Protecting Your Finances with Insurance

Jun 23

Hello and welcome to our website and blog! Our first blog post is about protecting your finances with insurance. As we mention in our financial coaching values, we do not sell any products…financial, insurance, or otherwise…nor do we receive any commissions or other incentives to promote any of these types of products. What we do offer is our unbiased knowledge and information to coach and educate you to help you make the best financial decisions for you and your family. One of these decisions centers on obtaining insurance coverage(s) to help protect your finances and your family’s financial future.

Our Founder and CEO, Rocky Coppola, spent almost 30 years of his career in the insurance industry…both property and casualty (auto, home, & liability) and life (life insurance, annuities, & disability income) insurance sectors. In that time, Rocky experienced and witnessed the impact various insurance coverages made on people’s financial security, peace of mind, and mental wellbeing. Not having the right type of insurance coverage or inadequate coverage can wreak havoc on a family’s finances.

So, what is insurance and why is it important? According to Merriam-Webster, insurance is “coverage by contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by a specified contingency or peril.” These are a lot of words to say that insurance is when you pay a company to take financial risk off of your plate and place it on the company’s plate while they provide you and your family protection and/or safety from an unforeseen financial event. But what kind of events are we talking about? These would be events such as untimely death of a family’s primary bread winner, disability impacting the primary earner’s ability to work, house/apartment fire destroying all personal belongings, gall bladder surgery, car accident with bodily injury and property damage, stroke requiring in-home care, etc. These are just a few examples of where an unexpected event could disrupt daily life and impact your finances. You may be saying “this won’t happen to me” but the odds are not in your favor. Here are a few facts to think about:

More than 1-in-4 20-year-olds will become disabled before reaching retirement age Facts | The Faces and Facts of Disability | SSA
62% of the two million personal bankruptcies filed each year are the result of medical debt Health Care Costs Number One Cause of Bankruptcy for American Families | ABI
A report by Esurance found that 77% of drivers have been in at least one accident. Your chances of getting into a car accident during a 1,000-mile trip are 1 in 366. The average driver will file an insurance claim for an auto collision once every 17.9 years. This means that if you obtain your driver’s license at age 16, you will likely have a crash by the time you are 34. This means the average person has 3-4 vehicle accidents over the course of their lifetime. What Are Your Chances of Getting Into a Car Accident? (news9.com)
Someone turning age 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services and supports in their remaining years. Women need care longer (3.7 years) than men (2.2 years). One-third of today's 65-year-olds may never need long-term care support, but 20 percent will need it for longer than 5 years. How Much Care Will You Need? | ACL Administration for Community Living

These are just a few examples of why the odds are not in your favor. Basically, life happens and the right insurance and coverage can be there to protect you and your family from an unforeseen financial event.

What types of insurance are available? Let’s start with the basics…these should cover most people’s needs.

Homeowner’s and/or renter’s
Automobile including motorcycle and watercraft
Health
Disability
Long-term care
Identity theft
Life
Excess/umbrella

You may or may not need all of these types of insurance. Sit down with your financial coach/advisor/planner and review your life situation to determine which types of insurance you need and at which coverage levels. Once you have determined your type(s) and coverage levels and obtained coverage, make sure to include your premiums in your budgeting process. If you need help with your budgeting process, contact us to schedule your complimentary 20-minute Discovery Session to see how we can help you.

Peak Financial Coaching: Our mission is to empower individuals, couples, and businesses to transform their lives-one habit at a time-to achieve their financial goals.

We have included a few websites below to help you with your insurance education. As mentioned previously, we do not sell any products…financial, insurance, or otherwise…nor do we receive any commissions or other incentives to promote any of these types of products. What we do offer is our unbiased knowledge and information to coach and educate you to help you make the best financial decisions for you and your family.

Consumer Homeowners (naic.org)

Homeowner Resources | Department of Insurance (ohio.gov)

Consumer Auto (naic.org)

Automobile Resources | Department of Insurance (ohio.gov)

Consumer Health (naic.org)

Health Resources | Department of Insurance (ohio.gov)

Protecting yourself | Insurance needs | Fidelity

How does Disability Insurance Work | Guardian (guardianlife.com)

How Does Disability Insurance Work? - Experian

Consumer Longterm Care (naic.org)

Long Term Care Resources | Department of Insurance (ohio.gov)

Consumer Cybersecurity (naic.org)