What’s the biggest exposure for homeowners?

Protecting your home in Kentucky means being prepared for Spring wind and hails storms.  Start by finding a good insurance agent.
Good insurance means no worries

If you’re like most, replacing your home and personal property are the primary reasons for purchasing a homeowners insurance policy.  While that is important, insuring your property may not be the most important coverage offered by your homeowners’ insurance policy.

Insurance claims in Kentucky and many other areas increase during the spring.  Severe weather is the primary culprit of Spring insurance claims.  What would happen if a tree fell on your house during a windstorm and damaged your home?  After you meet your policy deductible, your homeowner’s insurance policy would cover the cost of repairs.

What if the wind had been blowing in the other direction and instead of crashing through your rough, your neighbor’s home is the one damaged.  In most cases, your neighbor’s insurance would cover the damages to his house.

However, there are cases where you are liable.  If the tree was dead, dying, diseased or unstable you could be on the hook.  If you are cutting the tree down, you are liable.

What’s your liability exposure?   What should your liability limit be?  It depends!  But one thing is for sure.  You need to have input.  If you’re being left out of this process, your likely be left out of many other decisions.

child injured on trampoline

No one will deny the importance of communication.  How will things go if you decide not to communicate with your boss?  Even better, your spouse?  Not even an occasional Uh-huh.

Your homeowner’s policy protects you from many   But there are always people that you would rather not talk toMost of us could quickly compile a list of the top ten people that we didn’t want to talk to.  If we compiled a list of the people that we least wanted to communicate withYour boss communicates with you, so does your spouse.  While at times most of us would The job of the insurance agent would be fairly simple if you were only getting property coverage.  How much is your house worth, how much personal property coverage would you like, and what causes of loss do we need to protect against.

Liability exposures are much more difficult to define.  How much will it cost to repair/replace your neighbor’s home in the example provided above?  Do you have adequate personal liability protection?

While the claim to repair the neighbor’s home could be very significant, relative to other potential liability exposures, this would be small.  Kids open the door to much larger exposures when their invited and even uninvited friends have access to your pool, trampoline, treehouse, fireworks, go-carts, and more.  How much coverage would you need if an injury or death occurred on your property due to your negligence?

Take some time to review your homeowner’s policy.  The limits on your home will most likely exceed the value of your home and personal property.  Can you say the same about your liability limits?  Finally, speak to a qualified insurance broker that can provide you guidance.  The last thing you need is for someone that can sell you insurance, what you truly need is an individual that can work with you in developing a compressive risk management plan.