Like taxes, insurance is never anyone’s favorite topic. After all, you’re paying for coverage that you hope to never have to use. But what you’re truly paying for, of course, is protection against what you could lose if you do need it and don’t have it. While following the road map of your financial plan, insurance is the seat belt you wear in the car while making your way towards your destination. You never hope to need that seat belt to protect you, but when it does? The value goes way beyond a dollar amount. So we all buckle up, for our own sake as well as that of our loved ones.

Thus, as a necessary part of testing your financial plan’s strength, your advisory team works with the behind-the-scenes financial planning team to evaluate possible insurance risks and how to proactively reduce them. Since each client will have different insurance needs, our process includes requesting full copies of your insurance policies so we can review them in context with the rest of your financial plan. Without the details from your policies, we could be missing essential information that we can use to make sure your plan can withstand difficult circumstances, such as:

• How would the premature passing of you or a family member impact your plan? Do you currently have enough life insurance to protect the survivors?

• What will happen if you or a family member loses income due to disability? Can your plan handle the lost income?

• Do you have adequate resources to cover the costs associated with a long-term-care event?

• What will happen if you are sued for a large sum due to personal liability? Do you have enough umbrella insurance coverage to protect your net worth?

The challenges mentioned above can affect much more than just your financial circumstances. Understanding what the worst-case scenario looks like, and actively taking steps to potentially reduce the impact or knowing what you will have to do when that scenario happens, can help reduce the stress of making a decision if you ever have to experience what the worst-case scenario feels like. We all know how much safer we feel when we wear our seat belts in the car. And doing so means that not only can we enjoy the journey to our destination more but we can also increase the likelihood that we will reach that destination in the way we’d like.