It’s always an exciting time when your child graduates high school and begins a new career as a college student. Parents often face a mixture of emotions as they watch their children transition from high school to college. On one hand, your student has worked hard to graduate, and is stepping into a new life. One the other, that life is often away from the comforts and familiar faces of their hometown. Bieritz Insurance understands this is both an exciting and sometimes challenging time in the lives of both the students and the parents, and wants to help add an extra sense of security for both.
Once upon a time, when a child graduated high school, a graduation watch was the standard gift. As technology has advanced, this has lost its favor. Many parents gift their children a new, top-of-the-line laptop at graduation. The reason is simple – they’re useful, and required for studying and doing homework. Parents want to give their child a gift that will help them to succeed, and students love having a laptop that they can not only take from class to class, but use for leisure time when in the dorm room or with friends. For these reasons, laptops are becoming a very popular gift for college-bound students.
Other common gifts include cell phones, room decor, bicycles and luggage. Everyone is excited to see their students enter a new phase of life, and give the best possible gifts they can afford to help make the shift to college life a smooth transition. What is often overlooked, however, is that students come to the dorm with thousands of dollars worth of items, and the university typically doesn’t offer any sort of reimbursement for lost or stolen items on campus. While students can make a police report and hope a stolen item is returned, if an item is lost, stolen or damaged, the only recourse is to replace it. Unless it’s a manufacture defect for something under warranty, the full price of replacement will be paid by either the student or the parents.
What most people don’t consider is how they can protect the value of those very expensive items once the student is in the dorm room. A lost cell phone? Stolen computer? A dorm mate spills water on their electronics? After investing so much money in helping their student succeed, most parents are confused when it comes to taking the obvious step in protecting those items through insurance. It can be hard to tell what insurance would be best, or what is covered through different plans, and there’s nothing worse than paying your premiums only to find out your coverage is low or your deductibles are high. Our team at Bieritz Insurance understands that deciding on a policy can be confusing, and we can help you find the policy you need.
Bieritz Insurance offers private insurance policies to cover many of these expenses and protect your investment. After all, we are a family-owned and operated agency and understand your concerns. We’ve been in business for over 70 years and have received recognition for being one of the top 30 independent agencies. We hope that we can earn your trust as a customer while providing peace of mind. We’d like to take a moment to explain the different insurance policies that can help protect your college student’s belongings while they are living on-campus.
Homeowner’s Insurance
While most homeowners insurance will extend a portion of coverage to your student off campus, you may be surprised by how little is actually covered. Many homeowners insurance policies only extend a percentage of your limit for items in your home to off campus locations. For example, if you have a $50 thousand dollar policy, only 10 percent of that may apply. Homeowners insurance may also carry variable deductibles that could be higher than replacement value for some items that are lost, damaged or stolen.
Renters Insurance
Renters insurance is designed to offer coverage for items, but it also covers a lot that a dorm student might not need, such as liability for pet bites or slip and fall hazards around the building. As a dorm student, pets aren’t usually allowed and the facility upkeep is the responsibility of the University, so why pay premiums for something that you don’t need?
Dorm Insurance
Dorm insurance is beneficial because it insures only what you want – your belongings – and the deductibles are generally reasonable. Dorm insurance offers an easy and relatively inexpensive way to protect the value of personal items to a higher value than your homeowner’s extension policy, while keeping deductibles low.
As you can see, there are many different types of insurance options available for your student. Deciding which one works the best for you depends on what your needs are. Please contact us at http://bieritzinsurance.com so that we can help you and your family pick exactly the policy that fits your budget and insurance requirements. We look forward to serving you!
Summer. It’s the time of year when the days are long and hot. The kids are out of school and nothing seems like a better idea than hanging out around the pool with your family, hosting backyard bbq parties, and enjoying those extra hours of sunshine. It’s not surprising, then, that many homeowners turn their eyes to their own backyards to contemplate the addition of a pool to their property. Homeowners that already have a pool installed will spend time cleaning and prepping the area in anticipation of summer parties and get togethers. Whether you have a pool or are planning to install one, here are some safety tips to help you enjoy it more and worry less.