As you make your way through your spring cleaning checklist, don’t forget to dig out your insurance policies and look them over. Below are some of the reviewable elements of your home, life and auto insurance policies.

Homeowners Insurance

1. Make sure you’re not overpaying for insufficient coverage
Experts say the top insurance mistake is being underinsured, which happens when you fail to update your coverage as your property, lifestyle or needs change.
Take the time to assess those changes and determine where you need to adjust your insurance coverage. For example, if you like to entertain at home, consider increasing your liability coverage and purchasing a separate umbrella policy.
Umbrella liability policies typically offer a minimum of $1 million of additional liability protection and cost just a few hundred dollars a year.

2. Pay attention to increased rates
Insurance companies don’t always tell you how much your rates increased on renewals. While doing your spring cleaning, grab last year’s documents and compare the rates for yourself. If your rates rose by five percent or more, call your insurance agent and ask them to explain the increase.
Knowing whether the increase resulted from changes in your risk profile or from general increases in the marketplace can help you negotiate and shop for comparisons.

3. Learn how to lower your premium
You may be eligible for discounts that can lower your homeowners insurance premium. Our golden rule is to ask! You may miss out out savings if you don’t ask what is available.

4. Make sure you have enough personal property insurance
Most people do not take the time to inventory their personal possessions, and often do not have enough personal property insurance as a result. Homeowners should be careful not to overlook their belongings as a way to keep insurance costs down.
It is very likely that you have added new belongings to your home over the last year. If so, now is the time to inventory those belongings and ensure you have the right type of coverage for the actual value of your property.
Most consumers automatically accept the amount of contents coverage named in their policy. Instead, read the policies carefully to make sure there are no gaps in coverage, and check the dollar limits and excluded causes for personal property.
It is in your best interest to raise the dollar limit if necessary, as it will help you better replace or recover the value of your possessions if disaster strikes.
Having an updated list and video footage of your belongings could help you recover the true worth of your belongings.

Life Insurance
If you have a life insurance policy, you should make sure to review its principal points at least once a year,  including beneficiary, benefit amount, term, loans and cash value.

1. Update your beneficiaries
Many of us forget to update our policies when circumstances change. Life events such as marriage, getting divorced or having children should prompt you to update your beneficiaries. The beneficiary designations on your life insurance policy will trump any other documents you’ve created outlining your beneficiaries, so ensure that they match!

2. Review the term of your policy
If you have term life insurance, it’s important to know when the term ends. An annual review will prevent a term policy expiration from sneaking up on you. If you are caught unaware, you may face a major premium hike.
Some term policies may be convertible to permanent insurance on their anniversary, which others may be convertible at the end of their term.

3. Assess the amount of your policy
Make sure the amount of your life insurance policy is still appropriate for its intentions and for your financial situation.
Take time to evaluate what you intend for the benefits to cover. Are you hoping to fund your burial expenses, or provide college tuition for your children? Does your policy provide sufficient coverage for these needs? If not, it may be time to look into additional coverage.
If your personal wealth has increased significantly in the last year, you may consider more life insurance in order to protect your family from estate taxes.

Auto insurance

1. Reassess your comprehensive/collision coverage
If you have collision and comprehensive coverage, take time to make sure the limits are adequate, or whether you still need it. If you don’t have the coverage, consider whether it’s time to add it.
If you’re driving an older car worth less than $1,000 – or less than 10 times the insurance premium – having comprehensive or collision coverage may no longer make sense. Dropping either the comprehensive or collision coverage may reduce your premium.

2. Ask about any new discounts.
Ask about any discounts that you may qualify for, such as:

• Multi-vehicle discount
• Good student discount
• Safe driver discount
• Loyalty discount
• Resident student discount

If you don’t drive very often, providing your insurance agent with your low mileage estimate could save you money. You may also receive discount if you belong to professional associations and organizations.

For questions about your insurance or to get a quote, contact us today!

Group life insurance shows employees you value what matters most to them - their loved ones, and it is an integral part of most employee benefits packages. When provided by an employer, employees appreciate the value of life coverage and the additional security it provides to their families.

Life insurance can help employees protect their loved ones.
Did you know more than 35% of all households would feel a negative financial impact within 1 month after the death of the primary wage earner? Having life insurance can help your employees have confidence that, should they pass away, their family will have a financial safety net to replace lost income, cover final expenses, everyday living expenses, and long-term obligations that may otherwise cause them financial strain. Life insurance can even be used to help fund a child’s education.

