Insurance Part 7: Identity Theft & Long Term Care

Insurance

Part 7: Identity Theft & Long Term Care

By Keith Bunn Jr.

October 2, 2012

To end this long series about insurance, there are just two more topics we need to talk about; Identity Theft insurance and Long Term Care insurance. Again, these types of insurance are critical in protecting both your good name and your money, both now and when you’re in your golden years.

Identity Theft Protection

The first thing I want you to understand is that if your identity is stolen and the thief racks up a huge bill, you don’t own anyone a dime! The thief does. Unfortunately, most of the time someone’s I.D. is stolen, it is done by someone they know. Sad, but true.

Identity theft is the fastest growing blue collar crime in the U.S. today, so if you don’t have Identity Theft insurance, you are looking at an average of 600 hours to clean up the mess made by the person who stole your I.D. With just a few insurance companies out there that offer Identity Theft insurance, which one should you get? What should you look for?

·         Credit Monitoring: I suggest that you don’t get one with credit monitoring, only for the fact that you can do that yourself for free by watching your bank/credit union accounts and getting your free annual credit reports from all three credit bureaus; Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. And I do suggest that you get a report from one of the bureaus every 4 months.

·         Clean Up: Since there is no way you can protect yourself 100% from being a victim of identity theft, you need to find an insurance company that offers a service that assigns someone to your case to clean up the 600 hour mess for you. Saving you the hassle and headaches of doing it yourself.

Really good banks and credit unions will contact you if unusual charges are made in unusual places, like buying a lot of car parts in Florida when we live here in Michigan (which did happened to us) and they will help you correct the issues, but by some chance that doesn't happen, there are a few things you need to do to work through this issue which I laid out in a blog called “What do you do if you’re robbed” In that blog, I give you a step by step process on what you have to do to start cleaning up your mess.

Long Term Care Insurance

Long Term Care Insurance is to cover the cost if you need to be put into a nursing home or need some kind of in home care. This is extremely important for you if you are 60 years old or older for the simple fact those types of care can easily and quickly drain any kind of retirement savings you worked so hard to build and possible leave a surviving spouse (normally the wife) with nothing when the one who needed the care passes. So what are the do’s and don’ts for this kind of insurance?

·         When should you get it: On your 60^th birthday, you should get yourself and your family the awesome gift of Long Term Care insurance. Why 60 years old and not in your 50’s when the policy could possibly be cheaper? Because the chances of you needing some kind of nursing home care or in home care is less than 1% before the age of 60. But as soon as you reach 60 years old the odds of you needing that kind of care go up rapidly the older you get. In fact, studies have shown that the last 10 years of your life will more than likely be the most expensive times too.

·         Gimmicks: Again, beware of gimmicks that could be built into these polices like Return of Premiums. You don’t need crap like that. All you need is to protect yourself and your family of the high cost of that kind of care.

  

 In closing, I want to share with you a website that was just brought to my attention that could help you chose insurance companies or at least let you know if the insurance company your work is going through is good or bad in 4 areas of insurance; Auto, Home, Health, and Life insurances. The website is called Free Advice and what you do once you’re on their home page is go to the “Learn About” section, click “Insurance Topics”. In the orange bar on top on the right hand side, click “Insurance Company Reviews”, pick the type of insurance you’re looking for and click on it. From there, you will be asked what state you live in. Once you select your state, it will give you multiple choices of insurance companies offering coverage for the kind of insurance you are looking for in your state. What I like about this website is that it shows you reviews from people who like and dislike the companies and why. It also shows pie charts for different categories and gives percentages from different questions asked. It is really worth a look.

 I hope my posts inspire you to look at what you’re doing financially and if needed, make some changes that will cause you to win financially. I also look forward to reading your views on any articles or postings that I may post. For more money news, facts and ideas follow me on Facebook, or Twitter. Thanks you!