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Over just the last two years, we’ve seen historic levels of damage caused by natural disasters in the U.S. From blizzards in Texas and wildfires in California to hurricanes in Louisiana and tornados in the Midwest, few regions of the country are immune to such catastrophes. And based on the latest data from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), things are only going to get worse.

The WMO found that climate change has helped drive a five-fold increase in the number of weather-related disasters in the last 50 years, and these calamities are getting more severe each year. As a result of climate change, weather records are being broken all the time, turning previously impossible events into deadly realities.

Despite this threat, a majority of homeowners lack the insurance coverage needed to protect their property and possessions from such calamities. Roughly 64% of homeowners don’t have enough insurance, according to a 2020 report from CoreLogic, the nation’s largest source of property and housing data. One major factor contributing to this lack of coverage is the mistaken belief that homeowners insurance offers adequate protection from natural disasters.

In truth, however, much of the damage caused by natural disasters is not covered by a standard homeowners policy. To fully protect your home and other property, you often need to purchase a separate policy or endorsement that covers specific types of natural disasters. To help you get the proper coverage, here we’ve highlighted the various types of insurance available and explained what these policies typically will—and won’t—cover.

Although homeowners insurance typically doesn’t pay for damage caused by natural disasters, most policies do cover fire damage, including wildfires like the recent ones that have devastated the West. Generally, the only instances of fire damage a homeowners policy won’t cover are fires caused by arson or when fire destroys a home that’s been vacant for at least 30 days when the fire occurred.

That said, not all homeowners policies are created equal, so you should review your policy to make certain that it includes enough coverage to do three things: replace your home’s structure, replace your belongings, and cover your living expenses while your home is being repaired, known as “loss-of-use” coverage.

What’s more, in certain areas that are extremely high-risk for wildfires, it can be quite difficult to find a private company to insure your home. In such cases, you should look into state-sponsored fire insurance, such as California’s FAIR Plan.

Unlike fires, earthquakes are typically not covered by homeowners policies. To protect your home against earthquakes, you will need a freestanding earthquake insurance policy. And contrary to popular belief, Californians aren’t the only ones who should have such coverage.

Most parts of the U.S. are at some risk for earthquakes. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey found that between 1975 to 1995, earthquakes occured in every state except Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. To gauge the risk in your region, consult with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) earthquake hazard maps.

While earthquake insurance is available just about everywhere, policies in high-risk areas typically come with high deductibles, ranging from 10% to 15% of a home’s total value. Additionally, though earthquake insurance covers damage directly caused by the quake, some related damage, such as that caused by flooding, will likely not be covered. Carefully review your policy to see what’s included—and what’s not.

Though homeowners insurance generally covers flood damage caused by faulty infrastructure like leaky or broken pipes, nearly all policies exclude flood damage caused by natural events like heavy rain, overflowing rivers, and hurricanes. To protect your property and possessions from these events, you’ll need stand-alone flood insurance.

The threat from flooding is so widespread, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968, which allows homeowners in flood-prone areas to purchase flood insurance backed by the federal government. In some coastal regions, especially where hurricanes are prevalent, you might even be required by law to have flood insurance for your home. To determine the risk for your property, consult FEMA’s Flood Maps.

Even if you live in a location where flood insurance isn’t required, you may want to consider buying it anyway. That’s because 90% of all natural disasters include some form of flooding, and more than 20% of flood-damage claims come from properties outside high-risk flood zones. Given how commonplace flood damage can be, you should carefully consider whether or not such coverage is warranted in your area.

Most homeowners policies do provide coverage for wind-related damage. However, whether or not a policy covers such claims often depends on the type of storm that caused the damage. For example, wind damage from tornadoes and even some tropical storms is typically covered, while wind damage from hurricanes generally requires a separate windstorm policy, or in some cases, a hurricane rider.

Because damage from hurricanes is often measured in the billions, windstorm policies usually have high deductibles, and they are frequently based on a percentage of your home’s value, instead of a fixed dollar amount. Some policies also come with a cap on coverage, so be sure to review exactly what type and amount of coverage your policy offers.

Of course, high winds aren’t the only threat posed by hurricanes. These tropical systems often cause severe flooding, which is typically the storm’s most damaging element. But as mentioned earlier, whether it’s caused by a hurricane or a tornado, flooding is generally not covered by homeowners insurance. For flood protection, you’ll need to purchase a separate flood insurance policy through the NFIP.

