If something unexpected happened to you or your home, are you certain your current insurance policies would cover your losses? To better protect yourself, your family, your possessions, and your home in the case of a disaster, here are five types of insurance policies to consider.
Homeowner’s Insurance
Although homeowner’s insurance isn’t legally required, it can potentially help save a lot of money and trouble long term. Homeowner’s insurance provides financial protection after an unexpected event, such as robbery, fire, vandalism, and certain natural disasters.
Your policy goes beyond covering your physical property. It can also cover medical and legal costs if a visitor is injured on your property.
Renter’s Insurance
If you rent, you might assume you don’t need special insurance to protect your belongings. After all, if something happened to your apartment building, your landlord’s insurance would cover your things, right? Wrong. While your landlord’s insurance might cover their costs to repair or rebuild the structure, your personal possessions are on you. You can protect them with a renter’s insurance policy.
Flood Insurance
Depending on where you live in the U.S., your homeowner or renter’s insurance policy might not cover damage from natural disasters and storms. If you live near the coast or in a flood-prone area, your homeowner’s policy won’t be responsible for any flood damage to your home. Make sure to take out a separate flood insurance policy.
Valuables Insurance
Most of your possessions are likely to be covered by your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, but only up to your coverage limits. You might need extra property insurance to cover specific valuables exceeding those limits. For example, if you have expensive jewelry or a valuable art collection, you should consider taking out separate policies or getting insurance riders on your primary policy to cover those items.
Disability Insurance
Your home could be at risk if you suffer an unexpected accident. Depending on the severity of the injuries, you may be unable to work consistently to pay your mortgage or rent.
A disability insurance policy could protect you and your home in this situation. While it wouldn’t fully replace your income, these policies are designed to give you a temporary financial cushion by paying a portion of your income to help cover expenses.
It would be a mistake to assume one insurance policy protects your home from all potential disasters. When you understand what each type of insurance covers, you’ll be able to get the best policies to fit your needs.