You will want to get a regularly updated Reconstruction Cost Estimate. Make sure that this is up to date and accurate. Get the maximum available dwelling replacement extension coverage. Make sure that you have sufficient ordinance and law coverage based on the age of your home. Make sure that you have enough loss of use coverage to provide housing for your family while you rebuild. You will want Actual Loss Sustained for 24 months or a dollar amount that would provide similar coverage. Make sure that you’re covered for 24 months. Many policies only cover 12 months.

Finally, do an accounting of your personal property and take pictures or videos of your possessions. This will be extremely valuable in the claims process. Make sure that you have enough coverage to replace these items, and make sure that you have “replacement cost contents” loss settlement for personal property on your insurance policy. Many policies will have “Actual Cash Value” loss settlement.

I was lucky to grow up on a small farm in Southeastern Ohio. It was a kind of idyllic childhood surrounded by fields and forests. When I graduated high school, I was looking for adventure, so I booked a one-way ticket to Anchorage, Alaska with vague ideas of making a fortune in the frontier. I discovered that the few thousand bucks I had saved from growing and selling melons wasn’t going to go far in the real world, and I started roughing it and hitch-hiking. A few months later I had made it as far as Mexico City when my money ran out and I headed home. The seed that the trip had planted grew into years of adventures throughout the world, including working as a mountain guide in Peru and teaching English throughout East Asia and Latin America. In my mid-twenties, I met my wife Lancy and we moved back to Ohio. While looking for jobs I stumbled across an advertisement saying, “Tower Climbers Wanted.” I applied, and a few months later I got a call and a job offer. On the first day we climbed 400 feet in the air to change some bolts on an old tower, and I was hooked. I spent the next 5 years travelling around the United States while building, repairing, and decommissioning cell towers and cell equipment. Eventually, the constant wear and tear on my body took its toll and I had to find something else to do for a living. Through a roundabout journey this led me to the insurance industry! I am now an independent agent with Trailstone Insurance Group focusing on helping people master the defensive portion of their financial strategy. I love what I do and try to treat every client like a friend.

Learn More: https://trailstoneinsurancegroup.com/morgan-lloyd/

Mike Saunders, MBA

Mike Saunders is theAuthority Positioning Coach at Marketing Huddle, the author of Amazon Bestselling book Authority Selling™, Adjunct Marketing Professor at several Universities, contributor to The Huffington Post, and member of the Forbes Coaches Council – an invitation-only community for the World’s Most Influential Business Coaches.

Mike Saunders, MBA

Mike Saunders is the Authority Positioning Coach at Marketing Huddle, the author of Amazon Bestselling book Authority Selling™, Adjunct Marketing Professor at several Universities, contributor to The Huffington Post, and member of the Forbes Coaches Council – an invitation-only community for the World’s Most Influential Business Coaches.