These 5 Insurance Policies Really Worth the Money

 These 5 Insurance Policies Really Worth the Money

Hackers stealing your identity. A freak storm on your wedding day. Fido swallows his squeaky toy.

These unexpected events can wreak mayhem on your lifespan and your money.

And while they don’t encounter often, when they do, you can see yourself having to perform triage on your funds.

And then is it worth it to take a bonus insurance policy to protect yourself from such infrequent but potentially financially crippling Murphy’s Law moments?

We round up five kinds of insurance that aren’t must-haves, but could be nice-to-haves to help you decide whether they could be dollars well spent.

 

To Protect Your Identity…

Since the attacks on Anthem to the I.R.S., it’s safe to about that companies and government agencies have had more or less difficulty keeping hackers at bay.

In statement, the Federal Trade Commission reports that identity theft has been the top consumer complaint for 15 years in a row, while a 2015 education from Javelin Strategy and Research estimates there’s a new identity fraud victim every two minutes.

Thus, it’s no surprise that insurers are responding to identity theft policies, which can cost $25 to $60 per year for coverage ranging from $10,000 to $15,000.

Most policies offer accounting and credit monitoring, and will extend the administrative costs of restoring your stolen accounts. They won’t, however, compensate for financial losses resulting from the identity stealing.

Is It Worth It? Yes, if you don’t have time to monitor your identity yourself.

That’s for identity theft protection does little to prevent the theft from occurring, says Steve Weisman, a lawyer and author of “Identity Theft Alert: 10 Rules You Must Follow to Protect Yourself from America’s #1 Crime.”

“Many of these services merely enable you to learn as soon that you’ve become a victim,” he explains. “More frequently than not, these policies don’t do anything you can’t do yourself. Still, if you don’t mind paying for the convenience of receiving your credit monitored, then identity theft insurance may be for you.”

How to Get Better Bang for Your Insurance Buck: Read the well print carefully, Weisman says. For instance, high deductibles—commonly up to $500—could negate the value of a policy.

To Protect Your Wedding

A typical wedding insurance policy might cover cancellation or delay, weather-related losses, vendors backing out, and illness or injury to members of the wedding party. Extra coverage can take in your rings, gifts, and damage to your wedding dress.

Policies usually cost around 1% of your wedding budget, which means $500 can reimburse up to $50,000 worth of expenses, says Kristen Ley Green, cofounder of wedding public relations and advertising firm Something New for I Do.

How to Get Better Bang for Your Insurance Buck: Instead of burial policy, consider simply tacking $10,000 worth of coverage onto a current term life insurance policy, which should arrive at minimal additional cost to you, suggests Hunter.

“Even life insurance should cover everything the dependents need after the end of a financial provider,” he averred, “including the relatively minor costs of a funeral.”

To Protect Your Valuables…

Act you have a respected painting or an heirloom necklace that’s been handed down through the generations? Probabilities are, your homeowner’s policy doesn’t extend them for their entire value.

Is It Worth It? If you’re planning a far-off ceremony, there remain too many variables you can’t account for—and we’re not just talking El Niño grounding flights.

To Protect Your Family From Funeral Costs…

The demise of a loved one is stressful enough—and getting an astronomical funeral-home tab doesn’t exactly help those stress points.

To help foot the bill, you may be enticed to look into burial/funeral insurance, too known as final-expense insurance, which typically pays $10,000 or less, says J. Robert Hunter, manager of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America.

How to Get Better Bang for Your Insurance Buck: You could just up your owner’s policy, especially if your items have a value you can prove, like an expensive TV, a computer or jewelry.

“Ask yourself, ‘If the house burned down, what would it cost to replace all the items in the house?’ ” Born says.