What Are the Different Types of Insurance?
Have you ever wondered what types of things are available to insure? There’s plenty! You might think you only need what’s legally required, and a financial expert might think you need it all. It can be difficult to confidently make decisions about your insurance coverage, but thinking about your personal situation can make it easier. Children, age, lifestyle, and employment benefits can all play a role when you’re building your insurance portfolio.
There are two broad types of insurance: property & casualty insurance and financial services. Property & casualty insurance is often viewed as insurance that is mandatory, while financial services is described as non-mandatory—but definitely helpful to have. Let’s dive into these and discover the coverages available for each.
Property & Casualty
This is insurance you need to get on the road, get a mortgage for your home or operate your business:
- Auto Insurance: covers damage or loss to your private-passenger automobile or motorcycle, such as accidents, theft, fire or storms. You have options to choose from, like third-party liability, covering damages to another individual’s person or vehicle, and comprehensive car insurance, which covers yourself and your vehicle. You can also get insurance for vehicles you use for your business (read on for more about this).
- Home Insurance: covers damage to one of your biggest life investments—your home! It covers liabilities like fire, burglary, theft, flood and natural disasters. It offers financial protection of the structure of your home, the valuables you own, and your own personal liability.
- Commercial/Business Insurance: protects your business against losses arising from things like damage to property, injury to an employee, financial liability, and automobiles.
There are lots of options to insure what you own within property & casualty coverage. You can insure your ATV under auto, and your cottage or trailer under homeowners. Commercial insurance for automobiles provides coverage for autos used for business purposes, and for commercial drivers. If your business is directly auto-related, and you own a number of commercial vehicles, you can even opt for fleet insurance.
Financial Services
This is insurance you may want to protect yourself and your loved ones with emergency income:
- Life Insurance: provides your beneficiary (or beneficiaries) with financial aid in the event you are not there to provide for them. It can help cover funeral expenses, pay off a mortgage, put your children through school or help their guardians afford the cost of caring for them.
- Health Insurance: covers the cost of medical care, including prescriptions, hospitalization, the treatment of critical illnesses, and medical bills.
- Travel Insurance: covers and compensates for any financial liabilities arising out of emergencies while travelling, like baggage loss, medical expenses, theft and including the cancellation of a trip. Depending on your travel needs, you can opt for single-trip coverage or an annual multi-trip contract.
- Disability Insurance: disability insurance protects you from loss of income if you are unable to continue working due to illness or injury. Short- and long-term disability insurance is often available through your employer.
Choosing the right insurance policies for your lifestyle can be hard, but having the right broker or agent on your side can help ease the uncertainty. At AA Munro and AAM Financial, brokers and advisors have your best interests in mind and can shop your specific needs to make sure you’re covered!