Insurance World

Basically, home contents insurance is insurance protection against the replacement cost that you would otherwise have to pay to replace the contents of your home in the event of then being lost, damaged or stolen. As is the case with home buildings insurance, the main factors contributing to grounds under which you can make a claim against your home contents insurance include theft/burglary, damage due to floods, burst water pipes or boilers, etc.

There are, however, two very important factors that you need to keep in mind when insuring the contents of your home:

First, in the case of home contents insurance, it is rarely the case that your mortgage provider is going to insist that you have this type of insurance as part of your mortgage agreement;

Second, regardless of whether you own or rent the property you are currently living in, you should still be looking to insure the contents of your home – as these are your personal possessions.

Two further aspects of home contents insurance also need to be considered carefully when you are checking out the different kinds of policies on offer. In some, but not all, cases you can be insured for your home contents even when the items listed in your home contents insurance policy are not actually physically located on the home ‘property’. So, for example,

First, it is possible to claim when you are transporting items from one place to another and they are stolen.

Second, home contents insurance is insurance against the replacement cost of the item being insured.
It does not, nor is it intended to, insure you against the nostalgic value of the item damaged/lost. So, for example, if you insure a picture your deceased grandmother gave you, which would cost Ј20 to replace, it makes little difference that it was your deceased grandmother who gave it to you and that it cannot, therefore, be replaced.

Although home contents insurance is, in all but a few very rare circumstances, a completely voluntary scheme of insurance to subscribe to, if you are in any doubt as to the value of this insurance scheme, take a quick mental inventory of the contents on your home and their value and then get a few quotes off the internet and you’ll soon be seeing the value of having your home contents properly insured.

Disability can occur at any time. While many people take their body and health for granted, serious accident or injury can happen to anyone and if you find yourself disable, for a short period or long term, how will you cope?

Disability insurance is a sub set of health insurance that will provide the holder with income should they become disabled and thus unable to continue earning a living. If this were to happen to you, do you know what you or your family would do for income?

If you are aged 40, there is a higher chance that you will be disabled, and thus unable to work for a period of 90 days or more, than of you dying before the age of 65. There are three common ways of insuring against this risk.

Employer’s Insurance

The first is to receive insurance from your employer. This is required by law in many states. It comes as a form of short or long term paid sick leave. Larger employers can have even more generous terms. For example, a common policy might offer you 60% of your salary for five years, or maybe even all the way up to retirement. While not everyone is lucky enough to work for such a company, it is worth checking with your employer to find out what your protection is and whether or not its something you wish to provide for yourself.

Long Term Disability

The second common protection against this type of risk is social security and disability benefits. This usually only covers employees whose disability lasts for a period of 12 months or more. It also must be shown to be so severe that you cannot find gainful employment. Therefore there are some gaps here that you may be more comfortable providing for with private insurance.

Individual Policies

The third method of dealing with this risk is with an individual disability insurance policy. This means taking out a private insurance policy yourself. You should shop around to make sure you get the best deal available, but at least you will have the peace of mind of knowing in what circumstances you are covered and what the terms of the policy cover.

There are some other sources of protection. Workman’s compensation policies will sometimes step in to cover you if the injury occurred at work. Auto insurance may provide coverage if the injury occurred in a car accident and the Department of Veteran’s affairs can advise you if you think the disability is related to service in the armed forces.