Do you have enough life insurance? Is the policy provided by your employer enough to take care of your family? At Goodman Insurance, Inc. in Shelton, CT, we know many people have questions about how much life insurance they really need.

Employer-Provided

Usually, employers provide their employees with life insurance at no cost. But is that coverage enough? Honestly, the life insurance provided by your employer might not be enough. Studies show most people need life insurance coverage which is equal to at least five times their current annual salary. But some experts say that number won’t be enough. Instead, they recommend as much as ten times your current salary.

Questions to Ask

The best way to tell if you need to purchase more life insurance is to ask yourself one question: Would your death place a financial burden on your loved ones? If the answer is yes, you need to think about purchasing additional life insurance.

The Overall Picture

When considering additional life insurance, make sure you consider your complete financial picture. The death benefits provided by your life insurance does not take into account things like second incomes, medical insurance benefits or retirement contributions. Make sure you add these things to your calculations when looking at your annual salary.

Make sure you think about life insurance for your spouse, too. Your employer may provide health insurance for you, but they don’t always provide life insurance for your spouse. Many couples forget about this. This can be problematic if one person stays at home to take care of the kids or works for an employer who does not provide life insurance.

What You Can Do

It’s definitely a good idea to take advantage of the free or low-cost insurance your employer offers, but it’s also a good idea to consider additional coverage. Contact our independent agents today. We can help you choose the policy that fits your needs.

If you are considering additional life insurance in Shelton, CT, call Goodman Insurance, Inc.

Many small business owners and company managers believe that commercial insurance is only something professional offices would use or need, such as attorneys or doctors. The term commercial insurance is often confused with malpractice insurance, a coverage type specific to a licensed professional who has a higher duty of care in how they do their work than a standard business, ergo the license requirement.

In fact, commercial insurance in Shelton, CT and elsewhere is the kind of risk protection every business should have regardless of industry, even restaurants. It helps cover risks associated with the customer, product and service delivery, employees, and more. It is the primary protection every business should make sure is in place before operating and dealing with the public.

Shelton, CT is no different than anywhere else for business. When something goes wrong, people look to hold somebody financial responsible, and that sort of response can wipe out years of hard work, progress and company growth in a matter of a few sheets of legal paper and filings in court.

Contact us

The professional staff at Goodman Insurance, Inc. are well versed in available coverage options and what Shelton, CT businesses will need for risk protection. They don’t take a cookie-cutter approach; instead, these experts work with each business, determine the basic needs and what will be needed for growth, and then craft a business insurance approach that makes sense. So if your internet, restaurant, home business, or manufacturing company needs commercial insurance, then you need to stop waiting and pick up the phone to talk with the folks at Goodman Insurance, Inc.

As a parent, you know that you can carry life insurance on a child who is under the age of 18. But once your child reaches the age of 18, you may find yourself wondering if you are still legally allowed to carry life insurance on your child. Here at Goodman Insurance, Inc., serving the greater Shelton, CT area, we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have about life insurance.

Life Insurance for my Adult Child

A parent can carry a life insurance policy on their adult child. This is because you have an insurable interest in your child. You may still support your child, and if they were to pass away, you might pay for some or all of their funeral and final expenses. If you had carried life insurance on your child when they were a minor, nothing is likely to change with the policy once they shift over into adulthood. 

If you are a parent who does not have life insurance on your adult child, but you are thinking about taking out a policy on them before they head off to college or out into the real world, you are still able to take out coverage. However, taking out a policy on an adult is a bit different than taking out a policy on a child. If your child is over the age of 18, they have to consent to allow you take out the policy on their life. If they do not agree to it, you will not be able to take out a life insurance policy on them. 

If you are looking to take out a new life insurance policy on your minor or adult child in the greater Shelton, CT area, Goodman Insurance, Inc. can help you find the best plan for your needs. Call us now to get started. 

When you own a property outright — whether it’s your home or for business purposes — you’re generally not required to purchase insurance for it. The theory is that you’re the owner and you can do what you like with it. All repairs are completely out of pocket if you don’t have insurance to cover them. But everyone who has a business usually has some form of commercial insurance, even if it’s just general liability. When it comes to this special type of insurance, many owners may mistakenly believe that certain things are covered when they aren’t. Learn more about property damage and how you can prevent it with Goodman Insurance, Inc. 

