Transcript

As we age and reach different milestones in our lives, our insurance needs also change. Some examples of those changes would be new homeownership, renovations, marriage, retirement, teenage drivers being added to your household.

Obviously, they're going to be a huge risk. They have no experience driving. So one thing that you want to think about is increasing your coverage. You have to anticipate the unthinkable.

There's really twofold to a teenage driver. You'll want to one, get them permitted, which is the first part of having a teenage driver. The second part is going to be actually getting them licensed, which is generally twelve months after the permit stage. Once they have their driver's license, you'll add them to your insurance policy, which we highly recommend because if you put them on their own policy, it's going to be quite a bit more expensive. So it is better for them to be on your policy. One of the biggest insurance policies that you'll purchase in your lifetime is going to be your homeowner's policy, which is going to provide you coverage for your biggest asset.

Simply because you're purchasing a home for X amount of dollars doesn't mean that property needs to be insured for that amount that you're purchasing the home. Keep in mind, you're purchasing the property as well as the lot, the land. So the land is going to be excluded from the insurance policy simply because it's earth. The insurance carrier, they're just going to cover the physical structure of the property.

This would also include the possible purchase of a vacation home, a new condo, a rental property. If you're thinking about doing a home renovation, definitely call your insurance carrier because a lot of basic homeowners policies are not going to cover the home while it's being renovated. If you have not provided information of the renovation to your insurance carrier and you do have a claim, they could actually decline that claim because they were unaware of the renovation.

Reach out to your insurance agent. It's important that we know what's going on simply because let's say you're renovating the home, a contractor's injured and they're seeking litigation, that's a claim that could be denied simply because the insurance carrier didn't know. And then also, let's say nothing like that occurs, but the renovations are completed and you didn't reach out to us to let us know that you've upgraded the home. So your coverage limit needs to be increased at that point simply because you're upgrading the home, cost of construction changes at that point if the home needs to be rebuilt. Sometimes what we'll have to do, we could possibly endorse the policy to indicate that it's being renovated, or we may have to write a completely new policy for the renovation until you move back into the home.

You will want to contact your insurance agent if you do become married because that's when you're going to combine your households, your personal property, your auto policies and vehicles, and anything that's valuable and important to you.

There's a chance that the insurance can change. And it's simply because in Carolina, when you're married, your spouse automatically becomes a named insured. We wanna make sure that they're listed on the policy. It's not gonna affect the rate. We just wanna make sure that they're listed, whether it's, a homeowners policy. On the auto side, if you're living together, you're married now, we would need to have a conversation of combining the auto policies into one policy. So those would be the times to reach out.

So when purchasing valuable items such as jewelry, antiques, artwork, it's important to reach out to us because there are certain limits on the policies for said items.

So knowing what those limits are helps us better to make sure that those items are covered for you with an endorsement or a separate policy to cover, the replacement of those items because they're valuable and they should be at replacement cost level, not as a depreciation, level or actual cash value as we say in the industry.

An example of a good valuable item would be your engagement ring. So if you are newly engaged and you want to have that item covered, would want to contact your insurance company or your agent just to have it added to the policy. Always contact your insurance agent if you have any insurance questions or insurance needs for current and future needs.

So we make sure that we're protecting you because that's what the insurance is, is protection for you. And we're always going to be advocates for our clients.