The list of insurance products is not limited to health, life, or property protection; in fact, there are many other risk management solutions available in other forms of insurance too.
Specified Disease Insurance
Taking a step beyond health insurance, specified disease insurance (such as cancer insurance or Alzheimer's insurance) helps people guard against the incredible financial burdens of specific long-term diseases or conditions. These types of policies often provide a cash benefit for just about every part of the treatment regimen, from hospital confinement to treatment and drugs. Benefits are often paid directly to the policy owner. When considering this type of policy, it is important to determine the waiting period required before benefits are paid, the maximum benefits and maximum length of time benefits are payable, as well as the exact definition of the disease covered.
Professional Liability Insurance
Professional liability insurance is a specialty coverage not covered under any property or homeowners endorsements. Professional liability coverage protects professionals, such as doctors, financial advisors, etc., against financial losses from lawsuits filed against them by their clients or patients. While practitioners from different professions are expected to have extensive technical knowledge and experience, mistakes might happen and they can be held responsible in a court of law for any harm they cause to another person or business. These types of policies are often called "errors and omissions" or "malpractice" policies.
Title Insurance
Title insurance offers protection against loss arising from problems connected to the title to your property. This is often incorporated with the home-buying process, when a formal title search is completed before a lender extends credit toward the purchase of a home. As with mortgage insurance, it protects the lender but the borrower must pay the premium, which is a single payment, up front. You may want title insurance because it will protect you against human errors or oversights relating to the clean transfer of property titles. Consumers can choose among a variety of options, but the top three policies include owner's, lender's and extended coverage title insurance.
Credit Insurance
Credit insurance is an optional protection purchase from lenders and is often associated with mortgages, loans or credit cards. It protects the lender and the borrower on the chance that he or she is unable to repay the debt due to death, disability or involuntary unemployment. Before you consider buying this type of insurance, do your homework. It might make more sense, and may be more cost effective, to purchase life, disability or other types of coverage that do not limit you to a specific debt.
Conclusion
Insurance is an integral part of any personal financial plan. The type of insurance and the amount of coverage you obtain all depends on your unique financial and family circumstances, and must be evaluated carefully. When considering purchasing coverage, you should review all the potential risks and the financial impact of these risks on your financial health. This will help you determine what options to look for and what questions to ask. What you need to keep in mind is that you do not want to be underinsured or overinsured, which means you have to do your homework before you buy. And as with any type of financial product, you must read the fine print and consult with a competent advisor.
Let's review what we've learned:
Insurance is a form is risk management in which the insured transfers the cost of potential loss to another entity in exchange for monetary compensation known as the premium.
Insurance works by pooling risks. Because the number of insured individuals is so large, insurance companies can use statistical analysis to project what their actual losses will be within the given class. This allows the insurance companies to operate profitably and at the same time pay for claims that may arise.
Underwriting is the process of evaluating the risk to be insured. This is done by the insurer when determining how likely it is that the loss will occur, how much the loss could be and then using this information to determine how much you should pay to insure against the risk.
The insurance contract is a legal document that spells out the coverage, features, conditions and limitations of an insurance policy.
Property and casualty insurance is insurance that protects against property losses to your business, home, or car and/or against legal liability that may result from injury or damage to the property of others. This type of insurance can protect a person or a business with an interest in the insured physical property against losses.
An auto insurance policy typically covers you and your spouse, relatives who live in your home and other licensed drivers to whom you give permission to drive your car.
Homeowners insurance typically covers the dwelling (the structure), personal property and contents, and some forms of personal liability. The policy may cover direct and consequential loss resulting from damage to the property itself, loss or damage to personal property, and liability for unintentional acts arising out of the non-business, non-automobile activities of the insured and members of that insured's household.
Umbrella insurance helps you protect your assets if you are sued.If you are worried that the liability insurance coverage you have through your auto or property policies is still not enough, you can consider adding an umbrella policy.
Health insurance is a type of insurance that pays for medical expenses in exchange for premiums. The way it works is that you pay your monthly or annual premium and the insurance policy contracts healthcare providers and hospitals to provide benefits to its members at a discounted rate.
An indemnity plan, sometimes called a fee-for-service plan, is a type of insurance that reimburses you according to a schedule for medical expenses, regardless of who provides the service.
The HMO is the most common type of insurance policy people own and the one most frequently provided by employers. HMOs provide a wide range of comprehensive healthcare services to a group of subscribers in return for a fixed periodic payment.
PPOs are a group of healthcare providers that contract with an insurance company, third-party administrators, or others (like employers) to provide medical care services at a reduced fee.
A point of service plan is a hybrid plan that combines aspects of an HMO, PPO and indemnity plan. This type of plan is more flexible in that it allows you to decide at the time you need services to elect to use the POS plan's physician to arrange in-network care (HMO feature), or to go outside the network or hospital and pay a higher portion of the cost.
Disability insurance can replace a portion of the salary you were making before you became disabled and unable to work after a serious injury or illness.
Disability insurance providers rate their premiums based on your job and the level of risk involved in doing that job.
The reason to buy long term care insurance is to protect your assets in case you need to pay for assisted living, home care or a nursing home stay.
Life insurance provides you with the opportunity to protect yourself and your family from personal risk exposures like repayment of debts after death, providing for a surviving spouse and children, fulfilling other economic goals (such as putting your kids through college), leaving a charitable legacy, paying for funeral expenses, etc.
Whole life insurance provides guaranteed insurance protection for the entire life of the insured, otherwise known as permanent coverage. These policies carry a "cash value" component that grows tax deferred at a contractually guaranteed amount (usually a low interest rate) until the contract is surrendered.
Universal life insurance, also known as flexible premium or adjustable life, is a variation of whole life insurance. Like whole life, it is also a permanent policy providing cash value benefits based on current interest rates.
Variable life insurance is designed to combine the traditional protection and savings features of whole life insurance with the growth potential of investment funds. This type of policy is comprised of two distinct components: the general account and the separate account. The general account is the reserve or liability account of the insurance provider, and is not allocated to the individual policy. The separate account is comprised of various investment funds within the insurance company's portfolio, such as an equity fund, a money market fund, a bond fund, or some combination of these.
