620 - Underinsured and Overinsured: How I Found Out My Policies Were a Mess!

Lucky! That’s all I have to say about all the gaps in insurance I found out about recently. You see, when your insurance guy retires it forces you to look at your policies. I had an eye opening little string of insurance mishaps that will have me thoroughly going through our binders and policies this winter. These are my cautionary tales so you don’t find yourself over or underinsured.

The Retirement Party

So our State Farm agent tells us he’s retiring and invites us to his party to celebrate. When I asked him what was going to happen to my 11 policies, he suggested I meet all the other agents that were there. I was bamboozled into attending so I could find a new agent. Oh no, no! I asked people that I trust who they use and found my own new State Farm agent. I had all my policies transferred over to him and asked to review the policies and make sure we were all set. 

Paper Validates What You Say

You know how I always say that physical paper validates what you say when you are in the doctor’s office? Well now I can share how it works with the Financial Binder, too! I actually have a business binder. So when said new agent came, he discovered I didn’t have business insurance. But I could have sworn I already had it. Once he asked me the questions to set up a new policy, I KNEW I already had it! Once I finally remembered to check the business binder at home, I found it. I showed it to the new agent. And putting two and two together, we discovered the first policy was in the business name and I had only transferred my personal policies. Now to find that missing bond. The paper validated what I said. I was able to void the second policy and that saved me $2700!

Poor Abby

I don’t know how, but in all of this reviewing of policies it was revealed that I had not added Abby as a driver to our policy. So in the event there had been an accident, the car would have been covered, but not her medical expenses. FIVE YEARS! For five years, Abby has been driving around completely uninsured! I added Joey, but total household manager fail, I did not add Abby. As the COO of this house, I missed crossing this “t.”

2024: The Year of Overcommitting

You know we have remodeled and upgraded things around the house so much this year. Which also means we opened a few lines of credit and that led to the question, how much is our mortgage? Greg had one number and I had one $200 less! How could that be? The bank statements showed we were both right, but that made me have a lot of questions. The State Farm agent was able to explain that, ever since we purchased Joey’s condo (which was underinsured), we’ve been paying escrow but we have never escrowed!  So we had to get that all straightened out, too. 

Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes

I discovered incorrect beneficiaries. We added Greg to all the Organize 365® accounts because I was the only signer on those accounts. I mean, I had my eyes opened to so much; you’ve got to listen to the full episode to hear all the things. As much as you may feel you are set for today, are you “set” for the future? It just goes to show no one has it all together. With that being said, at the end of the day it’s up to you as the household manager to dot all the “i’s” and cross the “t’s” because no one cares what you intended to do. It’s up to you to make sure the paperwork is correct. Do you know that song “Collide” by Howie Day? All I can think of is the line in that song that says “Even the best fall down sometimes.” Did you sing it? LOL Yes, even Lisa with Organize 365® can fall sometimes. But I am back up and ready to take on whatever “blessings” life gives me.

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