General Insurance: Expert Guides and Resources

Health insurance, car insurance, and life insurance are a part of everyday life. Making a list of all your insurance policies helps you keep track of them, and also serves an important purpose for your loved ones if the day comes when your life insurance policy is activated. You may also want to review your umbrella policy and fix any gaps in your coverage.

When you’re in a car accident, it’s easy to forget what information you need — you’re shaken up and rattled. But for your insurance company and that of any other people involved, carry a copy of the following list in your glove compartment so that you get all the information you need to protect yourself and expedite your insurance claim.

You buy insurance to protect your income, your family, and your assets from financial ruin. But just any old insurance won’t do. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to obtain and maintain the correct type and amount of coverage from a financially secure insurance company. Insurance is worth nothing if the company isn’t around to pay claims when you’re in need.

Insurance protects you against the risk of the unknown. You probably wouldn’t even consider not having homeowner's or auto insurance, but you might not know what kind of insurance you need. Insurance is there to help you if you can't afford to pay out of your pocket to set right something that has gone wrong, like a car accident, a tree in your yard falling on a neighbor's house, the medical costs of a serious illness, or the death of a spouse.

People are exposed to many different types of risks in their financial lives. Practical and effective ways to deal with these risks typically means insurance. Finance and investing textbooks define two primary types of risk: Systematic risk is the type of risk that is impossible to avoid completely. Examples of systematic risk include inflation, recessions, and war.

It may not be a particularly welcome thought, but you generally purchase insurance for when things go wrong, and death is the last thing that will go wrong for you in this life. But the list you make now — and update annually — of your insurance policies can save your loved ones a lot of headaches at a difficult time.

You purchase umbrella insurance so that you’re covered under every contingency. An umbrella policy should also provide coverage for the gap between the value of the insured item and the amount you owe on it. The following table lists basic umbrella coverage every umbrella policy should include: Gap Description What Coverage You Need Comments Territory of coverage Worldwide Make sure lawsuits outside the U.