When I was a kid, my mom used to always remind me to bundle up before I went out to play in the snow.  She wanted me to stay warm and dry – and maximum use of hats, gloves, scarves, snow pants and winter parkas was truly in my best interest.

In the insurance world, bundling up your coverage truly is in your best interest.  When you package as many policies as you can with the same insurance carrier, you lower costs and eliminate coverage gaps.  You may also benefit from having a single deductible on your home and auto if a loss damages both items at the same time.  I recently helped a client package home and auto policies that were with different carriers and she saved over $1000 per year.  It took a simple coverage review to uncover ways to help her combine and save money.

Did you know that if you have your autos insured with different carriers for different liability limits, you could have a significant gap? For example, let’s say you have a teenage driver and decide that your current carrier charges too much for liability insurance.  You decide to move them to their own insurance policy and purchase a policy with state minimum liability limits. You keep your own policy with a different carrier and maintain liability limits of $500,000.  Your teenager then has an accident and t-bones another car, causing significant injuries to the other party.  The other party has medical bills of $250,000.  Your teenager has liability limits of $25,000 per person to cover this accident.  After their policy pays out the maximum limit of $25,000, your own auto policy will have to pay the remaining bill of $225,000.  You may have saved a few dollars in premium, but you are now responsible for the medical bills of $225,000.

As a general rule, always remember that you get what you pay for!  Take some time to review your risks with your agent.  It is a good idea to do this at least once a year.  Your life changes, and so do your insurance needs!  Bundle as much as you can with one agent to maximize your coverage and minimize your costs as much as possible.