Why Knowing Everything About Your Insurance Before Disaster Strikes is Important
When a disaster strikes, it pays to have important things in place – like insurance.
It’s one thing to actually have home insurance. But to actually know what it covers and to have easy access to it after a natural disaster, is more important. in Wetumpka, the homes of many residents are damaged or either no longer livable after Saturday’s tornado. For some, insurance was already on the table. However, Montgomery State Farm Insurance Agent Willie Durham says he has dealt with clients under other circumstances that were not so fortunate.
“Insurance is there to take care of the devastation not the frustration. It’s frustrating going through all of the process when you’re having to relocate, your family is inconvenient,” says Durham.
The first step to making sure you’re prepared in the event of a natural disaster? To know who your insurance carrier is.
“It sounds odd, but to know who your insurance carrier is. A lot of people are not even aware who their insurance carrier is because it’s done through their homeowners insurance,” says Durham.
Knowing what’s inside your policy will also leave you better equipped.
“What’s your deductible? Is it a replacement cost policy or is it actual cash back policy? So those are things that you want to know up front,” says Durham.
Keeping those important documents in easy access, if you are left with nothing, could be as simple as scanning and storing them digitally or taking photos.
“Take pictures and have those images somewhere in your phone. Because a lot time there are power outages but if you can retrieve the information later so I recommend being proactive and having a copy of all that stuff somewhere stored in the cloud so you can access it later,” says Durham.
Durham says being proactive could save you more pain in the end.
“Insurance can only restore and replace but if you have the wrong contract you’re going to feel like you’ve been hit by 2 storms,” says Durham.
Durham says that people should also note that homeowners insurance does not include flood insurance. He says, unfortunately right now, because of the government shutdown, flood policies are not being issued by FEMA.
Some agencies have resources such as apps where customers can have easy access to their documents which also includes their policy numbers.
