Month: October 2020

Add-ons to Home Insurance

Posted on by AgentInsure

Few people do as we counsel and consult with an insurance agent to create a custom homeowners’ insurance policy. That is why we at Linda Dugan Insurance wanted to offer this blog to explain the add-ons to a standard home insurance policy your Astoria, OR home might need. While a standard homeowners’ policy covers the major named perils and provides for an average person’s liability level that may not fit your life and your needs.

This blog explains the three most common options a homeowner has to increase coverage of a standard homeowners’ policy. You could add the following:

  • other structures coverage,
  • increasing liability coverage,
  • adding liability coverage for a home-based business.

Other Structures Coverage

Your property consists of more than just your house. You also have a driveway, walkway, and perhaps a porch, patio, fence, retaining wall, shed, workshop, pool house, swimming pool, etc. Your home policy can cover these, too. Some standard policies include a tiny bit of other structures coverage – about 10 percent of the house’s total value. This may not cover your other structures completely though. If your home valuation put its value at $150,000 you would have about $15,000 of cover for other structures. If a derecho or tornado struck your property, tearing down your workshop, fence, and swimming pool, you would not have enough coverage to re-build all three and replace the equipment inside the workshop.

Increasing Personal Property Coverage

You might need to increase the level of personal property coverage for your home. You would need added coverage if you have an expensive hobby like photography or vast audio-visual equipment for a home theater. Storing family heirlooms or expensive jewelry on the property provides another reason to add to your property coverage. Doing so ensures that your insurance covers your loss in full if a named peril like a tornado occurs.

Adding to Your Liability Coverage

If you run a home-based business or regularly hold meetings at your home for your business, increase this coverage. Your standard home liability covers personal visits, but not conducting business from your home. Your insurance agent can tailor the coverage to include business coverage.

You can protect your Astoria, OR home and Linda Dugan Insurance can help. Contact us today for more information on customizing your home insurance.

Why add comprehensive and collision to the state minimum required insurance?

Posted on by AgentInsure

When you purchase your state minimum auto insurance from Linda Dugan Insurance, you protect yourself from liability if you cause an accident on the road. But we want Astoria, OR residents to understand why they need the elective coverages, too, like comprehensive and collision.

When you add comprehensive and collision coverage to your policy, you protect your vehicle and your investment. The state requires you to carry insurance that protects the other people on the road, but comprehensive and collision insurance protects you. It pays you to repair or replace your vehicle when it incurs damage.

Let’s say your vehicle gets struck by lightning. Your comprehensive coverage pays for that as an act of God. Many of the named perils in insurance policies are called “acts of God.” It simply means occurrences for which the insured could not have planned. Since you cannot sue the lightning as you could if someone had struck your vehicle, the insurance pays for the repairs needed. Other perils typically included in this type of coverage include hail, wind, hurricane, wildfire, and earthquake.

Collision covers repair or replacement of your vehicle if you hit a mailbox, fence, etc. Although it was your error in driving, the insurance still pays.
Adding these two types of policy coverage typically constitutes full coverage. You might also want to add a few other coverages though. Underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage, personal injury protection  (PIP), and rental car coverage all prove very useful if you have an accident.

Underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage helps you pay for repairs or replacement of your vehicle if the person at fault for the accident did not have insurance or had too little coverage.

PIP coverage helps pay your medical bills if the person at fault for the accident did not have insurance or if you caused an accident in which you or your vehicle’s passengers incurred injuries. If you hit a tree, your collision covers the damage to the car, but not your medical bills. PIP covers medical bills.

Rental car coverage pays for your rental car while your vehicle undergoes repairs or you wait for the insurance money to purchase a new vehicle. The coverage usually includes a time limit, such as a week, but you can increase that by adding coverage. This does increase the premium.

Contact Linda Dugan Insurance serving Astoria, OR for more information on the importance of full coverage auto insurance. Let us help you create the auto insurance policy that serves all of your needs.