Love and Marriage....and Insurance? Part 4

Welcome to our fourth episode of "First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage....But are you Insured?"  We join our happy couple, Joe and Lisa today as they discuss how they feel cramped in their little apartment.  They feel it's time to start house hunting.  They've gone on a few house visits with a real estate agent and they finally found a nice house in their price range.  Sure they admit, it will need some work but it has the opportunity be expanded on as they look to expand the family in the future.   Within a few weeks, they become proud homeowners!

Throughout the process Joe and Lisa kept in close contact with their insurance agent.  They knew they needed to change their renters insurance to homeowners insurance.   They learned a lot during this process and not only asked their agents a lot of questions, but also received guidance from their agent as well.  They learned that there is a difference between the value of the home - from market value, to tax assessment, to replacement cost.  There are more coverages to consider and choose to have on the home policy than they may have had on the renters policy.   With their renters, they were concerned with insuring their contents.  But now they realize they also need to insure the building as well and after the agent reviewed they need for liability coverage and what kind of claims could arise, they also made sure they chose a higher limit on the liability coverage. 

Their agent had spoke about an umbrella policy in the past and they always dismissed it, thinking it wasn't necessary.  The agent again stressed the need for this type of coverage - an excess liability policy that covers over your underlying liability of your car, home, recreational vehicles, other residences, etc.  Now that Joe and Lisa own a home, they have more assets they could lose if they were sued.   The agent finally explained it to our happy couple like this:  Our couple is involved in an auto accident in which they were at fault.  They caused damage to the other persons vehicle and the other driver was seriously injured, and will be unable to work for quite some time.  Not only is there a responsibility for repairing the vehicle and the medical bills but the loss of income of this person is quite substantial and will go well beyond the limit of liability that they currently carry.  He asked Joe and Lisa if they had they excess money saved to cover the difference?   At this point, they realized the importance of an umbrella policy.

Joe and Lisa are happy and content with their new home.  What may happen next with our happy couple?  Tune in tomorrow to find out!