Insurance you never knew you needed

By

RyanChiles

culled from:http://www.marketwatch.com
Insurance is the pooled, pay-it-forward promise of protection against risk. That insurance policies exist in areas of life beyond those commonly considered to the big three of personal and property insurance — car, home and life — should come as little surprise. Enter the world of offerings like pet insurance.

To be sure, each person has to decide just how much insurance is necessary to be sufficiently protected in their life. In the U.s., car insurance is not optional — if you drive a car, you’re required to have minimum standards of insurance on a state-by-state basis. Strictly speaking, while removed from this conversation, neither is health insurance.

Home insurance — policies that protect your home or property against damage; and life insurance — policies that hedge on the lives of policyholders themselves — round out the list of primary insurance.

From there, you move into a bevy of secondary insurance categories. We’ll explore some of these lesser-known policies — ones you may or may not have known even existed.
Secondary insurance options

Umbrella

Umbrella insurance is the insurance of insurance itself — if there’s an insufficiency or gap in one of your primary policies, for example. It also can be used to insure against instances of false arrest, slander or libel. One way to gauge how much umbrella insurance to purchase is to add up all of your assets and then identify the total liability coverage on your primary insurance policies. The difference between the two is a place to start with umbrella coverage.

ATV

This one falls under a wider category that insures toys like snowmobiles and ATVs: powersport coverage. Yes, even that off-roading, modern-day stallion can stand to be insured, and there are specific insurance policies created to meet that need. In addition to basic bodily injury and collision coverage, you can choose add-ons. These might include roadside assistance or towing perks, depending on the insurer.

Identity theft

Likely to be bundled with an underlying primary policy like homeowners or rental insurance, identity theft insurance — regardless of insurer — is all about insuring against fraudsters who might steal your personal information. Expect to see this kind of policy marketed with some variation of “peace of mind” attached.

Landlord

The tenant-landlord relationship is a reality of the modern housing market in most major cities. In New York City, for example, more than two-thirds of housing units can be classified as renter occupied, according to data from the most current Five-Year American Community Survey data, released in December 2014. Nationally, renters occupy just under a third of the housing stock, according to the same survey.

Whether you have a tenuous relationship with your landlord or the channels of communication are as unpolluted as a breezy spring day through an open window, the fact remains that landlords need insurance, too. Because not all tenants are as considerate as you are. And in high turnover environments, there’s always something that can break.

Renters

Of course, the flip side here is that there’s a need for renters insurance, too. Fear not, friends. That’s yet another need insurers are happy to meet. These types of policies generally break down into two parts: replacement cost or actual cash value. The latter reimburses you for the current value of an item at the time it was damaged; the former, for the full retail value at the time of purchase. Renters policies predicated on replacement cost are generally more expensive. Still, there are often opportunities to bundle policies within one company to land healthy discounts.

Pet

Owning a pet can be a cost-intensive responsibility. With the popular golden retriever, for example, annual ownership costs can exceed $1,280 after accounting for one-time costs like leashes, spaying/neutering, and the cost of buying or adopting in the first place. Over its expected lifetime of 13 years, a golden retriever, adopted or bought, will run your more than $10,000. It’s no surprise then that pet insurance exists.

Depending on which insurer you use, policies often will be underwritten by third parties (ex: Farmers uses a company called Pets Best). Plans are typically either accident-only or comprehensive in nature, with the latter being more expensive.

No matter the type of insurance, the idea is always the same — to help offset potential future costs in the event of damage. And like better rates you can find by shopping around for the best discounts, the existence of certain insurance types just might surprise you.