Ten Insurance Products You Should Know About

1. Renter's Insurance is relatively inexpensive and can protect your personal property or "contents," against theft, fire, damage from the elements and just about everything else that a homeowner's insurance policy would cover for personal property. A renter's policy can also include liability coverage (protection for lawsuits) and most insurers offer discounts that can save you quite a bit on your auto insurance if you have renter's insurance with their company.
Additionally, keeping your receipts, videotaping or photographing your belongings is especially helpful if you must file a claim regarding your personal property.

2. Personal Umbrella is a relatively inexpensive policy that can cover you over and above the liability portion of your homeowner's or auto insurance. Usually, an average homeowner's policy will include $100,000 for liability (often less for auto). This extra coverage can be quite useful if you incur a big lawsuit and the damages that you are ordered to pay exceed the limits of your homeowner's or auto insurance policy (whichever line of insurance that applies). Being relatively inexpensive, you may be able to purchase an umbrella policy that will give you an extra $1,000,000 in liability coverage for as little as $200 a year.

3. Long Term Care is an important coverage that can pay for home health care, adult day care and care in an assisted living facility or nursing home for a specified amount of time or lifetime (depending on the type of plan purchased). Not to be confused with health insurance, Long Term Care describes any type of extended maintenance or personal care services you may need when you are not able to take care of yourself due to illness, injury or a cognitive disability such as Alzheimer's disease. More importantly, like life insurance, this coverage needs to be purchased before you actually need to use it. It's a good idea to buy this insurance while you're still "eligible" health wise.
Tip: Many people don't realize until it's too late, that Medicare does not cover most Long Term Care. Medicare only covers care by a licensed professional that is needed every day of the week for patients who are getting better. The same also holds true for most private health insurance plans.

Medicaid, on the other hand, will pay for Long Term Care, but only after all of your resources have been depleted. Therefore, you should consider Long Term Care Insurance to help you in your "Golden Years" and help lessen the burden on your children and/or loved ones.

4. Personal Property Replacement Cost is a coverage that can usually be added to your renter's or homeowner's policy for a relatively nominal amount. With this coverage, your personal property would be valued at current market value (as in brand new) instead of a depreciated value (as in used), if it had to be replaced. This coverage is usually optional and is certainly worth purchasing considering how relatively inexpensive it can be.
Note: Some companies will offer the full replacement if you have this coverage and actually replace the covered items. However, should you decide to not replace the items with the money that the insurance company is offering for settlement, then then most insurance companies will normally pay you based on an actual cash value (depreciated basis or used) and not full replacement.

5. Leased/Loan Gap Insurance, as the name implies, will pay the difference between what you owe on your leased or financed vehicle and what your vehicle is actually worth at the time of a loss (claim). Many consumers become "upside down" with their auto financing, meaning that they owe more on their vehicle than it is worth at the time of a total loss.

Leased Gap insurance can pay for the difference in these two amounts. This coverage was previously offered by car dealerships and is now being offered by some auto insurers.
Additionally, Loan Gap Insurance can accomplish the same for those who have financed their vehicles.

6. Uninsured Motorist Property Damage (UMPD) This (quietly inexpensive), coverage should be offered when someone purchases automobile liability insurance. This coverage can pay to fix your car if someone hits your vehicle in a collision, and that person does not have any auto liability insurance. Most often, you will be required to get the at-fault driver's personal information (name, address, DL# etc.) Therefore, U.M.P.D. will not normally apply in a hit and run incident. There is usually a limit ($15,000 for example), as to how much will be paid under this option. However, this limit is normally sufficient to cover damages for many older vehicles that were covered with liability only.

7. Communication Device Coverage, in this day and age of cell phones and a host of other technological gadgets, this coverage can pay for communication equipment stolen or damaged in your vehicle, which did not actually come with the vehicle, but was included later as an upgrade, purchased separately or included by the vehicle's manufacturer on more expensive vehicles.

8. Home Day Care Endorsement, considered a "must-have" coverage for home child care providers and can usually be added to a homeowner's or renter's policy for those who operate a child day care service from home. This coverage can provide extra liability to protect the homeowner/day care operator in case of a lawsuit pertaining to a child or children who were in the homeowner's or daycare operator's care at the time of a covered incident. Secret: Check with your insurance company to see if they have a limit on the amount of children that can be covered under this endorsement at any one time. An average maximum amount of children usually covered under this rider is six.

9. Critical Illness Rider, this optional rider can pay a lump sum payment should you be diagnosed with a critical iillness such as a heart attack, life threatening cancer, stroke, renal failure, or need to have a major organ transplant for example.
Note: Some companies may offer this coverage as a stand alone product. Lastly, each insurance company's guidelines and/or exclusions may be different, so be sure to consult your insurance professional for details.

10. Buy-Sell Agreement is beneficial for partners in business; this "life insurance" coverage pays for the "buy out," upon the death of one of the partners in a partnership, with the proceeds going to the deceased partner's spouse or whoever is designated to be the beneficiary of the policy. This is done so that the remaining partner can "buy the other partner out" to retain a total ownership of the business.
Tip: If this coverage is to be considered, an attorney should be consulted to help determine the specific details of the agreement.

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