How to Be Insured, When You Need It
Wondering how to protect your home, your car, your boat or other valuables? Experts suggest that we need more insurance than we think. Let us count the ways insurance protects us.
Life insurance protects your estate upon your demise and can be a resource for college funding, short-term loans, or retirement funds.
Health insurance protects you against major medical issues that could cost you tens of thousands of dollars or more. A popular form of insurance adds HMO coverage, which helps fund the preventive care and prescriptions you need to stay healthy.
Disability insurance provides a financial safety net in case you are temporarily or permanently disabled and are unable to work, or to work in your chosen field. This insurance is designed to help you keep up your bill payments, education funding, and other key lifestyle choices until you are able to return to work.
Flight Insurance is available if you are nervous about flying or need the coverage. The premium is very low because the risk is very low. Thousands of flights fly daily without incident.
Homeowner's Insurance protects your home and its contents from fire, wind, storms, hail, and other natural disasters. Your contents are insured as well, for a specified amount. If you are renting rather than owning, then you have Tenant's Insurance to protect your property and to provide liability coverage.
If you live in a condo, townhouse or other association, you may have liability and homeowner's insurance provided as part of your association fees. You need your own contents and interior coverage.
Often we learn what insurance or records we need because of a loss. Being prepared in advance is key to having insurance provide the coverage you need and want. A few pointers are in order to help minimize the chance that you will have difficulties in handling a loss.
1. Keep an inventory of your possessions, including purchase date, payment method, and an actual receipt. Photographs of special items, appraisals of jewelry and written substantiation are key in proving the value of items that may have been lost. Some clients have made a video tour of their home's interior and contents. If you choose this option, be sure to store the video tape off premises; you can't risk losing the evidence.
2. Read your insurance policy. You may have specifically scheduled jewelry items or high value items such as a rare record collection or fine art, or the like. If you have not purchased a "personal articles floater" which provides additional coverage, you may find that your policy has one limit for all losses in a category.
3. Consider "replacement cost" insurance. Though the premiums will be higher, the advantage of this coverage is that if you experience a loss you will be reimbursed the cost to replace the lost item.
4. If you are renting a car it is likely that your own auto policy probably covers you for liability and for damage to or theft of the rental.. If you do not have insurance or have an old car that carries only comprehensive insurance, but not theft or collision, you might be able to get your car insurance included by charging the rental to a major credit card.
5. As an alternative when renting a car, you may wish to purchase the insurance offered by the rental company. It may seem expensive at the time, but if it's your only alternative, it could end up being cheap insurance. Your insurance choices at the time of rental will include "collision damage waiver" to relieve you of any financial responsibility in the event of damage or theft.
6. Boat owners need insurance to protect them in case of liability from the use of the boat. Your homeowner's policy may cover a fishing boat with a small motor. Any larger boat, snowmobile, or personal watercraft should have its own policy.
7. You're not going to attack someone on purpose or hurt someone because you're upset, are you? Those intentional kinds of activities are not covered by your insurance.
If you experience a loss, contact your insurance company. You will want to contact the police to get an official police report. Learn from those who have traveled to foreign countries and been robbed. Get a police report on any incident, even if it's written in a foreign language. That's the first step towards getting respect and reimbursement from your homeowner's insurance company. And when it's time to buy or sell real estate, I'll safeguard your interests and be sure you have the smoothest possible move.
When World War One ended, an armistice agreement was signed between the Allies and Germany which took place in Paris, France, at 5:00AM on Monday, November 11th, 1918. Upon signing this agreement, hostilities ceased at 11:00am.
In the House of Commons, a Liberal MP from South Renfrew named Isaac Pedlow, opened a debate on how this historic day should be honoured. He introduced legislation allowing for an annual Armistice Day in April 1919. Even though the bill was not debated, it drew the attention of the press. Pedlow changed the bill and re-introduced it in the fall, where it was finally called for debate at the second reading on September 18th. The bill called for an annual holiday of Thanksgiving Day. The exact Thanksgiving Day date varied at that time at the government's discretion, and Pedlow proposed the second Monday in November each year "as a perpetual memorial of the victorious conclusion of the recent war."
All Members of the House agreed on the importance of setting aside a day to honour Canada's war dead, but they differed on the question of whether that day should be fixed as November 11th regardless of the day of the week on which this fell every year, or whether, as Pedlow argued, the day should always be on a Monday for the convenience of the private sector. Eventually a government member successfully moved the six month "hoist" when the bill was reported from the committee, precluding any further discussion of the bill for at least six months. The House never resumed discussion on Pedlow's proposal.
On November 6th in the House of Commons, Sir George Foster, the acting Prime Minister, read a message from King George V addressed "to all the peoples of the Empire" asking that all people of the Empire, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, suspend all normal activities, except in the rare cases where this might be impractical, so that "in perfect stillness the thoughts of every one may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead." The King's wishes were observed throughout Canada as, across the country, all activity, even traffic, came to a stop for two minutes of silence.
In 1921 legislation was introduced to formally establish an Armistice Day as a legal holiday, and the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred was set as a legal holiday. For ten years, Canada honoured Armistice Day as Thanksgiving Day under the terms of the 1921 Act. Parliament finally severed the connection between the two days on March 18th, 1931 when The Armistice Day Amendment Act fixed November 11th as Armistice Day, returning Thanksgiving Day to its pre-1921 status whereby the cabinet could set its date whenever it chose. The move was supported in the House of Commons as it was agreed that the solemnity of Armistice Day should not be associated the more lighthearted Thanksgiving Day. This Act also respected the interest of veterans who requested the phrase "Armistice Day" be replaced with "Remembrance Day". The bill passed after a brief debate and is still the law in the federal Holidays Act.
