How should I handle my insurance coverages? (It's complicated)?

Hi anon,

Sorry to hear of your situation. Hope you are able to retrieve the information from both your parents as to what policies you have and what they cover.

Since you have mentioned that separate plans were bought for you, then there might be a chance of overlapping cover. However, it is important for you to establish the full picture of what coverage you have first. Sometimes, what seems like an overlap might not be the case. Also, I have seen cases where a client came to me with policies bought when they were young, but upon further investigation, the policy lapsed long ago and is no longer in force.

You'll have to do a bit of homework on your end. I suggest that you retrieve the policy details from your parents first. Try not to miss out anything, and of particular importance are the details such as the policy owner (assured), policy number, issuance date.

Then, assuming you wish to take care, you need to transfer the ownership of the policies to yourself. This can be done without having to go through the original advisor who sold the policy. You can speak with their customer service. During this stage, you will know which policies are still in force and which are not.

After the policy ownership has transferred to you, you will now be the owner of your policies. The next step is to understand what is covered by the policy; just because you have insurance, doesn't mean you are correctly covered, or adequately covered. If you need assistance you may speak with an advisor on this.

You'll now have a list of policy as well as a summary of coverage. From that point on, look at your current life stage, determine what coverage you need, how much you need, and compare to what you have. A shortfall should be addressed, having too much may not necessarily be a bad thing if you expect that in time your coverage needs go up. And it is at this point where you find that if there is overlapping coverage (e.g. 2 accident plans covering exactly the same thing) that you need to make the decision whether to let go of one or not.

Good luck! Your situation isn't that bad actually. You just need some time to work through the steps I detailed and things will become clearer.

Don't worry, it is not complicated so long as we follow through a well-defined step-by-step guide:

Insurance Portfolio Summary

Firstly, one of the most important things to do is to have a complete understanding of your existing insurance portfolio. Through this process, it allows us to understand the coverage that we have, any financial gap, as well as to find out whether we are overpaying for our insurance policies.

Key Reasons Why:

Why Every Client needs an Insurance Policy Summary

In order to do this, here is a guide: Orphan Clients Insurance: What You Should Do

After we have consolidated your portfolio from your parents, this will give us a better idea on your current financial position. From there, we can evaluate whether it is adequate and how to make any adjustment (if required).

As for agent, it is ideal to work with one that you trust and respect. Otherwise, you may not trust him or her to take care of your finances.

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