Homeowners insurance won’t or might not provide enough coverage for your boat. If it’s motorized, you won’t get any coverage at all. Auto insurance won’t cover your boat either, since it’s a watercraft and not a land-bound vehicle. That leaves you with the option of getting a specialized insurance policy to cover the needs of your boat.

 

The needs of your boat

 

Going for the specialized option is actually the right option. Your boat is a recreational investment that needs more than the standard limited amount of coverage provided by other insurance policies. Boats, like other vehicles, need insurance policies tailored to fit their purposes as a vehicle.

 

Though, many industry experts imply a tricky aspect of boat insurance. To start, buying boat insurance can differ between boats. While insuring one type of boat can feel like purchasing auto insurance, insuring a more expensive boat can mimic the process of insuring a home. Don’t get deterred by the vast differences in insurance enrollment, as it not going to exclusively apply to your boat.

 

Buying boat insurance for your boat is not going to be the same as another boater buying their policy. That’s why you need to focus on your own needs for your boat when you’re getting a boat insurance policy.

 

Boat insurance?

 

Many homeowners insurance policies provide a small amount of insurance coverage for boats, usually small boats with a small engine or no engine at all. Larger and more expensive boats naturally need a separate insurance policy to cover the entire boat.

 

You can potentially save money by bundling your boat insurance policy with any other insurance policies. This works best if you’re buying insurance from a single provider who happens to offer, let’s say, homeowners insurance, auto insurance and boat insurance in a personalized bundle for you.

 

Boat insurance provides coverage options like its homeowners and auto insurance counterparts. It protects you against liabilities incurred from third parties, typically offering you the option of completely replacing the watercraft or a comparable cash value settlement if completely lost.

 

In addition, this insurance policy also provides coverage in the case of someone getting injured while aboard or near your boat, your boat inflicting property damage or if your boat suffers any damages or losses.  Comprehensive coverage, too, provides coverage against natural disasters, fires, theft, vandalism and other unexpected occurrences that can happen to you, your possessions and your boat.

 

Some boat insurance policies can actually be suspended for specific periods when your boat isn’t in use or in storage. So, if you’re not traveling on the water in winter, that might be a good time to suspend your coverage!

To say that the insurance world has completely and totally changed over the last few years would be the understatement of the century. For instance, check out this website here.

Not only have health insurers had to deal with everything that the Affordable Care Act has brought to the table (completely eliminating a ton of different policies, creating entirely new ones, and changing the way that they go about selling insurance), but auto insurers, home insurers, and other insurance agencies have had to deal with the same kind of upheaval.

This has led to a kind of “Wild West culture”, if you will, in the insurance world – and it’s really hurting everyday consumers like you and I.

It’s almost impossible to understand exactly what we’re getting out of our specific insurance policies right now (unless we have a degree in law and can read a ton of Latin), and most people are starting to begin to believe that this might be done on purpose.

After all, if were not 100% sure of what we’re purchasing as far as insurance is concerned, we are all that easier to deal with when it comes time to make an insurance claim. The insurance company can simply point to some of the small print event went overlooked or ignored by us before we signed on the dotted line, crippling our ability to move forward the way we thought we would.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Make sure that you are always moving forward with a reliable and reputable insurance company

I know, I know, you may have heard absolute horror stories about insurance companies in the past – but many of them are a bit overblown and some of them are outright fabrications. This is not to say that there aren’t any nightmare insurance companies out there that you want to stay as far away from as humanly possible – just that you should understand that the majority of insurance companies out there want to help you, not hurt you or cheat you.

All that said, you’re going to want to spend a tremendous amount of time really doing your due diligence when it comes to selecting your new insurance company.

Not only are you going to want to jump online and read as many reviews as humanly possible about the different insurance companies you’re looking at, which are also going to want to investigate those comments as thoroughly as possible. There are different resources available to you to really get an “inside look” at the information provided by reviewers online, and it’s definitely worthwhile poking around and seeing what you can dig up.

You’re also going to want to specifically focus on insurance reviews that are from people who find themselves in similar positions to your own. It doesn’t make much sense to be looking at insurance reviews for an auto insurance company or auto insurance policy when you’re trying to invest in life insurance. This seems like a bit of a no-brainer and some real common sense on the surface, but you would be shocked at how many people ignore this critical component.

Work closely with insurance agents that you can establish a relationship with

This might come as a bit of a surprise to you personally, but even the biggest national insurance agencies will assign you a very specific and personal insurance agent if you request one. This will all but guarantee that you’re able to create some kind of working relationship with your insurance agent, which is far better than trying to go things alone or deal with someone new every single time you have some issues.

Creating that kind of healthy working relationship is going to be critical moving forward, but even more critical when you’re just getting started. They’ll be able to tell you everything about your insurance policy (as well as point you to specific details and clauses you need to be aware of), information that you may not have had access to otherwise.

Read as much of the fine print as possible, and always – ALWAYS – have your questions answered in writing

The last thing that you’re really going to want to do (this is a step that is too often skipped) is to ask as many questions about the fine print in your contract and policy as you can – requesting that each and every answer be delivered in writing. You’re going to want to have hard copies of all the promises or answers that your insurance company provides you, especially about the finer details that you may have needed clarification on.

This make sure that you have physical records of all the information that they provided you, which will come in handy if there are any disputes moving forward. Obviously, you hope that it never gets to those kinds of situations – but if you find yourself in the middle of that type of fight it’s nice to know you are protected.