Over the years, this has been one of our favorite questions to ask our clients.

Whether business, life or personal insurance, most people wait until something “bad” happens before the think about their Plan B. Here are three quick guides:

Home owners and auto insurance: Do you wait for your renewal bill before deciding to get “competitive” quotes? If you do, chances are you are probably too late. When premiums increase, adding your own anger to a quickly closing deadline doesn’t always work in your best interest. Quick quote requests to agents don’t always produce the best premiums or the attention that you want. Agents want long term clients, not those that continually jump from company to company to save $50 per year. At any given time, you should have a valid quote ready to go just in case your current agent or company does something to disappoint you. Think of it this way: if they increase your premium, or remove some coverage, where will you turn for help? Your Plan B for home & auto insurance should be with someone who knows he is waiting on the bench for the current agent to trip or stumble. Let your current agent know that you have a Plan B ready to go and learn to feel comfortable about having them compete for you!

Life Insurance: It is not an investment; it is not gambling; it shouldn’t be a sales contest so that the agent that sells the most gets to go to Bermuda. It is about you and those you care about. Everybody plans to live…that is your Plan A. A select few of us actually plan to die…that should be the Plan B. It is not a multiple of your salary, it is what you want and need. One of our favorite questions to ask a two-income family with children is in what city will your husband and children have to live if you die? Questions like that make them do the math. We don’t believe you need an agent to do your own math, but someone has to do it. If you make plans to live, you should also have Plan B in place.

Business Insurance: Much like home and auto insurance, you really don’t want to be shopping around for insurance when something bad happens. A relationship with a Plan B agent or company is essential to a good insurance program. If the company you are with uses insurance brokers, you may even have the opportunity to simply switch brokers and still remain with the same insurance companies. At any given time, a Plan B should be ready to go. This will mean that you will have to invest some time into forming a relationship with someone who knows that they are simply sitting on the bench, waiting for something bad to happen to the current insurance program. A sound Plan B can make your current program work to your benefit.

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These three quick items are examples of the Baron & Snow approach to insurance. At Baron & Snow, we don’t sell insurance; we teach people how to leverage the best deals from their existing insurance companies and agents.

Visit our website for more details.

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