Natural disasters: Here’s how you can ensure financial protection

• Follow

Natural calamities come without any prior warning and can turn anyone’s life upside down, causing a loss of life and property, and even livelihood.

On February 7, a glacier burst at Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, endangering lives of people living along its banks.

But how prepared are you for such events?

While you can’t avert a natural calamity, but, you can definitely protect yourself against the financial repercussions.

Comprehensive home insurance policies usually cover the structure of the house and the contents, including prized possessions, against damage from natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, storm, and man-made events like riots, etc.

One must also note that home insurance policy is offered for different types of houses such as home insurance for owners, tenants, and housing society insurance.

“A comprehensive home insurance is an ideal insurance that a person should have that would provide the needful cover against natural disaster to the structure and also items inside it. With home insurance a person can at least bear the financial losses in case of a man made or natural calamity,” said Naval Goel, CEO and founder, PolicyX.co.

A house is one of the most expensive assets one builds in life. However, only a miniscule percentage of India’s population uses cover against natural disasters.

Goel believes that in India, lack of awareness and complex procedures of investing in a home insurance policy are the primary reasons.

“They still don’t consider the same as important as having health insurance,” he said.

Just like our property, our vehicles can get severely damaged, if not destroyed, in natural calamities

You can take steps beforehand to ensure your car is insured so you won’t have to pay for the damages out of your pocket.

However, one must remember in motor insurance, there is a rider with respect to engine cover. So, an individual needs to look at the add-on policy cover.

If you have insured your car with a comprehensive policy, then it becomes easier for you to repair it and take care of other damages.