Insurance World

When buying insurance, most people ask for “full coverage” without knowing what they’re asking for. What’s the problem? There is no such thing as “full coverage”. While understanding your coverage is important for everyone, it is vitally important if you’re driving a Mercedes, BMW, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Viper, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, or Aston Martin.

If you’re driving an expensive, exotic or high-performance car, you will want to make sure that after an accident you receive OEM parts, OEM paint, the ability to repair your vehicle at the auto body shop of your choice, and the amount of money needed for the repair.

Repairing an expensive car with non-OEM parts and/or improper workmanship will result in substantial diminished value. With expensive cars, even a proper repair will result in diminished value. What is diminished value? It is the lowered market value of a vehicle subsequent to repair. For instance, a Porsche or Ferrari will be worth less after an accident, even after it has been properly repaired. For research on diminished value, see http://www.hurt911.org/accident/car-accident-car-value.html

You do not want to get into an argument with your insurance company as to whether or not your vehicle can be repaired or should be totaled. Often, insurance companies will want to repair your car, when you think it should be totaled. If the insurance company agrees to total your car, most insurance policies only provide “actual cash value” insurance coverage which would only give you with a payment based on the current replacement cost of your vehicle, less depreciation (the decrease in the value of your car due to use, deterioration and the passage of time).

In the event that an exotic or high-priced car is totaled, the best replacement coverage is “agreed value” or “stated value”. The only insurance companies I have found to offer agreed value insurance are Chubb and MetLife.

Chubb’s web site states: “You and Chubb can agree on a value and lock it in for a full year. That’s the exact amount you’ll receive if your car is stolen or totaled in a covered loss. Never mind the “book” value. We even waive the deductible. No haggling, no depreciation, no deductible, no problem.”

MetLife’s web site states: Equivalent New Automobile Replacement for Total Loss is offered for vehicles within the first year of purchase or the first 15,000 miles, whichever comes first.

What’s the difference between Chubb’s “Agreed Value Option” and MetLife’s “Equivalent New Automobile Replacement” coverage? For high-value cars, Chubb is definitely the better choice. Chubb offers its agreed value coverage every year and readjusts the agreed value upon policy renewal. From what I have seen, the adjusted agreed value even years and over 100,000 miles later is substantially higher than actual value. Additionally, on a different topic, Chubb also offers up to $1 million of underinsured coverage, which is also vitally important. Make sure you ask your Chubb agent for the maximum underinsured coverage.

For average value new cars, MetLife is a good choice. MetLife does not offer its Equivalent New Automobile Replacement coverage after the first year or first 15,000 miles. For drivers of most new cars, this is still a good value because it is not uncommon for someone to total their new car soon after purchasing it. Usually, just driving a car out of the showroom can result in as much as $10,000 depreciation.

No matter how many books we have read; no matter how many films we have watched; no matter how many nieces, nephews, and younger cousins we have; no matter how many teenage years we have spent babysitting for extra cash. Nothing can prepare us for the world of parenting the way actually having our own baby, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

When we become parents, we want the best for our children. We want them to have the best child care if both parents work full-time. We want them to have the best education, and many of us enroll them in pre-schools to get that education rolling early. We want them to eat the best foods, have the best exercise, and live in the best neighborhoods.

However, good parenting goes beyond just making sure our children have the best of everything in the here and now. Good parenting also means making sure our children have the best protection in the event of emergencies in the future. In other words, good parenting also means protecting our children with good health insurance.

Many parents can easily add their children to their own health insurance policies; yet, if a parent works a part-time job that doesn’t offer health insurance benefits, or is a self-employed individual, finding good health insurance for children might take a bit more work.

The good news is that many health insurance companies offer health insurance policies specifically for children. If you are a parent who doesn’t have your own health insurance policy for whatever reason, try calling your state’s insurance agency and asking about health insurance companies in your state that offer these kinds of health insurance policies for children. You can also try searching the Internet for national children’s organizations that offer health insurance benefits for children; there are many out there that do offer coverage for children of certain ages.