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?

Paul, Peter and Tim Haas

Here’s why: the auto policy states the following “we will pay those damages which an insured person is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an uninsured auto or underinsured auto because of bodily injury sustained by an insured person.” What that means is that if you are injured by someone who does not have any insurance or an inadequate amount of insurance, compared to your policy, you can recover damages from your own policy.

Coverage options available include; doubling the uninsured motorist coverage to twice the bodily injury coverage, electing Uninsured/Underinsured Conversion coverage or a combination of both. It is important to discuss these options with a professional to select a coverage that is right for your family.

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.

These lifestyle changes are important to account for in protection planning, so that dollars spent are focused on areas that count the most for your family.

Take some time to review your insurance plan with your agent. The effort will give you peace of mind about your protection and ensure you’re getting the best value for your money.