We're running at home with Sarah and Taneel. Sarah, today is Veterans Day. I know. I'm so thankful for all of our men and women that have served.
Oh, me too. Are serving. Thank you all for your service. Hopefully, you're out getting some of those veteran freebies that go on.
I know a lot of free meals and free things that veterans deserve so much more than that. Absolutely. I'd like to give a shout-out, too. He's not a veteran yet, but my nephew is currently serving in our country and is going to be deployed next week.
Future veteran. So, yes. I'm thankful for him and all those that are currently serving as well. Yes.
So, some of our friends may have the day off today. Yes. We don't. That's okay, though.
We're here. So, you have extra time to listen to us because this is a really important topic. It really is. That we're going to chat about today because we know that a lot of things have gone wrong for a lot of people in the world.
Oh, my goodness. Yes. And, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about insurance and assuring that we have what we need. I think it's a great topic and something that even if you think you've got it all covered, you need to check in.
I think we have everything covered. So, we have to call in a friend for this because we're not insurance people. Right. Right.
So, we've had Megan Cooper here before. She's the AAA spokesperson here in Tennessee. Hello, Megan. Hello.
Good morning. It's always fun to talk to you. Oh, my. We love to have you here because we just don't know all the things about insurance.
You know, we have to start with flooding because we have seen so many people lose their homes and sustain damage right here in Tennessee, Sarah. I mean, in East Tennessee, a lot of our friends, you know, have been affected and also neighboring states, you know, Hurricanes, Helene, and Milton. So, many of those people did not have flood insurance specifically because some of those people who had a loss didn't live anywhere near the coast and couldn't imagine floodwaters even reaching them. And they don't live on a floodplain.
So, yeah, you're exactly right. So, we've heard a lot of people that we're interviewed, Megan, on TV talk to reporters and say, we don't have flood insurance. You know, we don't even know if we're going to be able to rebuild. So, we want to dig in a little deeper here about flood insurance and think about what we need to do.
So, can you tell us more about flood insurance and what that covers? Yeah. So, with flooding, you know, of course, nobody in Tennessee thought that they would see flooding from a hurricane. You know, we're landlocked.
That's just not on anybody's bigotard. No. And according to the National Flood Insurance Program, nearly 20% of all flood insurance claims are made by people living in areas considered low risk for flooding. So, even though we have floodplains in flood areas, we still see a lot of claims in areas that don't necessarily flood.
So, it moves more into a, uh-oh, this could affect me kind of mind frame. So, with flooding, water damage can get pretty tricky. So, if your pipes burst or your toilet or your sink overflow, that is likely covered by your homeowner's insurance. But when it comes to flooding, so that water that is rising outside of your home and that gets into your home, most homeowners insurance policies do not cover flooding.
And that's where your flooding policy comes in. It's a separate optional policy. So, most people aren't covered unless you have that separate policy. So, do we need to call up our homeowners people and say, hey, we need to add the flood insurance?
That's a good place to start, wherever you currently have your homeowner's insurance. Flood insurance is typically provided by the National Flood Insurance Program, but there are many private insurers that carry it as well. And when it comes to those decisions of how much coverage, you know, what do I need to do, just one inch of flooding can cause as much as $20,000 in damage to a hole. Ooh, and we saw people that had feet.
Feet talking to a flood. Even the little ones can be very, very expensive. Right. But your insurance agent can talk you through, you know, what you likely would need to fix, repair, you know, things like your flooring, drywall, personal possessions.
That can get very expensive to replace. So, talk that through with your insurance agent just to make sure that you have all of your bases covered. And there is a 30-day waiting period before a flood insurance policy takes effect. So, say you buy your flood insurance policy today, your house floods next week or the next couple of weeks, you still may not be covered.
So, do this early. Well, I'm just thinking about, you know, the forecast. You know, people can hear the forecast, you know, that there's a big, right, and they're trying to get insurance, but she's saying, you know, we're going to do it early. We're going to do it early.
So, you know, I just asked you, Megan, about calling up our insurance company and asking to add things. And so, bundling is something that we talk a lot about to save money. We hear about it. So, we've got our homeowner's insurance with a company, you know, going to that company for auto insurance or whatever.