Beyond having the right insurance, if your family is forced to evacuate your home in the event of a natural disaster, you’ll need important documents and supplies on-hand to recover in the wake of the catastrophe. We recommend you take a cue from the U.S. military, which requires its members to always have a “go-bag” ready and packed with the essential items needed to survive for at least three days following a disaster or other emergency.

In addition to clothes, toiletries, medications, and food, your go-bag should include copies of your passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, state ID card, and/or other essential identification. Other documents to pack include the deed to your home if you have one on-hand, copies of your insurance policies, the original copy of your will (if your lawyer isn’t already storing it for you in a fireproof safe), vehicle titles/registration, and a recent family photo with faces clearly visible for easy identification.

While all of your estate planning documents should be included in your go-bag, having your medical power of attorney and living will readily accessible is especially critical for medical emergencies. Without these documents, doctors and other medical professionals won’t know your wishes for treatment or which of your loved ones should help them make decisions in the event of your incapacity from illness or injury, which is all the more likely during a disaster scenario.

To make everything as portable as possible, download your estate plan and other important documents to a flash drive you can carry in your go-bag, and upload additional copies to the cloud.

Finally, make sure your family knows about your go-bag and estate planning documents—as well as how to find them. Even if you have all of the necessary legal documents in place, they won’t do you any good if your loved ones don’t know about them or can’t quickly locate them during an emergency. You might even want to keep your go-bag near your home’s primary exit, so you or someone else can grab it on the way out the door.

Obviously, not all of your family’s belongings can be replaced, so you should take additional precautions to safeguard your most precious sentimental items: photo albums, home videos, old letters, family histories, and treasured cards from the past. Since you won’t have the time or space to pack these items in your go-bag, we recommend you make digital copies of these keepsakes and store them in the cloud.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we are keenly aware of the priceless value these items represent, and we believe safely storing your sentimentals online is so important we offer this as a service to all of our clients. Be sure to ask us how we can help you preserve your family’s most precious mementos.

To make certain that you have the proper insurance and other estate planning documents in place to protect your home, family, and belongings from the ever-increasing threat posed by natural disasters, consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer®. We’ll help you evaluate the specific risks for your area, assess the value of your home and other assets, and support you to obtain the proper insurance and estate planning vehicles to fully safeguard you and your loved ones from every possible emergency. Call us today to get started.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.

If your company has (or plans to have) employees, you should definitely create an employee handbook. Handbooks ensure that employees are not only aware of your rules, but also the federal and state laws governing their employment.

You can use the handbook to introduce your employees to your company and its culture, explaining what’s expected of them—and what they can expect from you. Though they should never take the place of employment contracts, handbooks can provide you with another layer of legal protection if an employee ever decides to take you to court.

The handbook should reflect the way you do business, and whatever policies you include in it should be consistently enforced. Depending on the size and scope of your operation, the handbook’s content can vary widely. However, the US Small Business Administration suggests including the following eight topics as a start.  

Provide a general overview of your business, its philosophy, history, and culture. In addition to this introduction, point out that the handbook is not a contract—merely a general overview of your basic policies—and as such, it offers no promise of continued employment and is subject to change with time.

Lay out your company’s policies regarding work hours, schedules, attendance, and telecommuting. Here, you may want to discuss sick leave, PTO, family and medical leave, bereavement, jury duty, and military leave. Also, list holidays your company observes, along with your vacation policy, spelling out how vacation time is earned and how to schedule time off.

Include a section covering the state and federal laws related to non-discrimination, equal employment opportunity, and harassment, such as Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act. You should let employees know how they’re expected to comply and describe the procedures you have in place for reporting violations and/or complaints.

Having a procedure in place for documenting complaints can help protect your business from legal liability for things like sexual harassment and discrimination. Just be sure you’re aware of the specific laws in your state, as they can vary greatly depending on where your offices—and employees—are located.

Discuss the methods of payment you offer like check, direct deposit, and online pay applications, along with listing pay periods and pay dates. If applicable, lay out your overtime policies as well as any additional compensation options, such as bonuses and stock options.

