4 FAQs About Condo Insurance

Condo insurance, designated an HO-6 policy, is similar to regular homeowner's policies in many respects but is specific to condominiums. Unlike regular homeowner's insurance, condo insurance covers your unit only from “the walls in,” with exterior areas such as outside walls, roofs, hallways and other common areas falling under the responsibility of the condo association's master insurance coverage.

Because association master policies are specific and varied as to what they cover, your personal condo insurance policy should be tailored to fill the gaps the association coverage may leave. It's best to get a copy of your association's policy and consult with your insurance agent to determine what coverage is most appropriate for your specific needs.

Here are some common FAQs regarding condominium insurance:

Q: What is condominium insurance?

A: Condo insurance protects you and your home from unexpected losses such as damage, stolen belongings or someone getting injured in your home.

Q: What does it cover?

A: Condo coverage includes your structure from “the walls in,” and your personal belongings, including appliances, electronics, clothing, furniture, etc. It may also cover living expenses if your unit is rendered uninhabitable while being repaired for damage. Your personal liability is also covered, including legal fees/medical costs if a guest is injured within your unit.

Q: Are there limits to my coverage?

A: Reimbursement for structural damages from covered perils, such as fire, will have a dollar limit as set in the policy. Unlike typical homeowner's insurance, which has financial loss limits of personal property set at a specific percentage of the structural damages amount, condo coverage on personal belongings is set at a flat rate, and often with quite low limits. It would be prudent to total up the value of all of your personal possessions within the home and add this amount of coverage to your policy, especially if you have very valuable items such as expensive artwork, furs, jewelry, coin collections, etc.

Q: Do I need master policy deductible coverage?

A: Condo homeowner's associations may choose a very high deductible on their master policies in order to save money on their insurance premiums. You should read your condo association documents to find out the amount of deductible for which you'd be responsible if they make a claim and then add on the appropriate amount of master insurance policy deductible coverage to reimburse the amount you're charged under the master policy's deductible.

6 Risks That Increase Life Insurance Rates

When shopping for life insurance, there are a number of factors your prospective insurer will consider when determining your acceptability as an insurance risk and, if eligible for insurance with their company, the premium they'll charge. These life insurance rates will be determined using general factors such as age, gender and your health profile, and will also take into consideration any types of high risk behaviors you may demonstrate.

Bear in mind -- not every life insurance company looks at risk the same way. An example of this may be the pursuit of scuba diving. Some insurers may consider scuba diving a high-risk hobby and, as a result, increase the life insurance rates of policyholders who regularly scuba dive. Other insurers may not consider this a high-risk past-time, but may penalize you with higher life insurance rates if you like to race at the local drag strip on weekends. If you're a professional race car driver, you may find that some insurance companies will actually decline from insuring you altogether, while others may sell you insurance with a higher premium, sometimes much higher, than someone they consider to be a “normal” risk.

Risk vs. Reward

To life insurance companies, it's all about risk versus reward. They have untold actuarial data that tells them what their chances are when insuring a certain individual. They're in business to make a profit, which means they must be right more times than they're wrong when issuing someone a life insurance policy.

They're weighing the risk of you living or dying against the amount of premium you and others pay to secure your coverage. Following are some of the risk factors many insurers consider above average and that will likely cause your insurance premiums to increase compared to a more normal-risk individual. Consult your life insurance agent for information on specific companies.

1. Current health problems, including high blood pressure, as well as past history of health issues may both result in higher premium rates.
2. Overweight or obese individuals, based on weight to height ratios, are generally considered higher risks and will typically pay more for insurance.
3. If you have what's considered a risky job (see table here), this will be reflected in your life insurance rates.
4. Family health history such as heart disease or cancer will likely make you a high insurance risk.
5. & 6. Smoking or heavy drinking will both play against you when buying insurance.

What to Do About Dents and Dings in Your Car

Dents or dings are something that just about everyone who owns a car must face from time to time. Unless you've just driven your new car off the showroom floor, chances are that if you take a close look right now you'll find some damage in the form of a dent or a ding. These can be something like a body ding or chip in your windshield caused by a flying rock or pebble on the highway, damage in a door panel, the result of an errant shopping cart in a store parking lot, a dent caused by an overthrown baseball in the neighborhood or any of dozens of other types of accidental, minor damage.

Conventional wisdom says that one of the first things to do after being involved in an accident, even something minor, is to contact your insurer. As Greensboro Auto Insurance professionals, however, we teach our clients to consider situations where filing a claim might not be the correct course of action. Picking up a small dent or ding may be just such a situation. Making a claim against your Greensboro Auto Insurance policy to collect an amount that's the same or less than your deductible amount would be a losing proposition for a couple of reasons. Not only would you not come out ahead financially, but if your insurance rates increase because your insurer raises your premium amount, you could end up being penalized for years to come!

To File or Not to File

There are a few instances where it might make sense to not file an insurance accident claim, although filing an incident or police report is probably prudent, even if you won't be notifying your insurance company. Here are some considerations for not filing a claim:

• A single-car accident where you're either not injured or you can take care of your own medical costs.
• You're able to pay for your own vehicle repairs, especially if the costs are close to the amount of your deductible. There are many shops out there that can fix a dent or a ding for just a few hundred dollars, compared to a deductible amount on your policy that may be $500 or $1000.
• Little or no damage has occurred to a third party's vehicle or property.

Before filing a claim for minor damage, always get a repair estimate so you'll know what costs you could be facing.