Wedding Insurance - Cover Your Wedding Plans

Wedding insurance is as essential to your wedding planning as the dress.  Consider how much you spent on your car, was it less than the sum you are about to invest in your wedding?  Would you even consider not having adequate car insurance?  No?  Then why wouldn't you insure your wedding - when the average cost these days can fall between two and three times the cost of an average family saloon car?

A wedding insurance policy is comparatively cheap for insurance which covers a wide range of different parts of your wedding day.  Cover can be arranged that gives you reassurance about the largest disasters (cancellation) through to some parts that may give minor disruption but not devastating consequences (cars not arriving, for example).

Before deciding on the items that you need insurance cover for, and the value of cover that you will need, it will be worth investigating a couple of other sources of cover that may be available to you.  If you have sufficient limits on your household insurance policy, you may find that items such as the wedding gifts, rings and wedding dress/attire are covered whilst in your home.  A call to the insurance broker should be able to confirm this and/or give you a quote for the extension of cover required to the household insurance.

Items purchased or booked for your wedding and paid by credit card will often carry a level of insurance cover from the credit card provider.  In these cases, a wedding insurance policy may be duplicating cover that you already have.  For example, if the florist went out of business before your wedding day, your credit card supplier would most likely cover the refund of any deposit or payment made by the card.

When you have considered each of the alternative insurance options available to you, if you decide that a more comprehensive wedding insurance policy better serves your needs, start shopping for it as early as possible.  Most wedding insurances offer cover on a fixed scale of fees, providing cover until 24 hours after your wedding date.  The sooner you arrange insurance cover the more reassured you can be about issuing deposit payments to the various suppliers, etc., so make wedding insurance one of the priorities when you're making the planning list of items.

When assessing the level of cover you may need, take into account the various items that come together to make your wedding day:

Wedding Cars / Transport Cover

If the transport fails to show or they go out of business before your wedding day, the wedding insurance will cover a refund of your costs, enabling you to make alternative arrangements without incurring additional costs on the budget.

Wedding Rings Cover

The age-old 'joke' of the best man losing the rings  - it can happen, and it's not funny!  It's also possible for theft or loss of the wedding rings to happen any time up to your marriage service.  Check that the amount specified in the wedding insurance policy is adequate to cover the total value of both the bride and groom's wedding rings.

Wedding Flowers Cover

If the florist goes out of business before the wedding day or doesn't arrive with the floral decorations or buttonholes on the day, although the wedding insurance won't replace these, it should cover the cost that you have outlaid to the florist supplier.  It means that your last minute replacements won't be an additional cost to your special day.

Wedding Dress / Attire Cover

Accidental damage to the wedding dress ranks amongst the highest of claims made against wedding insurance policies.  Imagine the loss and devastation that you would feel if a burst water pipe or fire or other unexpected event was to cause loss or damage to your beautiful gown.  Most wedding insurance policies will cover the wedding dress and the outfits of the main bridal party, but where suits, etc. are to be hired, check who's responsibility it is for insurance, the supplier or the hirer (most will be the responsibility of the hirer, but some suppliers will offer their own additional insurance cover).

Wedding Caterer Cover

If the chosen caterer goes out of business or - even worse - fails to show up at your reception venue on the date, adequate wedding insurance will cover a refund of the large sum that you have paid to them, leaving you to be able to make emergency alternative arrangements without suffering the additional inconvenience of extra costs to your budget.

Wedding Reception Venue Insurance Cover

If a last minute disaster prevented you from using the reception venue that you had booked, fire or flood for example, wedding insurance would cover the last minute alternative that you had been forced to arrange.  If your chosen reception venue were to close or go out of business the wedding insurance policy would reimburse the payments you had make, allowing you to choose a different reception venue location without suffering a financial loss.

Wedding Cake Cover

The extravagant creation of your masterpiece wedding cake will be finished and then transported to the reception venue.  In almost every case this is done by experienced people and it is successful, but disasters can happen!  If your wedding cake isn't delivered, or anything causes it to be damaged, the wedding insurance policy will cover the cost.

