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When you decide to insure your house, you’ll be asked to set a limit for coverage on contents of your house. And the higher is the limit the heftier your premiums will get. Some providers will let you cover your house’s contents without a specific limit and this will cost you even more in premiums, while you will only be reimbursed with the actual value of the damaged contents in case of an insurance situation, and not a cent more.

The main problem here is while the typical amounts of coverage may seem like large sums of money, people often tend to underestimate the value of their house’s contents and get lower coverage, risking being insured inadequately. For a typical house to be covered adequately the coverage limit should start somewhere around $100,000. However, the best way to get an exact amount is to make an inventory of all the items in your house and have the insurance agent to evaluate it according to their current value.

Underinsurance

You should keep in mind that some insurance companies use the principle of averaging when paying out claims. This means that the amount you will be reimbursed with will be based on the overall coverage amount you have for your entire house, and not the actual value of its contents. This means that if you have a lower amount of coverage than the overall value of your house contents then you’ll be paid out only a partial sum instead of reimbursing the actual value of items damaged. This can even apply if you claim for a single item being damaged, which is below your policy limit. (more…)

When writing an article, it always pays to get the bad news out of the way first. So, when you look at the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey covering the years 2001 to 2004, you find about two-thirds of all adults in the US are overweight and coming up to one-third are obese. Looking at the earlier survey results, you can see a theoretical rise to the entire population being obese in 2050. In fact, some groups are already heading rapidly in that direction. For example four-fifth of African-American women are overweight with Mexican-American men rapidly catching up. Of course, there will also be a few hold-outs who decide they prefer to be thin. We will probably never get to the one-hundred percent level. Nothing to be proud about.

Why should we care? Well, those statisticians who work in medical research have clear proof that everyone who is overweight has a higher risk of dying younger than average. There are alarming numbers who have a stroke, heart attack or cancer. Once you establish a link between lifestyle and life expectancy, the insurance companies get interested. After all, if they are insuring people’s lives, they estimate when death is likely to occur when calculating the premium rates. Those who are expected to live not less than the average number of years will pay a lower premium than those who are at risk of dying young. Did we mention that adding tobacco into the mix increases the risk of early death by up to five-hundred percent.

The insurance companies have therefore drawn up a list of preferred groups of people. If you are amazingly healthy with no bad habits, you will pay the lowest premiums. You are headed for decades of active life and the insurer can just sit back and allow your premiums to accumulate. But if you have bad habits, you may fall within the standard class or you will be told you are likely to die young. Well, perhaps not in so many words. But you will be given the hint when the insurers refuse you cover or ask for stunningly high premiums. For a start, your rate will double if you still smoke. (more…)