Personal Finance For Dummies, 9th Edition

Chapter 15

Insurance: Getting What You Need at the Best Price

IN THIS CHAPTER

Buying the right insurance at the best price

Overcoming roadblocks to getting the coverage you need

Securing your claim money when you’ve suffered a loss

Unless you work in the industry, you may find insurance to be a dreadfully boring topic. Most people associate insurance with disease, death, and disaster and would rather do just about anything other than review their policies or spend money on insurance. But because you won’t want to deal with money hassles when you’re coping with catastrophes — illness, disability, death, fires, floods, earthquakes, and so on — you should secure insurance well before you need it.

Insurance is probably the most misunderstood and least monitored area of personal finance. Studies show that about 90 percent of Americans purchase and carry the wrong types and amounts of insurance coverage. My own experience as a financial counselor confirms this statistic. Most people are overwhelmed by all the jargon in sales and policy statements. Thus, they pay more than necessary for their policies and get coverage they don’t really need while failing to obtain coverage that they really ...