In the last Blog I wrote about the fact that It’s Time for My Personal Insurance Review and Updates. One of the most important steps to take when reviewing your personal insurance coverage it to determine your overall personal assets. I have always found Tax time to be one of the great times of the year to gather the information together and start determining our families Net Worth. It seems to older we get–the more we collect and the more we need to protect.
I tend to separate my assets into several categories:
- Real Property that is paid off and has no lien holder or debt attached to it. This would include the paid off cars, the heirlooms that have been passed down to our family, collections, and other day-to-day personal property. Like the new refrigerator we paid a lot of money for the fact it grinds up the ice and shots water out the door. I would not want to have to buy a $100.00 used one out of the classified ads if we lost everything to a big fire. I would want the same one we paid big bucks to own!
- Real Property that is financed, such as our new home. We don’t believe in carrying too much debt so this is the only financed things we have. Our Bank requires that we carry insurance for the balance of the loan we have. The important thing for me to do is decide if the amount of the debt is really the same amount we need to have for insurance.
- Income our personal income is an asset to our family and one we need to protect and insure. This number is important for more then one reason, first of all we need enough liability coverage to protect ourselves in the event we are sued, and second we may want to consider disability or lost income insurance in the event one of us is unable to work for a period of time.
- Investments we need to look at the assets we have as investments. These could be subject to a liability claim, and we may want to make changes in the way we choose to invest. Most important is that we want to be sure that our nest egg is not subject to loss should there be some problem and we get sued.
- Investments in Real Property, we have two small rental homes, we want to be sure they are properly covered with Dwelling insurance, but we also want to be sure we have Landlord Liability protection. We would also like to encourage our renters to consider obtaining Renters Insurance for their personal property and liability exposures.
- Property Needing an Appraisal, my grandmothers diamond watch she got when she graduated from college hasn’t been appraised in over 10-years. Andrews Classic Sports Cars (Fondly referred to in our home as my husband’s first wives). We have had both his 1964 Corvette and 1980 Ferrari on “Suspended Coverage” since Sean turned 16 and started driving (We just couldn’t afford to insure a 16 year old on a Corvette) Now that the Ferrari is over 25 years it will qualify for Classic Car insurance, but we still need an appraisal in order to insure these cars for their Agreed Value and not what the insurance company would consider the value of an ordinary 27 year old vehicle.
My next step is to get the appraisals done and find all the important paperwork about the personal property we want to be sure is Insured correctly.
Blogs in This Series:
Related Blogs:
- Personal Liability Umbrella Insurance
- Insurance Appraisals
- Is Your Personal Property Insured For Replacement Value?
- Actual Cash Value, Stated Amount, or Agreed Amount
Glossary of Insurance Terms:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J-K | L | M | N | O | P | Q-R | S | T | U-V | W-Z
Families.com Blogs are for informational purposes only. Families.com assumes no responsibility for consumer choices. Consumers are reminded that it is their responsibility to research their choices properly and speak to a certified insurance professional prior to making any decision as important as an insurance purchase.