New Year’s Insurance Resolutions
If you create New Year’s Resolutions, we hope you’re on track and pursuing your goals. Whether you want to exercise more, get organized, or save money, there are a variety of goals to select—but we want to share insurance resolutions you can make!
Insurance Resolution #1: Home Inventory
One simple resolution you can begin working on today is creating—or updating—your home inventory. Having an up-to-date home inventory list will make your life easier in the event that you need to submit an insurance claim following a fire or other disaster.
How do I create an inventory?
A home inventory could be something as simple as a spreadsheet and photos of the items. It might also be helpful to conduct a mini video tour of your living space and narrate with relevant information concerning your items. Of course, you could also use a combination of all three methods!
The important thing is to create an accurate record of your possessions that clearly shows proof of ownership.
So, what should a home inventory include?
- Name and description of items
- Make and serial number (if applicable)
- Price when purchased
- Proof of purchase for big-ticket items
How often should I update my home inventory?
Great question! The short answer is that you should pick a schedule you can follow. This could be when you review homeowners’ insurance coverage, once every six months, or after you make a significant purchase.
The most important thing here is consistency. A home inventory (unfortunately) is not a once-and-done document.
Keep it safe!
Once you have created a home inventory, please store it in a secure location, and keep multiple copies. Look into storing your document on the cloud, in addition to your computer or a USB drive.
If your house is damaged in an accident, you want to avoid losing this document! We recommend keeping a copy in a safe place outside your home as well.
Insurance Resolution #2: Life Insurance Policy
It’s a good idea to review your life insurance policy every year, as life changes can happen quickly, and we want to ensure you maintain proper coverage.
So, who needs life insurance?
There are quite a few situations that indicate you need this policy, but it’s recommended that anyone with people relying on their income for financial support should look into getting life insurance.
Will you be co-signing a loan? It’s strongly recommended that both you and your co-signer get life insurance.
Want to learn more about life insurance?
Check out our blog here! It explores a few different situations that might indicate the need for multiple life insurance policies.
Insurance Resolution #3: Avoid Common Mistakes
Choosing an insurance plan can be complicated, and it’s easy to make mistakes. So, here are some mistakes to avoid when choosing your insurance plan.
- Not having insurance
- Not having enough insurance
- Over-insuring yourself
- Not asking for discounts
- Misunderstanding your policy
- Automatically opting into group life insurance
- Getting rid of long-term care insurance
- Picking a health policy based on premiums alone
Click here if you’re interested in learning more about these common mistakes!
We hope these topics have inspired you to add a few insurance-related resolutions to your list. Have any questions? We love to help. Click here to receive a quote and get started!