Wedding Photographer and Photography Insurance Cover

A lot of things can happen surrounding your plans and wedding day that are totally beyond the couple's control; the photographer not turning up, the photographs not being able to be processed because of technical problems, etc.  Adequate protection from wedding insurance will help alleviate the cost should these difficulties occur.  If your photographs don't turn out, then you have the opportunity to have the bridal party and many of the guests reassembled and have them re-taken, thanks to your wisdom of having your wedding day adequately insured against such mishaps.

Wedding Present Insurance

A good wedding insurance policy will reimburse the cost/value up to a specified sum for damage to, or theft of, wedding presents.  One of the higher number of claims relating to wedding insurance policies is the collapse of tables holding the gifts at the reception, or accidental damage of more delicate presents such as glass or crystal items.

Wedding Guest Liability Cover

Most wedding insurance policies give a level of liability insurance if someone is injured at your wedding.  The level of cover often has an option to increase the amount should you need to do so.  Some of your suppliers (marriage location, reception venue, etc.) will carry their own liability insurance, so it may be prudent to check this out before extending the level of inclusive cover.

Wedding Cancellation Cover

If the bride or groom change their mind or run for the hills, this won't be covered by wedding insurance!  However, if an event beyond your control, such as the death of a close family member or illness in the family (or of the bride or groom), that causes your wedding to be canceled or postponed, then the insurance will cover a refund of your expenditure up to a stated amount.  If extreme weather conditions cause cancellation due to the guests being unable to attend, or the venue being adversely affected, then the wedding insurance will apply.  However, if you are unfortunate enough to have bad weather on the day it is unlikely that the insurance would cover such circumstances (you may wish to try a bookmaker!).

Marquee Cover 

Most wedding insurers offer marquee cover as an optional extra.  Not all weddings will need this and those using a marquee should check with the hire company if an additional level of insurance cover is needed before adding it to the policy.

The months before your wedding day can be quite stressful, while you're trying to get everything organized and perfectly timed.  No one wants to think of things going wrong, but wedding insurance will give you the peace of mind that your deposits and outlay to the various suppliers are insured and will be refunded in the event that anything did go amiss in the period leading to your big day.  Wedding insurance will take away some of the worries that you may have and is a good investment to make.

Article by Steve Shaw, of wedding services and information. The website http://www.weddingservices.eclectic-choice.co.uk offers advice and information on organizing and arranging your wedding insurance.

Term Insurance - More Cover At Affordable Rates

One may wonder whether there is anything cheap in these days, that too, Insurance. Insurance is an option for individuals to provide their beloved family with the chosen amount on the happening of any unfortunate event to the individual even if the event happens after one day of taking the policy.

So, a compensation paid for the bereaved family need not necessarily be cheap taking into consideration the high amount of compensation that would be required by the family to reset in to their normal chore of activities less the breadwinners earnings every month.

But, strangely, we try to educate just that. As people belonging predominantly to a family set up, it is essential that at least the earning member of the family has sufficient Insurance on his / her life. This is the most basic coverage that could be endowed to a family against any unforeseen loss.

The Marketing philosophers of Insurance companies have their imaginations and brains put to utmost use to spell out catchy names of a variety of schemes with a combo of a limited type of insurance methodologies to add a magic touch to grab the attention of the prospects or customers to select their products. I do understand it as a great work done by great people. But, to say the least, it all waters down to typical marketing strategies and nothing else.

Truly there are only 2 types of insurance that life insurance could offer. One is the Insurance that pays on the death of the policyholder which is called as Risk Insurance or Term Insurance. The other is that Insurance which pays on the survival of the policyholder to the stated term, which is called as Pure Endowment Insurance. So, Term Insurance and Pure Endowment are the two basic forms of Life Insurance philosophy. All the modern day Life Insurance schemes are only extensions or combination of these theories in some measure.

