What Coverage does my family need?

We try to be open and honest about what coverage you really need versus what’s just another sales pitch from someone with commission breath. Insurance is tricky. It’s important to have to mitigate the catastrophic effects of unexpected events in life. It’s never going to be us until it is. So having coverage is important. But we also don’t need to pour our life fortune into insurance and walk around wearing protective gear in fear of what anything and everything. 

There’s a balance to be found in covering how you’ll use it so you have the peace of mind of knowing your needs are taken care of. This is the balance we try to find with you. Below is our list of the basics everyone needs.

Health Insurance

Health insurance coverage is what we call the anchor of any family’s coverage. We all want to live healthy lives. The American medical system can be extremely expensive out of pocket. Even beyond routine medical services like primary care visits, sometimes extremely expensive life events can happen. It’s sad but true that 1 in 3 adults in America have some medical debt. It’s the most common form of debt in America. Nearly two thirds of bankruptcies in America are related to medical debt.

I wish we could fix our system so this isn’t a problem. The next best thing is to help people navigate it. Simply put, everyone needs health insurance. Our goal is to find the right balance with you between how you use your health insurance and your budget so you have the coverage you need. We don’t want a lack of health insurance to distract you from pursuing your goals and enjoying your life.

Dental and Vision Insurance

Dental is the next coverage we look at once your health insurance is in place. Thankfully, we’ve found amazing dental coverage both on the marketplace and through private providers like Allstate. It’s often inexpensive to get coverage that can make it easy to get the care you need. Vision is usually paired with dental and sometimes they’re required to be purchased together (you can get dental without vision but no vision without dental in some cases).

Accident Insurance

We’re big fans of accident insurance. How it works is you pay a small monthly premium that covers specific life events, such as a broken bone, ankle sprain, injuries from a car accident. If any of those events happen, you pay a small deductible amount on the accident insurance, which then pays up to the maximum benefit amount of the policy. We typically align your accident insurance maximum benefit to your health insurance deductible. That way if one of the qualifying life events happen then you just pay the small deductible and meet your entire health insurance deductible for the year.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say Joe has a health insurance deductible of $5,000. He gets accident insurance with a maximum benefit of $5,000. Unfortunately, he slips on some ice and breaks his arm. All the medical bills associated with breaking his arm come out to $7,000. He pays his accident insurance deductible of $250, and then his accident insurance pays the maximum benefit amount of $5,000. This covers his entire health insurance deductible, so he’s good for the year and the health insurance covers the rest of the $2,000 he owes (assuming his health insurance works this way for simplicity sake).

It’s a great addition to a policy, especially when we’re often saving our clients so much money. It can also cover other life events such as sickness, hospitalization, cancer, heart attack, stroke, etc.

Life Insurance

Everyone seems to have a different perspective on life insurance these days. Many people go without. Some people treat it like renting and get a little bit to cover their mortgage. Others treat it like a full out investment strategy, using concepts like infinite banking.

Our stance is that everyone should at least have enough life insurance to cover all your obligations and take care of your dependents. Obligations to cover include any debt you have such as a mortgage. If you’re a business owner, there’s advanced life insurance strategies that we won’t get into here. How much your dependents need depends largely on your own calculations. At a minimum, you want them to land on their feet and have a small nest egg. Some people want to replace as much of their lifetime income as possible if they weren’t around anymore.

However you approach it, it’s worth figuring out what works for your needs and budget. We’re happy to support those who need a simple term life policy, and we work with infinite banking experts for those who want to involve life insurance in their financial strategies.