Your home is your largest asset, are you adequately covered by your homeowners insurance policy?

If you're reading this and you're not sure... let this be a great reminder to find your policy, call your agent and get a review. 

Fox Business News offers "The Ins and Outs of Homeowners Insurance" to help you understand your basic policy needs. 

"Go ahead and pull out your insurance policy binder," says FBN,  "it's about 40 pages thick, then flip to the third or fourth page that contains line items like: Building/Dwelling, Separate Structures, Personal Property, Loss of Use, Medical, and Extended Replacement.  This details how much coverage you have in case of a loss."

Building/Dwelling Coverage will cover the cost to rebuild your property.

Liability Coverage comes into play if someone gets hurt on your property; think: "slip and fall" or if your dog bites someone.

Usually this has a limit of $300,000, but you can get an "umbrella policy" to buy additional coverage, if necessary. Keep in mind that replacement costs can be much higher than market value.

The deductible amount is how much you pay out of pocket for each incident. The higher your deductible, the lower your annual insurance payment. Decide what makes financial sense for your situation.

HOA/Common Interest Development Properties: If you own a unit in a condominium, townhome, co-op, PUD or any other common interest development, whether a personal residence or an investment property, make sure you have an interior HO-6 policy that covers you for damage to the inside of your unit, PLUS for liability in case your unit floods all the units below you. This isn't covered by most homeowners association's master insurance policy."

Personal Property: If you have expensive artwork, jewelry or other items, you should add these to your insurance policy to make sure they are covered.

If you have a claim,  important to consider whether your claim requires insurance coverage.  Most claims are smaller than the deductible, so just handle them yourself, suggests the article.  "Reserve making claims for when everything hits the fan."

The most important thing to do? Is to make sure you aren't underinsured and it's a good idea to review your policy every year.

Read the full article at FoxBusienssNews.com

Photo Source: Examiner.com

Posted in Buyer Resources, Headlines

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