Term Insurance, as the name suggests is an Insurance that remains in force up to the term selected. In any case, when the life assured or the policyholder dies during the term of the policy, the policy amount or Sum Assured becomes payable to the heir apparent or the nominee of the policy as per the terms of the contract signed between the Insurer and the Insured. In case the policyholder stays alive or survives the stated term of the policy, he can forget any returns on the policy because the policy is purely risk based and payable only if the unforeseen event happens. If the event does not happen, the insured loses control over the policy or better said as - the policy becomes NULL and VOID.

So, the maintenance of the policy is very much easy to the insurer as well as the insured person. Once the insurer assesses the risk of the person, he decides the quantum of premium to be collected for covering the risk and issues the policy. After this the job of the underwriter is over. The policyholder, once he accepts the policy, should keep paying the premiums regularly for the selected term. The benefits under this policy becomes payable only on the death of the insured during the term of the policy, else, nothing is payable.

Such is the concept of Term Insurance. Term Insurance products can be combined with added features like -

Riders or add-on benefits.

Double Accident Benefit.

Riders are add-on features over and above the general policy conditions. Double accident benefit is the benefit of getting an additional amount equal to the Sum Assured or twice the Sum Assured on his death due to accident. To avail this benefit, the insured has to pay a small amount as premium in addition to the normal premium.

Benefits of Term Insurance:

Need for the family

Term Insurance being a Risk Insurance Scheme is designed to cater to the family as the utmost beneficiary. Though we talk about the benefits on the loss of the earning person, the emotional loss could not be replaced at any cost. That is why it is said that Life Insurance does not strictly follow the principle of INDEMNITY which is true only to Non-Life Insurance.

Low Cost High Sum

Since the Insurance premium goes only for the purpose of covering of risk for the life, the premium is very less and affordable compared to other forms of Insurance Schemes. Complementing to the less premium the purchase value of the Sum Assured or the amount of insurance can be higher at the lower ages when the earning capacity, health conditions are at its best. The approximate annual premium for a standard life aged 25 years for a Risk Sum Assured of Rs.1 Million works out to Rs.2500 to Rs.2700 or around $60 to $70 in almost all the Life Insurance Companies around the globe.

Earlier the better

In Insurance, we always stress that earlier we go in for insurance, the premium is lesser. As age advances, the purchase value of the policy becomes all the more high. The simple reason is that as age advances, normal life has to undergo various health hazards like cardio, respiratory problems that are rampant in modern times. Hence, the premium are arrived by actuaries considering the general average of human life. If we take the present average as around 70 years, the premium keeps rising from around 25 years and touches the maximum at around 70 years. So, the decision of opting for insurance at an early age is advisable.

Tax Benefits

The reduced cost of Insurance premium supplemented by the high sum assured that becomes affordable can actually contribute to a savings in the annual income by way of gaining income tax holidays to a certain amount of the premiums paid annually. Insurance premium comes in handy every year to reduce your tax liabilities.

Collateral Security

In Insurance terms, we call this as mortgage. These days, all purchases, right from houses or flats, consumer goods, education come to us in the form of loans provided by Banks or financial institutions. In addition to the Equated Monthly Installment that becomes payable for the loan outstanding, the banking or finance company also seeks collateral security to the loans advanced in order to have a control over the amount paid as loan to consumers. Term Insurance has been sought after as a very good option in this area because of its high sum assured purchase at a low cost premium. The premium would not actually be a burden on the purse of the insured in addition to the loan EMI.

Conclusion

The Term Insurance scheme has a handful of features to its advantage except that the scheme is a risk method and does not bestow any returns on the premium investment made. So to say, it forfeits even the premium paid regularly or as a one time payment on the expiry of the period of insurance. But, if we consider Insurance as a basic element of need for mankind, without any doubt, Term Insurance would be the best and affordable option.

Satish Kumar SVN,
Senior Software Engineer
3i Infotech Ltd,
Insurance Product & Functional Trainer,
Chennai, INDIA