What does a Caveman, Lizard (Gecko), and Progressive’s Flo have in common?

Why cutesy marketing is costing you money and leaving you exposed.

by Garrett Gunderson

If you’re like most people, you are overpaying for insurance (and it isn’t because you chose cavemen or lizards or maybe those are geckos).  What’s even worse is that in spite of paying too much, you may not even be properly covered if something major happened.

How would you like to pay less money for more insurance coverage?

The purpose of insurance is to cover the ‘big stuff’ that would be catastrophic or you don’t want to dip into your assets or income for when it happens.

You can likely cover the small claims, fender benders, petty theft, wind damage to the house, etc. out of your own pocket – especially if it saved your money each month on your premiums, right? However, could you cover a $500,000 claim? Most people can’t…

So it makes sense to consider raising your deductibles to save money, and then using those saved dollars to get the highest limits possible on your coverage.  This way you’ll have coverage where you need it (the big claims) without the extra expense of a low deductible taking your money every month.

Let me explain more…

Small ‘fender bender’ type of things happen the most often, so a low deductible costs a lot. However, the six figure claims are rarer, so higher limits are quite affordable. Often raising your deductible a few hundred dollars offsets the cost of getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional coverage.

So consider raising your deductibles to match your comfort levels to save money. Next increase your limits so they will protect you from the claims that could take everything you’ve worked to hard to save. With a little luck it’s likely that you can be paying less for a LOT more coverage.

Even though I have to admit, some of the insurance commercials are entertaining, it isn’t a laughing matter to overpay or be over exposed.  In the areas of car, home, and liability coverage there are several components:

• Personal Injury Protection
• Medical Payments to Others
• Deductibles
• Property Damage
• Uninsured Liability Limits
• Under-insured Liability Limits
• Bodily Injury Liability Limits
• Underlying Limits
• Replacement Coverage
• Actual Cash Value Coverage
• and more with just these three types of policies.

Most of the time I find duplicate coverages, unnecessary exposure, lack of coordination or understanding for that matter. If you want to dive in further make sure to check out your own situation for free at www.freedomfasttrack.com/cfw.

Where are you exposed, overpaying or worse? Take the first step in finding out.

Read several more financial blogs by Garrett Gunderson.