**Everyone who owns a home needs seniors homeowners insurance. Especially for seniors, the needs might be changing. Here's how to keep up with what's necessary...**

Quick Guide to Seniors Homeowners Insurance

Let's face it: if you're a senior citizen, your life situation is different now than it was 20 years ago. The kids are gone. If you haven't downsized, the house probably feels enormous and empty...even while it's full of stuff you no longer need or even really want. If you've already downsized, you've got less house to insure and a lot less stuff to worry about. Maybe you've become a snowbird, spending a good part of each year in a sunshine home, or you travel the roads of America in an RV for 6 months a year. Perhaps you've really lightened up and no longer own a home at all; you're a renter now.

Whatever your senior situation, chances are your insurance needs have also changed with the years. Have you got the right home insurance or renters insurance for this point in your life?

This is a good time to take out your policy and check your homeowners insurance. For seniors, question one is: How are you living now? Do you own or rent? Do you live in a house, a townhouse, a condo, a co-op, an apartment, a mobile or manufactured home? All of these have specific home insurance needs. If you own the structure of your home, you need a homeowners policy that protects that physical structure against damage. If you own a townhouse, condo or co-op, find out if your association protects the entire building. You're probably responsible for covering the interior structure yourself. In case of fire or other catastrophe, you'll have to replace the drywall and paint, lighting fixtures, cabinets and flooring. If you rent, you're not responsible for insuring the structure of your home, but what about all your stuff?

If you're a homeowner, insurance protects your home’s physical structure, and your personal property—clothes, furniture, jewelry, electronics and all the other things you've accumulated over the decades of your long life. If you're a tenant, renter's insurance protects your personal property. You might think the landlord’s home insurance covers you and your things. That could be an expensive error. Your landlord’s insurance only protects the building, not your stuff.

Whether you own or rent, you probably need liability protection in case an accident on your property injures someone or damages their property.

Let's take a closer look at the basic features of most insurance policies and what is, or should be, covered:

• Damage or Loss to your House. If you have a fire, or a car drives through the window or a tree falls on the roof, you're covered up to the face amount of the policy. For example, if your coverage is for $200,000, that’s the maximum pay-out you'll get if your house is totally destroyed, minus any deductible. Your policy will use the word "peril," which means any condition that can cause a loss such as fire, windstorm, and theft.
• Damage or Loss to Other Structures. If you've got a detached garage, a garden shed, a pool house, doghouse, fence, or any other structures on the property, this is where they're covered.
• Personal Property. This covers damage to or theft of your things. Household contents, clothes, dishes, anything and everything in your house or yard, goes here. Note: if you have a lot of high-value items like jewelry, paintings or antiques, things like Grandpa's huge collection of antique china bulls, you might need to add special coverage.
• Additional Living Expenses. If your house is unlivable because of a covered incident, you still have to live somewhere. And it's going to cost you. This clause has you covered, up to the stated limit, so you can continue to live, as nearly as possible, at your usual standard of living.
• Comprehensive Personal Liability. When old Joe from next door falls into a pothole in your lawn or your grandson's girlfriend slips on the kitchen floor (never mind that she couldn't see through the layers of black mascara), this protects you against liability claims. With a few exceptions, such as auto and boating accidents, this is usually all-purpose coverage that follows you wherever you go.
• Medical Expenses. Related to liability coverage, this will pay the medical expenses, up to a set amount per person or incident, for injuries that happen to other people on your property. It goes back to that silly girl's fall, or the day your dog bites the neighbor's nasty little kid.
• Flood and Earthquake Insurance. You should know that this is NOT included in your homeowners insurance policy. Remember Hurricane Katrina? All those folks who thought they were covered but weren't? If you live in a flood-prone area, whether from hurricanes, tidal waves, rivers or streams, you need separate flood insurance. It's available through the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Earthquake damage should be covered in a separate policy, too. Smart seniors get a separate earthquake damage policy, even outside of California. Earthquakes can happen anywhere.

One last point: should you insure your home for Actual Cash Value or Replacement Cost? It depends on your needs and your budget.

Actual Cash Value is the amount your home insurance policy will pay out to repair or replace damage to your home minus depreciation. This coverage costs less. Replacement Cost is more complete. It will pay to replace or repair your home to the same standard it was before the incident, including materials of similar kind and quality, without deducting for depreciation.

And remember, you don't need insurance for the full market value of your home. That figure includes the land itself, which you'll still have even if a tornado carries your house off to Oz. So figure how much you need to cover the house, but not the lot.

At this point in your life, an uncovered loss of your home could prove catastrophic indeed. Make sure you have the seniors homeowners insurance you need—but don't pay for coverage you don't need.

http://www.insurance.insureuonline.org/course_seniors.htm
Additional info from fia.com