The other day a friend came in to my office and asked me to run some quotes for him. Of course I was happy to help out but I was happier to see he had copies of his current policies with him. We took a few minutes to go over some of the basic info so I could get the quotes started and one of the first things I noticed was the his wife was not listed on the policies. I knew he was married and asked why she wasn't listed. He asked me if she should be listed or if it makes a difference. To which I responded, YES, YES, YES IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE!
When insurance companies/agents write a policy for an insured there are some very basic things that should always be done to make sure the policy will cover you the way it is supposed to. One of the most basic is always listing husband/wife, engaged couples, or long time partners together on the policy. This ensures that both people who own the property have all of the rights of a named insured. What does this mean for you? If you and your spouse own a home and it burns to the ground, the first thing the insurance company does is pull out their copy of your policy to find out who gets the money. You might have a mortgage company who needs to get paid but aside from that, the money goes to the named insured, i.e. the person listed on the front of the policy. In that same home you may have someone get seriously injured and sue you for their injuries. Again, your company will look at your policy to decide who they need to defend for that lawsuit and the first place they look is the named insured.
So if your spouse isn't listed does he/she have coverage? Yes and no. Every policy I have ever worked with will define "you" as "The named insured shown in the Declarations and the spouse if a resident of the same household". So as long as your spouse is a resident of the house there is coverage. However, if they move out of the house temporarliy for whatever reason, divorce, seperation, has to work in another state for her employer for an extended period of time, they are no longer a "you" and don't get coverage.
Luckily there is a very simple fix. List both you and your significant other on all of your insurance policies, home, auto, boat, umbrella, etc. This way you won't have to worry about it.
This is the blog for G2 Insurance Services, Inc. It was established by Tom Gaumond to keep people up to date on what is happening in the insurance industry but also to pass along valuable business information from our friends.
