s been years now and I am happily situated back in my home. We had it rebuilt and it is everything that I want it to be. My girls and I feel secure and happy here but if there is one thing that I learned it’s that things can change in an instant. It’s important to be protected if and when the unimaginable happens to you.
PS My coverages that helped to save me financially:
Building Code Coverage
Additional Living Expense
Jewelry Rider