October is the month when we intentionally make things a little scary.
Haunted houses? Sure. Scary movies? Absolutely. A 12-foot skeleton staring into your neighbor’s second-story window? Apparently completely normal now. 🤣
But some of the scariest “what ifs” are the ones we don’t think about until they actually happen.
Fall is a great time to take a quick look at your home, auto, life, and other insurance coverage before the holiday season gets busy. Not because you need to spend your October worrying about everything that could go wrong, but because a few simple questions now can prevent some pretty unpleasant surprises later.
Here are seven worth asking.
1. What if someone gets hurt on your property?
Halloween can mean more people walking up your driveway and onto your porch than any other night of the year.
Take a walk from the sidewalk to your front door after dark. Look for loose steps, extension cords, decorations blocking walkways, poor lighting, or anything else someone could trip over.
It’s also a good time to know what liability coverage you have through your homeowners or renters insurance.
2. What if your car breaks down on a fall road trip?
Football games, fall festivals, weekend trips, and holiday travel can put plenty of extra miles on the car this time of year.
Before you leave, ask yourself a couple of questions: Do you have roadside assistance? If your vehicle needed repairs after a covered accident, would you have rental car coverage?
Those are much easier questions to answer from your couch than from the side of the interstate.
3. What if someone else drives your car?
Maybe your college student is home for the weekend. Maybe family is visiting. Maybe a friend offers to drive everyone home from the football game.
Before handing over the keys, it’s worth understanding how your auto insurance handles other drivers and whether everyone who regularly drives your vehicles is properly accounted for on your policy.
4. What if that expensive new purchase disappears?
October kicks off a season of buying.
New electronics, jewelry, gifts, sporting equipment, and plenty of other expensive items may be entering your house over the next few months.
Take a picture. Save the receipt. Record the model or serial number when applicable.
And for particularly valuable items, ask your insurance agent whether your homeowners or renters policy has special coverage limits you should know about.
5. What if something has changed since your last insurance review?
Think about your life one year ago.
Have you renovated your home? Added a deck or shed? Bought a vehicle? Changed jobs? Started a business from home? Gotten married? Had a baby? Sent a child to college?
Your life can change quite a bit while your insurance policies quietly renew in the background.
October is a good time for a simple question:
Does the coverage I have today still match the life I have today?
6. What if your family had to figure everything out without you?
Nobody particularly enjoys this question, but it’s an important one.
Would your family know where to find your important documents? Do they know what life insurance policies you have? Are your beneficiaries current? Would they know who to call?
You don’t need an elaborate binder with 47 labeled tabs.
Even a simple, secure record of where important information can be found can make things much easier for the people you love.
7. What if you wait until December to deal with all of this?
This might be the easiest one to prevent. 🤣
October becomes November incredibly fast. Then Thanksgiving happens, the holiday calendar explodes, and suddenly you’re trying to remember whether you ever called your insurance agent while also ordering Christmas gifts at 11:30 PM.
You don’t have to review every insurance policy you own today.
Pick one thing from this list that made you think:
“Huh. I should probably check on that.”
Then start there.
A Fall Insurance Review Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Insurance planning isn’t about trying to predict every bad thing that could happen.
It’s about noticing the things that have changed, understanding the coverage you already have, and asking questions before you’re in the middle of a claim.
If it’s been a while since you reviewed your home, auto, life, or other insurance coverage, October is a great time to do it.
I help families and businesses review their insurance coverage and make sense of what they have. If something on this list made you think, “Wait…should I check that?” send me a message. I’m happy to help.