General Liability Limits 

General liability will cover a number of different things, but property damage is not one of them. So if anything happens to your structure or your grounds, you will need to pay for the repairs on your own. Damage in Shelton, CT is generally in the form of a natural weather event, such as a blizzard or a major thunderstorm. It may knock out your windows or irreparably harm your inventory. It may even shut down your business for several days, affecting your overall profits and possibly ruining your reputation with your customers. 

Avoiding the Fall-Out 

One of the ways to protect yourself in Shelton, CT is by getting a better policy that works for your business. The best policies will not only cover the repairs so that you’re back up and running in no time, but they also ensure that you don’t have any lost wages because of property damage. For more information, call Goodman Insurance, Inc. today. We can provide additional ways on how you can help your business fight all the threats that may affect it. 

One of the questions that we are frequently asked at Goodman Insurance, Inc. is how a baby can affect your life insurance policy. Here are a few of the ways that a baby may influence your life insurance policy in the Shelton, CT area. 

Becoming Your Beneficiary

If you have a child, you may want to change who the beneficiary is on your life insurance policy. Many people make the child, or the person who will be the guardian of the child, the recipient of their policy if they are not married or in a relationship. If you have a life insurance policy, you may want the money to benefit your child by paying for their college education, providing them a start with a savings account, or preventing them from going into future debt. Designating your child or their guardian as the beneficiary helps you to make this happen. 

Increasing Your Policy Amount

The other reason why your life insurance policy may need to change after having a child is that you may need to increase your policy amount. After having a child, you are no longer responsible for just supporting yourself. You are now responsible for caring for and supporting a child. If you were to pass away, this could place a significant burden on the child’s other parent, which may result in the child growing up differently than how you planned. Increasing your life insurance policy helps your child to grow up without worrying about having a roof over their head or food in their belly thanks to your life insurance policy. 

If you have recently had a baby, now is a great time to either buy your first life insurance policy or increase the value of your policy. Contact Goodman Insurance, Inc. serving the greater Shelton, CT area today to get started.

Suppose that you’ve crunched the numbers and discovered that you’re fine without insurance for now. Your Shelton, CT business has very low overhead, and you can comfortably cover, out of pocket, any damages you suffer while doing business. So this leaves the question of whether you are legally required to attain commercial insurance.

This question comes down to a number of factors, but the short answer is: You might not.

Insurance becomes legally complicated when liability enters the picture. If you’re self-employed, then you’re technically a small business owner, but not every self-employed individual carries a policy with Goodman Insurance, Inc. There’s very little concern regarding liability when it comes to, say, website design or selling vintage clothing in an Etsy shop.

Liability comes into play in a number of instances, and for business owners, these will generally come down to:

1. Inviting people (customers, clients, business partners) onto the business premises
2. Selling products that may be potentially hazardous (workout equipment, car parts, etc.)
3. Driving (delivery, and transportation)

You may have a personal policy in place that already covers the first or third item on the list. Your car insurance will cover you for trips to the bank on company time, for instance, but you may need to talk to someone at Goodman Insurance, Inc. about getting commercial coverage to protect your client’s cargo for delivery runs. In any event, a general rule of thumb is that commercial insurance will be up to the individual business owner when it comes to protecting your end of things, but legally prerequisite when it comes to putting others at risk. If your business isn’t already covered on these fronts, call Goodman Insurance, Inc. in Shelton, CT about a commercial policy.

When you acquire your life insurance policy through Goodman Insurance, Inc., a question you will naturally have is: How are taxes arranged on this sort of thing? You’d rather not have your family paying half their payout to the IRS, right? So how does it work? Let’s go through it step by step.

• In Shelton, CT, you don’t have to worry about the actual payout being taxed. The amount of money for which you are insured goes right into your beneficiaries’ pockets, from the insurer to the loved ones. There may be legal fees and so on in some scenarios, but the taxman has nothing to do with this exchange.
• Interests and profits are taxed. If your insurance policy relies on payouts from an investment, then this money will be taxed like any other investment, be it stocks, small business, venture capitalism, and so on.
• The purchase of an insurance policy does not involve any taxation. Rather, you do not have to pay any taxes in this regard. Any taxes related to the business of insuring will be paid by the insurer.
• After the payout, the money is just regular money. While the initial payout was not taxed, if your nephew wants to take his share and start a business with it, he’s going to have to pay all the same taxes he would have had he started the business with a loan or with his income.

With a cash payout, you can effectively get through the whole process without involving the IRS on any level whatsoever. Life insurance is one of the only exchanges we have left where the IRS will not come in and ask for their cut.

Reach out to our agents at Goodman Insurance, Inc. in Shelton, CT asks questions about life insurance and learn how to start a policy.