Time to Review Coverage

It’s 2013 and with the beginning of a New Year comes a great opportunity for us to review our insurance coverage.  Sure, it’s not the most fun thing to do, but simply put, it’s just ones of those things that you should do on an annual basis to ensure you have sufficient coverage for your home and belongings.

Here are a few questions to go over with your MAX agent:

  • Is the coverage on my home adequate? Have you added an addition or made any significant upgrades?  It’s important to remember that insurance is based on “replacement cost” not market value.  If your dwelling is underinsured, you may not be able to fully replace it should you have a total loss.
  • Is the coverage on my related private structures adequate? The Homeowners policy automatically includes a limit of 10% of Coverage “A” Dwelling for Related Private Structures. Any structure designed or used in whole or in part for farming or agricultural purposes is excluded and can be written under a Farmowners.
  • Is the coverage for theft on certain property like money, jewelry, silver, guns, etc. adequate? If not, additional coverage should be purchased.
  • Are you a collector or do you own antiques? If you have valuable items that cannot be replaced easily, an appraisal will help your MAX agent more accurately evaluate whether your contents are adequately insured. These types of items should be scheduled in order to avoid any question of value at the time of a loss.
  • Is there coverage under my Homeowners policy for my business? The Homeowners policy has very limited coverage for any type of business conducted on or away from the premises. If you own and operate a business from your home, you should contact your MAX agent as you may need a commercial insurance.

MAX Mindfulness: A New Year!

by David Wine, President & CEO

A new year! Millions of people begin this day with new year resolutions. And even more so this year. After all, we are no longer in the “dawning of the Age of Aquarius” as the old song said. This is the Age of Aquarius. We are now Aquarians! And we survived the solstice – the world continued – so back to our resolutions! An article in the news today said more people were doing resolutions this year than ever before. Not sure how they know but surveys never lie, do they?!!

One of my resolutions this year is to remember that whatever I teach, I learn. So, for example, if I want peace in my life, I need to teach peace. If I want more love in my life, I need to teach love. If I want more patience, I need to teach patience. You get the picture. A very simple resolution, and oh so hard to really do in all aspects of my life. I would invite you to ‘try it on’ with me this year. Think about it. You can use this phrase –whatever I teach, I learn – on any subject area. It applies equally to the more negative as well as all the positive attributes we want in our human nature. If I want to learn about envy, for example, teach envy. People who teach conflict, learn conflict. My resolution, though, is to teach and learn the good attributes.

By teach I mean practice it, share it, apply it to your life. So for example, let’s say I want to learn to be more hopeful. The only way to ‘get there’ is to teach it. I could begin by teaching myself to practice daily gratitude for the things I have, not for what I don’t have. I could teach myself by more positive self-talk– that I am a wonderful, creation of God/Divine with many gifts and talents. I could teach myself by speaking positively around and to others of the possibilities of life and creation. I could teach myself (and others) through sharing my gifts and love with them. I could teach myself that things have worked out in the past and there are wonderful possibilities for the future.

Why is this statement, whatever I teach, I learn, so key? Because we learn something by doing it and being it. My own personal mission statement is to be totally loving and totally loveable. The way to reaching that resolution is not by memorizing words or reading about it, although those things can be helpful tools. The way to learn it is to teach it (do acts of love, share love, affirm love, be love). Too often in my life I have waited for things like love, joy, peace, patience, etc. to come to me. This statement reminds me that the way these things come to me is through proactively doing them/practicing them/giving them first. As I teach (give), I learn (receive). The gift comes from the action. If I want to feel (learn) joy, I must first give (teach) joy.

Happy New Year!