Or do we really save money? Can we save money by bundling? Is that something that, you know, we might want to look into? If you're not bundling already, it's definitely something you can do to save money.
A lot of insurance companies have a multi-policy discount. In some states, the discount rates will vary by company, of course. But generally, you can save from about 5% to 15% per policy. It also makes it a little bit more convenient because if you have your home, your auto, your life insurance all in one spot, if you have to file a claim or if you have any questions, you only have to go to one person, right?
You don't have to figure out which company is which. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, we bundle. I was going to say, I'm happy to do you bundle.
We do, and I agree with what Megan just shared. It does save you a little money. I guess we need to look into that because we don't, confession. We don't bundle.
And so that's something that we need to look into because I know you're 5% to, what did you say, 5% to 15% or something like that? A lot of people may not be aware that their insurance company offers other policies as well. So definitely ask your agent. Okay.
Ask them what they got. There you go. So I want to talk a little bit about being prepared for any type of claim that we might have to file in the future, you know, even just regular homeowner kind of stuff. Yeah.
So, I mean, I'll admit that I'm not always on top of things when it comes to having, like, a list of items or pictures. And, y'all, I mean, this is something that I preach to people because we have actually lived it with my parents. They lost their home in a tornado. Oh, yeah, they did.
And didn't have, like, we had to, like, mentally go through each room. And it was exhausting. So I do preach to people, like, they take pictures and all that, write it down. Well, I fall into that same category.
So, Megan, okay, are we, do we need to go room to room, take a picture of every bed and dresser and sofa? And, you know, okay, what about our valuables? How do we prove that we really have all this stuff? I mean, I guess I don't know which pictures to take and, you know, and, and where do we need to keep these things?
Because if the house is gone or flooded or whatever happens, you know, I guess we need to save in the cloud. Megan, what are we doing? So whatever is easiest for you. Some people, it's very easy to take photos.
Some people like to walk through their house and narrate what is there. But whatever you're doing, be very thorough. I think most of us have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years, and we really don't realize how much we have. Most people think, you know, it wouldn't be, you know, too much to replace most of my things.
But when you sit down and think through everything in your closet, your clothes, your shoes, all of your kids' toys, all of your appliances, that gets pretty expensive. So we want to make sure that we're accounting for everything. So make sure that you're looking in those unexpected places, too. So your attic, any storage containers, your garage, think about your holiday decorations, seasonal decorations, with the bigger stuff, your appliances, your electronics.
Make sure you're taking down model numbers, serial numbers. If you have antiques or jewelry, you know, any appraisals or receipts, you really just want to document everything as much as you can. And then when you are storing this, make sure you have multiple copies. So an SD card, external hard drive, even a printed list would be fine.
But make sure you keep it in a safe place. So a fireproof safe, a bank deposit box, go ahead and give a copy to your insurance agent, too. That way you have something external to you, and they're your agent. They can, you know, pull it up and access it if you do need to file a claim.
Well, I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about that. That's a good idea. So I'm really thinking in my mind, this is something we need to keep as a running list because we get rid of stuff.
We buy new things. Yeah, that's true. You know, update it. And, you know, when Megan mentioned you get in the attic, we're all about to do that to drag all our holiday stuff down.
Yeah, when she said go in the attic, I'm thinking, oh, goodness. It might be a good idea to update that and add some stuff to our list. Well, you know, the holidays are coming, and I'm thinking about them a little bit because, you know, we are hearing about, you know, we go by the practice of you don't leave your boxes outside after Christmas so that people don't see what you got. You know, if you got a game system or something expensive.
But on the other side, before we ever get to that point, we hear about porch pirates, you know, the people that look for the boxes, you know, on your porch, and they steal them. It's a big issue. It's a big issue. And, Megan, some of these things that they steal are expensive items.
So I'm just curious if there's a package that's sitting outside of my house on my porch. Am I covered it in any way if the package hadn't you made in the house yet? You could be. So most home insurance policies have personal property coverage that would reimburse you for the cost of someone's property.