It’s a key benefit to help you attract and keep quality employees.
When candidates are searching for a new job, benefits are a main differentiator, and prospective employees tend to consider a position’s benefits before they apply. That includes life insurance. Whether you cover the premium or offer employee-paid, voluntary life insurance, group rates make coverage through an employer an affordable option for employees. Including life insurance in your benefit package can make you stand out against organizations competing for the same candidates—and help you hold on to the good employees you’ve already hired.

It can be a budget-friendly option for you to offer.
If you think offering life insurance to your employees is out of your price range, think again. There are plenty of affordable life insurance solutions available. You can pay all, part, or none of your employees’ benefits, depending on your needs and goals. And keep in mind, group life insurance premiums are based on an overall assessment of a company’s risk. Spreading that risk helps bring group rates down, offering an affordable coverage option for employees.

Offering life insurance can help you enhance your company culture.
For many employers, building a strong company culture is about creating an environment that brings your core values to life. Culture is often what drives employee satisfaction. It makes employees feel like they belong, like they’re valued. That’s why including life insurance as an employee benefit plays a solid role in shaping your culture. It shows you put your employees first, and that you’re an employer who wants to help employees have a more secure financial future. For this reason, offering life insurance can help you see improvements in employee turnover, not to mention a general boost in productivity and company loyalty.

The best life insurance policies can be catered to your business needs
Your business—and employees—are unique. Fortunately, you can customize your group life insurance to make it the right match for you. As you’re considering life insurance policies, think about these questions:

• Will the company cover the premium or will the employee … or a combination?
• What type of policy will you offer—term or permanent?
• What optional and additional benefits will be offered?
• Will the proceeds be paid in increments or as a multiple of salary?
• What will the minimum and maximum benefit be?

How will the coverage transition— or not—if the employee leaves?

Theodore & Associates offers free, comparative quotes on group life insurance from multiple insurance carriers so you can get the best possible rate, whatever your group size or benefit goals.

Contact us to find out how to protect your employees with the right life insurance.

​You can lower your risk of drowning by wearing a life jacket — but it can’t be just any life jacket. To truly be effective, a life jacket needs to be the right type and fit correctly.

You probably know you should wear a life jacket when you’re on the water, and you probably know it’s important for kids to wear one, too. (For kids, life jackets typically are required by state law; in states with no law, the U.S. Coast Guard requires anyone under the age of 13 on a moving boat to have one.)

But do you know just how important it is? According to the Coast Guard, drowning causes more than 70% of boating deaths — and more than 80% of victims are found without a life jacket.

Even wearing a life jacket won’t do much good if it doesn’t fit correctly, though. So how do you choose the right one? Here are some tips from experts with the Coast Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps.
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First, choose the right type for your activities. Gone are the days when all life jackets were just those bulky orange vests you might remember from your childhood. There are different types for all kinds of activities now — including recreational boating, paddle sports such as kayaking or canoeing, even hunting and fishing. Some life jackets have auto-inflation features, so they can be worn more comfortably but still provide protection if someone falls into the water.

• For recreational boating, vest-type jackets are best, according to the Marines, particularly in calm, inland waters where help isn’t far away.
• If you’re going to be in rough water, or further out from shore, an offshore life jacket is better, because it’s more buoyant. Some models are even designed to help prevent hypothermia.
• For activities on the water, such as waterskiing, kayaking, etc., specially designed life jackets provide additional range of motion.

Then, make sure everyone has a jacket that fits properly. According to the Coast Guard, if a life jacket is too big, it won’t keep your head above the water. And if it’s too small, it might not have the buoyancy required to keep your body afloat. Remember, a life jacket sized for an adult will not work for a child. Here’s how to get the best fit.

• Check the manufacturer’s label for size and weight guidelines.
• Fasten the jacket correctly, then hold your arms straight over your head.
• Ask a friend to pull up on the jacket, holding the tops of the arm openings.
• If there is excess room above the openings, or the jacket rides up over your chin, it’s too big.
• It’s a good idea to try the life jacket in shallow water before taking it out for activities.

Don’t forget about your pets. Even dogs that are strong swimmers can struggle in open water or get fatigued. So if you’ve got a dog coming with you on the water, the American Kennel Club recommends a life jacket for them, too! Available at pet stores and online, options include vests, which make it easier to swim, and jackets, which provide more buoyancy.

Remember, nobody expects to be in an accident on the water — and if you think you’ll have time to just throw a life jacket on when something bad happens, think again. In most cases of boating-related drowning, the Coast Guard says, life jackets were stowed on board but not worn by victims.

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the outdoors by getting out on the water. But no matter what activity you choose, make sure you choose safety — find the right life jacket and wear it!

Reposted with permission from the original author, Safeco Insurance®.