Potential Risks

What if lightning struck your home or rental unit and caused a fire engulfing your property and belongings in flames and smoke? You may not be able to live or function properly in your home until it’s repaired.

“Loss Of Use Coverage or Additional Living Expense (ALE)” provides coverage for the cost of temporary housing such as hotels or a rental home. Coverage is also provided for the increase in living expenses like eating at restaurants or laundry service. It helps cover the cost of living somewhere safe and comfortably while your home is being restored to how it was before the loss.

Everyone lives in a flood zone whether they realize it or not. On top of that, your homeowners or tenant policy does not cover water damage from rising water or water entering from the outside of the home. There is a big difference between flood and water backup of sewers and drains. Talk with us about adding a flood insurance policy tailored to the specifics of your property and contents.

What would happen if your car is broken into, and your gym bag, laptop, or golf clubs are stolen? What about your college student living in a dorm room on campus who has their laptop stolen? Typically, your off-premises theft coverage under your homeowner’s insurance policy will have you covered. If your college student is leasing an apartment, you may need renter’s insurance. Speak with us about the right coverage for your situation.

If the car in your attached or detached garage is damaged due to a house fire, your home/dwelling or other structures coverage won’t cover that damage, however your auto insurance will help! Having comprehensive coverage in addition to collision on your auto is very beneficial in this scenario. Having comprehensive coverage will protect you in the event of a fire, hail, vandalism or if any wildlife begins chewing away at your vehicle.

One of the most critical insurance coverages is liability. Let’s say you own a swimming pool in your backyard. There are many significant risk factors associated with owning and maintaining a swimming pool including safety issues that could impact your insurance. It’s important to list all the details and specifics around the type of pool you own and if there’s a secure perimeter fence enclosing it to help minimize the likelihood of someone unexpectedly entering your pool area, slipping, hitting the bottom, drowning, or being harmed by pool chemicals, etc. A pool injury can result in an extraordinarily expensive lawsuit. You can discuss this exposure with us to make sure your liability limits are sufficient on your homeowners and umbrella policies to help protect your livelihood.

If you flipped your house upside down, what would fall out? Likely a lot, appliances like your washer, dryer, living room sofa, clothing, the 80-inch 4k resolution television as well as other electronics. Those items would typically be covered under your personal property/contents of your homeowners policy. On the other hand, let’s say a $25,000 high-end gold watch, a $30,000 engagement ring, and/or a $4000 designer handbag fall out of your upside-down home. Those items easily exceed the sublimit on a homeowners policy for valuable items and would need to be individually scheduled on your policy. Scheduling valuable items provides the necessary coverage to make you whole again if those scheduled items are lost, stolen or damaged.

Garages, sheds, fences, and gazebos usually fall under the “other structures” section of your policy. But this coverage is often limited to just 10% of your home’s insured value — which might not be enough if you’ve upgraded or added new structures.

If you’ve put time or money into these, check your policy to make sure they’re fully covered. A quick review now can save a big headache later.

With so many people engaging online today, it’s important to recognize that even casual or unintended comments can lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations. In some cases, this can result in reputational harm, accusations of libel or slander, and potentially even legal consequences. While your homeowners coverage will cover personal property damage caused by your family members, it will typically not cover damages caused by libel and/or slander. You will need to seek additional personal injury and defamation coverage for those specific exposures.

We live in the new frontier of the digital age and with it comes a plethora of cyber criminals looking for the next creative way to breach your systems and steal any data available to them. Cybercrime is unfortunately one of the world’s leading industries costing trillions of dollars annually. Cyber insurance is a wise addition to any homeowners policy and covers a range of cybercrimes like cyberbullying, credit card fraud, data recovery and much more. Let’s review this coverage to help protect you and your family from potentially life-altering digital threats.