Financial Planning

Starting with excessive rates to buying a separate policy for your teen driver, dealing with auto coverage is often confusing, complicated and it also involves a lot of money to be spent. Still, you can’t go around it, as it a legal requirement in most states and a helpful tool to give you a peace of mind when dealing with traffic accidents. Sure, it may seem like a dirty job and you don’t want to waste your time on it. But what if there’s an easier way to get your auto insured without all the hassle you fear of dealing with? If you are interested, read the frequently asked questions below as answered by insurance experts, who know how to get the right policy no matter what’s your situation.

Q: Am I obliged to carry insurance coverage when driving my car?

A: Nearly all states have it as a legal requirement for drivers to carry liability auto coverage as a guarantee that the damages you deliver in a car accidents are paid for. Each state has a minimum amount of liability coverage that a driver must carry with his policy. And even the states that don’t have vehicle insurance as a legal requirement oblige the driver to show proof that he has enough financial resources to pay for the caused damage. Any other types of insurance coverage, outside liability coverage are purely optional and can be purchased with respect to your personal insurance needs.

Q: Is insurance required before buying a new vehicle?

A: If that’s your first vehicle, you will be required to have insurance coverage before even taking it from the dealer. Moreover, if you’re using an auto loan to finance the purchase, you may be required to buy additional types of coverage besides liability. If you already have a car and are changing it to a new one or buying an additional vehicle, you have 14-30 days to report the changes to your insurance company.

Q: How can I get cheap car insurance?

A: Compare insurance quotes in order to see what other providers are offering, and if it turns out that you’re overpaying – switch the provider. If your current rates are quite competitive, compared to other companies, see if you’re taking advantage of all the discounts you can opt for.

When looking for a new car, always make sure that the make and model you are interested in provides cheap car insurance options. Some cars are a lot cheaper to insure than the others, ask your insurance agent to learn what cars are the most cost-effective from the insurance perspective.

Another way to get cheap car insurance, although a bit risky one, is to increase your deductibles. By raising the amount of out-of-pocket expenses you can afford before the policy kicks in you get lower premiums. And if you’re driving an older vehicle that has a low market value, you may want to drop collision and comprehensive coverage as it takes depreciation of the car value into account.

You can also adjust the amounts of coverage your policy carries, although experts do not recommend decreasing them to the level of state minimums as it is usually not enough to pay for a serious accident.

Looking around the US, all but three states mandate drivers to carry liability insurance. Some states have no-fault schemes. Others add in a requirement to buy a personal injury protection policy. As the healthcare reform bill was signed into law, many asked whether all insurance mandates were unconstitutional. This is a fun debating topic which sounds possible but will get nowhere. States have always had the right to impose conditions on people’s voluntary activities. If you want to drive, you have to carry liability insurance to pay compensation to anyone else you may injure. A more interesting question is the amount of the minimum requirements imposed by your state’s lawmakers.

Most of these minimums have not been changed for thirty and more years. For example, in 1972, Maryland set $20,000 for a person injured subject to a maximum of $40,000 for losses arising out of a single traffic accident. This was intended to cover medical treatment, loss of earnings while recovering, and so on. In 1972, the average annual salary was $12,000 and most hospitals charged no more than a few hundred dollars for treatment. Most new vehicles cost less than $4,000 to put on the road. You could easily buy a new home for less than $30,000. Looking back now, you wonder how we managed on so little money. Prices have risen fast for medical treatment. Injure the wrong person and the claim against you for loss of earnings is going to be frightening. Why should this matter?The liability coverage only pays out the minimum. You get to pick up the bill for all the other losses. So any savings or property you have may be taken to satisfy a judgment against you.

Should states increase their minimums? Many are thinking about doing so, but the politics of actually making new laws is difficult. During the recession, people are under financial pressure. Forcing them to spend more on vehicle insurance is not going to be popular among the poorer sections of the electorate. For the middle classes, there is the option to buy more coverage including an uninsured and underinsured policy. This is the American way. Those who have money can use it to protect themselves against losses. Those who are poor must take life as it comes.

In Maryland, the legislators have just increased the minimums to $30,000/60,000. This is curiously unreal. An increase to match the rate of inflation since 1972 should make the minimums $100,000/200,000. But, the political situation does not permit the lawmakers to restore the value of the minimums overnight. The answer was annual increases to inflation-proof the amounts. We would have arrived at $100,000 without anyone being too upset about it. But we have grown used to accepting the cheapest solutions even though millions of people across America actually lose money because of it. Why millions of people? These are all the victims of bad driving who never recover anything more than the minimums and suffer major financial losses as a result. This is injustice on a massive scale. And it will never be cured because it would cost too much to make the necessary increases. The only people who come out of this smiling are the investors in the auto insurance industry. Their profits and dividends have been rising steadily despite the recession. To protect yourself, always get auto insurance quotes from this site to find the most affordable coverage. Insurance may be mandated but you don’t have to pay excessive premiums.

