When Should You Review Your Insurance?

Purchasing insurance is necessary and often required. If you own a home, your mortgage
company will require you to insure your home. If you own a car, your car lender and the state DMV
will require that you get an auto policy. Rent your home or apartment, your landlord will often
require renters’ insurance. The list goes on and on.

Now that you purchased your insurance, what do you do? Insurance is a product that many will
purchase and forget about. The insurance premium will just come out of your checking account
automatically or the premium will be paid by your escrow account attached to your mortgage. It
is easy to just forget about the policy once it is issued, that is until your need to use your
coverage.

Well, the one thing you don’t want to do is just let your insurance policies just sit there for years.
Too often, a person will purchase insurance and never update it. Five years down the road
when it is time to turn in a claim, they find out the hard way they don’t have adequate coverage.

That $10K renters’ policy you purchased at 23 is no longer enough now that you have a wife
and a new child.

Did you know that the average cost of a new car is now over $40,000? If you selected the
minimum limits for your state on your auto insurance, you will likely not have enough insurance
coverage if you accidentally damage one of those vehicles.

That is why it is extremely important to review your insurance coverages periodically. This will
help ensure you have the proper insurance coverage for your family. The added benefit of
reviewing your insurance products is to make sure you are not paying too much for your
insurance coverage. Though insurance is necessary, you do not need to overpay for it.
For a military family it is especially important that you review your insurance coverages
periodically to make sure there are no gaps in your coverage. Let’s be honest, who experiences
more change in their lives than a military family? With a PCS always being right around the
corner or the potential for deployment, it is safe to say military families experience more change
than any other family out there.

That is why I reached out to my friends at Armed Forces Insurance (AFI). AFI has been
providing insurance education and insurance solutions to military families for over 135 years.
AFI has been assisting military families to maximize their insurance while helping them to save
as much money as they can on their insurance policies.

According to AFI, they recommend reviewing your insurance each year at renewal. That is a
good chance to review your updated policy documents to see if any changes have occurred to
the policy or to the coverages.

Aside from reviewing your policies each year, there are certain life events that should trigger
you to not only review your insurance policies, but to possibly re-shop those policies to ensure
you are getting the best rate. What are those life events? I am glad you asked. Below is a list of
life events that AFI provided to me which are situations you absolutely should review and
possibly even shop for new insurance policies.

Life Events:

1. Deployment
2. Move/PCS Move
   • Different street
   • Different town
   • Different state
3. Change in Family Size
   • Marriage
   • Divorce
   • Having a baby
   • Adopting a child
   • Death
4. Childhood Changes
   • 16-year-old driver
   • Child goes to college
   • Child moves out of your home
   • Child gets married
5. Retirement
   • No longer commute
   • Downsizing your home
   • Owning to Renting a home
6. Professional Changes
   • Change in Jobs
   • Selling or starting a business
7. Changes to Your Home
   • Remodel
   • Selling a home
   • New roof
   • New electrical system
   • Add a pool or hot tub
8. Purchase/Receive High Value Items
   • Jewelry
   • Art
   • Antiques
   • Coin Collection

If anyone one of these events occur, you should check with your insurance company about
coverage and make sure you are getting the proper rates and discounts. Keep in mind, just
because your review your policies, and even potentially shop them around, it does not mean
that a change needs to be made. You may find out you have all the coverage you need. You
may even find out you have too much coverage. However it shakes out, staying on top of your
insurance policies is extremely important to ensure your family is best protected.

Those are just a few tips from Armed Forces Insurance regarding when to review your
insurance policies. For a more tools and resources on home insurance and other insurance
products, head over to Armed Forces Insurance – Resources and Tools page to learn more.

As a military family, you need insurance that matches your needs and protects what you value
most. You deserve an insurance company that is committed to serving you. MilHousing Network
is proud to partner with Armed Forces Insurance to bring military families reliable homeowner’s
insurance options when buying a home. Contact them today at 800-313-1936 or visit
www.afi.org/milhousing to learn how they can support your unique military lifestyle.

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