subject: Stop Identity Theft Before It Gets Started [print this page] Your insurance coverage is one of the major Identity Theft risks American's face. From your life insurance to your medical insurance, identity thieves have many opportunities to ruin your good name and finances.
Shown below are identity theft risks and how to protect your financial world.
Read every word in your Certificate of Insurance that comes with all Insurance Policies, it can also be called the Face Page. This is a very important part of your insurance policy because you want to double check and make sure the particulars that relate to you are right.
Keep good records of your agent's name and the company you bought coverage from. What is the company's financial rating, how long have they been in business, etc? Call your State's Department of Insurance and inquiry about any and all companies you have coverage with and keep their number with your Insurance Policy records.
To quote a phrase, Don't be Penny-wise and Pound Foolish or to put it in more modern terms, You Get What You Pay For. This is truer of insurance than for almost any type of product. The reason for this is simple: Insurance Companies employ very smart people called actuaries who run complicated calculations every day on the odds of an insurance company paying a claim.
Know the exact process for filing a claim on your insurance policy whether it is Life Insurance or Car Insurance, etc. Keep the forms for filing a claim with your policy and all contact information you have on the company and the agent. Talk to your agent if possible or at least call the company and ask them to explain the process of filing a claim.
Be a wary insurance consumer; don't take the agent's word for anything. Most good agents love showing you in documentation the extent of their coverage and are very proud of it. Also there is a very big problem right now with Money Laundering and insurance policies and their related financial cousins, annuities.
Never be afraid to enforce your rights. No one wants problems, especially with a Big Insurance Company but sadly it happens every day. If you are ever in a dispute with an insurance company don't just accept their interpretation of the facts, get an attorney and a darn good one. They can often work wonders in your behalf, often times an insurance company attorney would rather tell the insurance company to pay a borderline claim versus the expense of going to court.
Always be as honest as you can when dealing with insurance companies, they are like anybody else; they don't like being lied to. Insurance companies will often give you the benefit of the doubt if you are honest on an application. Be as honest as you can with the questions on an insurance application because claims could be denied. Even worst, in the case of fishy claims, they could file charges of insurance fraud on your part.
Be careful of lapses; do not fall into the trap of resenting the Insurance Premiums you are paying for coverage. It never fails, the day your insurance coverage lapses out for non-payment is the day you have a claim. The Insurance Industry which has been around for hundreds of years, in one form or another, is based on Risk Management and Risk Assessment, if everyone totaled out their car every year the Insurance Companies would go bankrupt and there would not be an insurance industry.
Good records; have a good system to monitor all of your insurance premiums.
Enlist the help of trusted friends or relatives to know about your insurance matters. Have a two-minute meeting with them and give them a copy of the same records you have like your Certificates of Insurance, Wills, Trust Agreements, etc., and all contact information. Sad to say but often times when we need the insurance coverage we have paid for we are not in a position to file the claims.