If you have home insurance, or are shopping for it, you may have heard about an umbrella policy. What is an umbrella policy, and why would you need one?

When you buy a home owners insurance policy, you typically get coverage for the dwelling (your home), outlying structures (such as sheds), personal possessions and liability. You also get some coverage for living expenses in case your home is uninhabitable after a claim. All of these coverages have limits on the amount the home insurance company will pay in the event of a loss.

Umbrella, or personal liability umbrella policies, provide additional liability coverage above the limits in your standard homeowner policy. Why do people get this extra protection? Basically for peace of mind in a society where personal lawsuits are filed over the slightest thing. A personal liability umbrella policy can help protect your home, car and other assets in the event you are sued.

They usually provide coverage for bodily injury and property damage liability, and may also cover such liabilities arising from defamation, eviction and more.

In the event of a claim, an umbrella policy’s coverage kicks in after your liability limits have been reached on your car and home insurance policies. Umbrella policies do cost a bit, so you might want to see if it’s cheaper to raise your limits on your homeowner and car insurance policies. Talk to your agent, or shop around for quotes.

If you’re shopping for home insurance quotes, get at least three different quotes for comparison as rates vary from company to company. Also, ask if they have a personal umbrella policy and get a quote for that extra coverage. One of the easiest ways to do this is to go online to an insurance comparison Web site that will offer several quotes from one site.

Cheap homeowners insurance. Does it really exist? Yes … if you know how and where to look. Here’s how to find cheap homeowners insurance the easy way.

What Homeowners Insurance Covers

Structural Coverage – This coverage pays to have your home rebuilt if it’s damaged or destroyed. To find out how much coverage you need, get the square-foot building cost in your area from a builder or a realtor, then multiply that figure by your home’s square footage.

Personal Property Coverage – Your personal property is anything in your home that is not not part of the house structure – clothing, furniture, appliances, electronics, etc. To figure out how much personal property coverage you need, take an inventory of everything you own, then add up each item’s value to get the coverage amount.

Expensive items like jewelry, furs, antiques, and collectables may not be covered under some policies, so you’ll need to purchase extra insurance to cover them.

Liability Coverage – Liability coverage pays for damage done to others and their property when you’re at fault. It also pays for your legal fees if you’re sued. If you don’t have a lot of assets, $100,000 coverage may be enough. But if you do have a lot of assets that you could lose in a lawsuit, consider purchasing at least $300,000 to $500,000 worth of liability coverage

Off-Premises Coverage – This pays for your basic living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable due to fire or other causes. This coverage is especially important if you live in a high risk area for natural disasters.

Most homeowners policies do not cover floods and earthquakes, so you’ll need to purchase extra coverage if you live in a flood or earthquake zone.

How to Get Cheap Homeowners Insurance

Insurance rates can vary by hundreds, even thousands of dollars from one company to the next. This being the case, the best way to get cheap homeowners insurance is to go to an insurance comparison website where you can compare rates from a number of different companies.

A few comparison sites even have insurance professionals on hand to answer any questions you may have through their online chat service (See link below.)

To get the cheapest rate, make sure to request the highest deductible you can afford, and get all the discounts you’re eligible for.

Every wise person strive to protect their investment as much as they can. Free home insurance quotes helps you find cheaper ways to keep your home home adequately protected.

It is sad to know that some people do not think it so important to have their homes fully covered. Some blame this on cost while some other just don’t think they would need it. For the former, you can find cheaper coverage if you know how to find it. For the latter,, nothing can be more misleading than thinking you surely would not need home insurance. The truth is actually that you may never need it but are you %100 sure of this?

Let me try to point out some reasons why you need home insurance coverage.

1, This policy provides coverage against the loss of your home. This means if your house is damaged or totally destroyed, you can get compensation or even get it rebuilt with funds from your claim settlement.

2, You also get coverage for your personal effects. Each of us have some important things in our homes. Some these things are of immense financial or emotional value to us. Having them covered therefore is a very wise move.

3, A person could come to some injury on your property resulting in medical expenses or even a lawsuit. A part of home insurance covers you from this.

Being fully covered means having this different components of home insurance represented on your policy. They actually come in different packages – the home policy, the liability coverage, personal property coverage, additional expenses coverage etc What you need to do is understand the specific coverage provided by each and then determine which you need. The major ones explained above can offer basic coverage. You can however improve on it by adding other coverages.

The important thing I want to point out here is that whatever coverage you need, you can get it at an affordable rate if you only get and compare free home insurance quotes.

Visit quotes comparison sites and get free home insurance quotes for comparison. These quotes would help you find an insurer offering the coverage you want at the best rate. Please, do not be carried away by cheap rates. Be sure that the coverage you are getting is adequate and that the insurer is viable enough to meet their part of the agreement when the time comes.