For those who have an insurance portfolio made up of several policies, failing to carry out a regular review may mean losing a significant amount of money. After all, when you add up all the annual premiums, this amount represents a substantial share of your household budget.
However, the question many people ask is: how often should I review my insurance portfolio?
In truth, there is no single correct answer that applies to everyone. It all depends on the number of products and their type. But at a minimum, you should review your insurance portfolio annually. If you do it semi-annually, even better. This is because the potential for savings increases, especially if your portfolio includes mandatory insurance linked to a home loan.
To understand why you should review your insurance portfolio regularly and how you can save money, take a look at the main points to consider below.
Why should I review my insurance portfolio regularly?
Reviewing your insurance portfolio every six months or annually is essential if you want to reduce the burden on your household budget.
In many families, the insurance portfolio includes at least:
- Car insurance;
- Health insurance;
- Life insurance linked to a home loan and multi-risk home insurance.
However, there may be other policies, such as:
- Credit insurance;
- Pet insurance;
- And even occupational accident insurance, if you are self-employed.
Looking at these policies, it is natural that, without regular review, you may be paying premiums that are too high compared to market prices.
After all, this is an extremely competitive market, in which insurance companies have to update their prices, create promotional campaigns, or align with competitors’ prices if they want to attract new customers.
But existing customers do not always benefit from these advantages. Therefore, if you want to save money, you need to request quotations from other insurers to ensure you get the best conditions the market has to offer, taking into account your needs. Through these proposals, you have the opportunity to switch insurers (or renegotiate your terms) for the policies you have taken out.
By reviewing your insurance portfolio frequently, you can also assess whether there are duplicate coverages contracted under different policies. If you identify any, you should request their removal, as they may be increasing your premium unnecessarily.
In addition, you reduce the likelihood of maintaining coverages that no longer make sense. In other words, when you keep the same insurance policy for several years without analysing the contractual conditions and coverages included, you may be spending dozens of extra euros on coverage that once made sense at a certain stage of your life but is no longer useful today.
I’m going to review my insurance portfolio next month. Which policies should I analyse first?
It depends. If you have annual policies that are automatically renewed and are only a few months away from the end of the contract, these should be your priority. This is because, if you find a better offer and want to cancel the policy, depending on your contract, you must send prior notice to the insurer by registered letter, with a notice period that may be 30, 60, or 90 days. Check carefully what is stated in the contractual conditions of your policy.
Source: Doutor Finanças