But the thing to keep in mind is if you do file a claim, you want to make sure that the value of that item exceeds your deductible. Because in most cases, you do have to pay that deductible before your insurance takes over. Oh, that's smart. So it may be easier to, you know, talk to Amazon or whoever delivered it, something like that, instead of going to your homeowner's insurance.
But if it's a larger item, it still doesn't hurt to ask your agent. I forgot about the deductible, honestly. So, yeah, it doesn't have to be something really expensive. It actually may be cheaper to insure your package or to require a signature if that's an option or something like that to make sure you get it safely.
I agree. That would probably be the route to go. So I've got another question, Megan. I wonder how many of the insurance, I'm going to use air quotes, Megan can't even say those things, that we've heard.
You know, we hear a lot about insurance. So just some stuff that we have heard in the past. Like, do I need to adjust my insurance if I get a swimming pool, if I put a pool in? I want to put a pool in?
I wish, but no. I'm just shaking. No, no. You'll be the first to know.
Okay, thank you. We do have a trampoline, though. So do things like swimming pool, trampoline, that kind of stuff, would that affect? Oh, you know what, Sarah?
We were warned one time at an insurance agency about a dog. If we had certain breeds of dogs, that was going to affect our premium. So that's a really good question. So stuff like that, Megan.
Yes, it definitely can have an impact, pools and trampolines especially. Pools in insurance terms are attractive nuisances. So if you have a pool in your backyard, you don't have a fence, it could be very attractive to neighborhood kids. You know, they could walk by and hop in your pool.
And that's not what we want. That increases your risk, increases your liability. So most insurance companies will want you to have a locking gate. But with a fence around it, same, kind of similar for trampolines, most require it to be netted and fully enclosed yard with a locking gate.
So some of the fun things might also look fun to other people in the neighborhood, too. So we just want to make sure that they're secure and not increasing that liability on homeowners. So that pool's going to cost more than just throwing a pool in. It could.
It could. Well, and a lot of places require you to have it. Like, a lot of cities require you to have those things, anyway. They do.
Now, here's another, just about my stuff we've heard. I've actually seen this somewhere. Okay, so older houses can have higher insurance premiums than newer houses. I've heard that.
And it kind of confused me because, in my thinking, it would cost more to pay off the newer homes. Because, you know, I think the older homes have a lower balance. And then the newer homes probably have fancier things in them or things to replace, and it's going to cost more. So, Megan, is that true, first of all?
And why would it cost more to insure an older house? Yeah, so older houses do tend to have higher premiums. If you think about it, the brand-new house down the road likely is fully up-to-date with building codes and current building standards. If your house was built 20 or 30 years ago, those standards were likely different.
As your home ages, things like the plumbing, the pipes, the electrical, all of those are aging, too. So it's much more likely that those older systems are going to be susceptible to damage. So my husband and I's first home was built in the late 70s, and I can confirm that nothing on the house seemed right. Everything was just a little bit off.
So even when we fixed things, it was not always a great fix. The older homes definitely have or can have more problems than newer homes. You know, the home of the new home is that it is fully updated, fully efficient compared to an older home. Well, that makes sense.
I get that part, yeah. And if you do have an older home, there are some updates that you can do to help mitigate that risk, but also could possibly help the state use of my own insurance, too. And it may increase the value of your house if you look at it, so you have to kind of do several things. If it's somewhere you want to be and stay, then maybe it's worth it to do that.
There you go. So, y'all, we've spent a lot of this conversation talking specifically about homeowners, but I want us to kind of shift and talk about our listeners and friends out there that are renters. Yeah, we've got a lot of listeners and renters. And this came up, too, on news interviews and stuff during the hurricanes and everything, that, you know, homes that were being rented and apartments were destroyed.
And, you know, what does that mean for those people? Like, are they going to get their money back? Do they have renter's insurance? Right, because, like, the owners might have the building insurance, people that own them.
But what is that going to do for the people that are renting from you? Right, if they don't have renter's insurance. Like, can you talk to us a little bit about renter's insurance, Megan, and what that would mean for people in this kind of a situation? Yeah, so with renter's insurance, if you're renting, your landlord or your property manager will have property insurance.
