Our insurance hasn't been checked in years — where do we start?
You bought the policy for a reason. The house had a mortgage. The child was small. The income was the only income. Time passed. The mortgage was paid off, or the child grew, or a second income appeared. The policy did not notice. It kept insuring a world that no longer exists. This is not carelessness. It is what happens to everything untended. Water does not remember the riverbed of ten years ago. But paper does. Paper keeps insisting on the old shape long after the water has moved on. Do this with the people who share your life, not alone at a desk. A pod, a partner, a family — sit together. What insures one person often depends on another. The review is not paperwork. It is a conversation about who protects whom, now, as things actually are.
Start by asking what still exists. A policy is a promise about something — a house, a child, a job. When the thing changes, the promise should change too. Gather every policy. For each, ask: does this still protect something real? That question alone will show you the way.
What changes unlock by starting
- A clear list of what you're actually covered for, agreed on together, not assumed
- At least one policy dropped or changed because it no longer matched real life
- A shared, current answer to 'who depends on this income'
- A standing yearly date to do this again, so it never goes ten years quiet