Take stock, get coverage ready for storms

The start of the Atlantic tropical storm season is just three weeks away.

The Southeast has mostly avoided Mother Nature's wrath the last two years, but it's only a matter of time before the Lowcountry is hit by another "big one."

Hurricane season officially begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. But don't wait for a storm to blow through before checking to see if you have the right, or enough, insurance.

The time to act is now, because insurance companies often won't take on new business or allow changes to a policy if there's an active storm churning toward the coast.

Take the time now to read your policy and understand what it means. Learn what terms such as "replacement cost" and "actual cash value" mean.

Understand what a deductible is and when it's applied. Keep your policy safe and take it with you if you evacuate.

Allison Love, executive director of the S.C. Insurance News Service, who knows far more about this than I do, went over some basic points.

--To help determine how much insurance you need, take a home inventory.

Go around the home, take pictures, make a list, use a video camera.

Determine how much personal property you have; it'll come in handy if you have to file a claim, whether the damage is from a hurricane or not.

If you have to file a claim you're going to be upset, and it's going to be hard to remember what was in one room, let alone the entire house.

--Check to see if you have a "wind pool" policy and understand what it covers.

If you're in the wind pool, you have a separate policy for wind coverage. Policyholders file a claim with the S.C. Wind and Hail Underwriting Association whenever they receive damage from wind or hail, whether the storm was a hurricane or not.

But just because you live in the wind pool territory doesn't mean you automatically have a wind pool policy. If your insurance company still offers wind coverage, you will make a claim through your regular insurance company.

--Know your deductible, which is the amount paid by a policyholder before insurance kicks in.

Check your insurance policy to see what your deductible is, and be prepared for it well in advance of hurricane season.

If you can, set some money aside in a savings account in case the worst happens.

Many homeowners' policies have percentage deductibles for storm damage instead of traditional dollar deductibles. Percentage deductibles usually are based on the home's insured value.

--Make sure you check your policy to determine if it has actual cash value or replacement-cost coverage.

With actual cash value, if you have a loss, you are reimbursed the depreciated value of the items that were damaged.

In other words, your insurance company pays you what the items were worth at the time of the loss, not what you paid to buy them.

If you have replacement-cost coverage, you're reimbursed at the cost it would take to replace them at today's value.

In other words, if you lost a 28-inch Sony TV of a certain type, you'd get what a new 28-inch Sony TV of a similar type costs today.

Reach Peter Hull at 937-5594 or phull@postandcourier.com.