And so that covers the dwelling itself, you know, things on the property. But rental insurance is for your possessions. So everything that you have that is yours, you know, inside your apartment, your condo, whatever you're renting. Also, a lot of times included in that renter's insurance policy is additional living expenses, loss of use.
So if for whatever reason you can't stay in your apartment or your rental house, you can get some savings there, too. Well, that's good. So if you had to move for a fire or flood or whatever, you would have money. Sarah, you know my personal story.
And we ride out of our house for probably three months almost because of, you know, some damages. And so it's so important to have somewhere to go. You don't think about that, but you've got to have somewhere to go, like, ASAP. And then you may be displaced for a little while.
So all of these insurance coverages are so important. They really are. And with renter's insurance, I'll say, too, I've lived in, in my 20s, a few different apartments. Some of the older ones didn't require to have renter's insurance, but a lot of the newer, nicer places will require you to carry a renter's insurance policy to stay there.
Most of the time, that's right up front included in the contract, but you have to carry that insurance to live there. You're not rented in a while. And, you know, back in the day, you didn't have to have that. So that is interesting.
But I think that, you know, that can be good to have that coverage for sure. Megan, real quick, before we run out of time, let's talk about auto insurance because premiums are up over 18% since last year. That's according to America's Save, Sarah. So, Megan, do we reach a point where we don't have to pay for the comprehensive and the collision anymore?
You know, like once the value of the car reaches a certain low, so to speak, are we spending unnecessarily? Yeah. Oh, God. over covering the vehicle if we continue to carry those coverages?
I know we have to have liability by law, but what about comprehensive and collision? Can we drop them? Possibly. So both collision and comprehensive are optional coverages.
You do not have to by law carry them. Collision coverage is protection for your vehicle if it's damaged in a crash or a collision. Comprehensive insurance is more those non-collision events outside of your control. So if you have something stolen from your vehicle, if your vehicle gets caught in a hailstorm, if you have windshield damage, those are the types of things that will be covered by comprehensive.
So that type of comprehensive insurance makes the most sense for people with new or high-value vehicles because repairing them or replacing parts on them would be very expensive. However, if you have an older vehicle that may not be worth more than a few grand, it may or may not be worth it to carry that additional coverage. I think that's a great conversation to have with your agent just to make sure that you are covered. You don't want any surprise maintenance expenses.
You want to really understand what it would cost for you to fix that vehicle versus carrying that extra insurance. That makes sense. Yeah, but I mean, who actually follows up? I mean, when do we even talk to our insurance agent and say, hey, do we need more of this, less of this?
We don't have those conversations. You might, but we are not having the right conversations here. Yeah, I'm going to add that to your to-do list. If you are leasing or you have a loan on a vehicle, a lot of times those lenders will require you to cover collision and coverage.
Right, yeah, yeah. Well, before we close out, Megan, do you have any kind of last-minute tips that could help us and our listeners get the very best insurance rates available? We'll always bring them. Yes, absolutely.
So always Comparison Shop, a great place to ask for your friends and family. So ask who they use, ask if they've ever had to file a claim, ask them how that process went, if it went well or not so well. Make sure that you are really digging deep in determining what you need and how that fits into your budget. So is it more important for you to have everything covered in your home and your vehicle, or do you just want a little bit of coverage and saving more in your budget?
Also, make sure that you're taking count of all the discounts available to you. There are, you know, multi-policy discounts. If you don't drive a ton, there are low-mileage discounts. That's about everything.
A lot of things that we can take advantage of. And your insurance agent can take a look at, you know, your life, where you are in your life stage, and then can match you up to those good discounts. Well, we need to save a little money, Megan. So those tips are going to come in handy.
Megan Cooper, thank you so much for always being willing to come and chat with us and our listeners. We're going to have you back, of course, the next time we have to discuss. So thanks again, and thanks to all of you for joining us today on this Veterans Day. In the words of Bob Marley, live the life you love.
And love the life you live. Take care, everybody.