For example,  your home insurance carrier purchases an insurance contract that protects them if the losses from a catastrophe exceed $20 million.  In this case the insurance company that insures your house would pay the first $20 million in claims  and another insurer would reimburse the carrier for any amount above that amount.

The companies that provide reinsurance charge a premium to the primary carriers for the cost of the protection. Recently, the State of Connecticut Insurance Department has allowed  insurance companies to pass along their cost of reinsurance to consumers.

Why is this important to you? Well, if the carrier that insures  your home or business does not have reinsurance they may not have enough capital to pay all the claims as a result of a serious catastrophe. The question is not if a serious storm should occur it is when a serious storm occurs will your carrier have the capacity to pay the claims.

Two questions should be asked of your agent?

1. Does the carrier the agent is placing the business with have reinsurance to cover claims if there is a catastrophe?
2. Will that carrier be passing on the additional cost of the reinsurance premium to the policyholder?

Many people make the mistake of setting up their first insurance policies in their twenties. As they grow older and more independent, they fail to look back and update the coverages to meet new risks that they’ve assumed. This is a big responsibility, but one that can be managed in a few minutes witha a well-placed phone call to your insurance agent. I can promise the call will be worth the time to make it.

If you’ve been through any of the following life changes, you should take a serious look at your insurance liability coverages:

• Job change or career change with more or less income
• Marriage or divorce
• New children, family members and new members in the household
• Addition of young drivers
• Property sale or purchase
• Starting a new business
• New or used vehicle purchase
• New boat, jet ski, camper trailer, motorcyle, atv or scooter
• New pool, trampoline or dog
• Addition to the house, yard or landscape
• Big parties or events being planned

All of these types of changes and events happen everyday, and each one poses different types of risks. Liability coverage is part of your auto insurance and homeowners, and liability insurance protects you against harming other people’s property or causing accidental bodily injury to them. Claims are not frequent, but costs are very low to protect yourself against these risks. This is where a few minutes of preparation pays big dividends.

First, you should do whatever is possible to prevent accidents with safety measures. However, should an accident occur, you need to be sure in advance that you have enough protection to prevent an injured party from seriously damaging your financial well-being. You want to sleep well at night.

Take a moment to gather your thoughts about recent changes to your lifestyle and household. Consider what your plans are for the next year that involve any significant lifestyle changes. Gather your ideas about risks that might occur, then  call or e-mail your insurance agent to be sure your properly covered. You can contact any one of the Haas brothers to discuss your insurance needs by clicking here for our contact information.

We’re happy to help and make policy adjustments to keep your auto and homeowners insurance liability coverages properly balanced when life changes.

I urge you to become aware of the major purpose of the insurance you purchase, and reconsider how you might have been pursuing that purpose.

You buy insurance to create an impenetrable barrier between a big loss – fire, car accident, lawsuit, death or disability- and an attack on all of your assets and income.

With this perspective, there are two major tasks. The first is reviewing your method of purchasing insurance based on price and total protection. Consider a more holistic approach by looking at the whole plan, not just the price.

The second task reflects upon the old adage “what I have is good enough.”  Most folks haven’t reviewed their insurance in many years. Take some time to review and upgrade you coverage to match changes in assets or income that have occurred over the last several years. When was the last time you reviewed your insurance coverage?

Feel free to call me anytime to discuss how we might help.

Many people have auto, home, life, health and disability coverage. Unfortunately, some people unintentionally take the important matter of coverage coordination into their own hands without understanding where potential gaps in coverage may be hiding.

You may be unaware how important coverage coordination is, especially if you have been relying on insurance services from a call center. Many times their staff does not have a total view of your protection plan, and they fail to coordinate coverage across all of your policies properly. Many call center-based insurance companies provide support that is focused on sales of one product, and they are not trained to recognize the importance of protection integration.

Do your policies work in concert with one another? For example, if you don’t have health insurance, have you considered adding coverage on your auto policy to pay for injuries in the event of a car accident? The same question applies to disability coverage. Most auto policies can be modified to include some level of disability income protection as a result of a car accident, too.

The Haas Agency’s Peace of Mind Conversation™ has the capacity to look at all your insurance in one place to make sure it is integrated. Through this conversation different scenarios can be modeled to make sure there are no gaps in coverage that might cause significant problems later.

At The Haas Agency we recognize that coverage should be coordinated across multiple policies and that the result is a solid protection plan that puts every premium dollar to maximum use.