Discuss your expectations and rules for employee behavior. Depending on your company, this can include a wide variety of issues, such as dress code, smoking policy, sexual harassment, personal cell-phone use, alcohol/substance use, and inter-office dating.

Pay special attention to policies regarding web technology like email, social media, and texting. Inform your employees that such office communications are not private and may be monitored.

Also discuss any conflict-resolution procedures and/or employee discipline processes you have in place related to managing employee behavior.

Include a brief summary of the benefits you offer, such as healthcare, life insurance, dental, vision, and retirement plans. Don’t go into specific details here; refer them to the official plan documents for a full explanation. That said, you should discuss who’s eligible for benefits, when and how to enroll, as well as how benefits can be changed after certain events, like marriage, divorce, and/or birth of child.

Lay out your policies for creating a safe and secure workplace. This might include your compliance with any applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws requiring employees to report accidents, injuries, potential safety hazards, safety suggestions, and health issues to management.

If applicable, include your safety policies regarding driving company vehicles, as well as any procedures for dealing with natural disasters and/or severe weather conditions. Don’t forget that by law many states require companies to inform employees of their states workers compensation policies in writing, so it may be a good idea to include those here too.

To verify that your employees have read and agree to abide by these rules, you should include an acknowledgement page at the end, which employees are required to sign. The acknowledgement should state that the employee has read, understands, and agrees to follow the handbook’s policies. It’s a good idea to make this page detachable, and once signed, place it in their personnel file.

From its initial creation and editing to the final approval before printing, we can help you with every step of developing your employee handbook. And given the handbook covers sensitive legal issues, it’s actually crucial that you allow us to review your handbook before it’s printed.

Keep in mind, an employee handbook is no substitute for comprehensive employment contracts. We can help you draft these legal agreements as well and then coordinate their content with your handbook, so you have every possible document in place to protect your business from liability.

We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for business owners and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer you a LIFT Your Life And Business Planning Session, which includes a review of all the legal, insurance, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Schedule online today.

The typical formula for financial planning is to earn enough income, so you can invest a portion of it with Wall Street in hopes that one day you’ll accumulate enough wealth to retire. The plan is to sock enough money away over 30+ years and pray these investments eventually grow ample enough for you to stop working and live off the interest.

This “accumulation” model is based on Wall Street’s promise: Give us control over your hard-earned money for 30 years, and through the magic of the market and compound interest, one day you’ll retire rich.

At least that’s the plan anyway.

But as we all know, whether its due to market downturns, poor investment strategies, or other unforeseen risks, this promise often falls flat. Plus, it takes all of the control over your future out of your hands. Even worse, the mistaken belief that accumulation is the only way to generate retirement income leaves people blind to the numerous other investment options available.

What if instead of investing your money so that one day you might have enough income at the end of your life, you could generate more income now and know you can rely on it continuing for the rest of your life?

What if instead of giving control of your investments over to Wall Street and bankers, you could retain complete autonomy over your financial reality? And what if all you had to do to achieve these goals is to change your mindset about investing?

This new mindset simply requires you to stop focusing on accumulation and begin focusing on cash flow.

To generate increased cash flow, you could invest in income-generating assets that aren’t tied to the market’s interest rates, but instead to that which you’re connected and control. These kinds of investments can provide you with income in the near term (often on a monthly basis) rather than decades down the road—and it continues for life.

At some point, the cash flow from these assets becomes self-sustaining. When this happens, instead of waiting 30 years to retire from your business, you can retire into your business in 5-10 years or even sooner.

When done well, creating a cash flow model centered around what you truly enjoy, you may not want to retire from your business for a long time, if ever. By focusing on cash flow instead of accumulation, you don’t have to sacrifice your happiness now and wait until your 60s to really live life.

Cash-flow-based investing lets you enjoy life now, with the peace of mind that your financial objectives are already being met.

Just like water stagnates when it’s left to accumulate, so does money. The key to cash-flow investing is to keep your money in motion. Rather than letting it sit in retirement accounts for decades, while your banker and broker uses it to make more cash for themselves, you could leverage your money to generate income for yourself now.

Investing your money in cash-flow-generating assets is absolutely doable, and the exploding popularity of the “side hustle” shows that just about anyone can do it. Best of all, since you’re already a business owner, you know you’re capable because you’ve created at least one successful income stream already.

Some of the most popular of these assets include rental properties, equity investing, and cash-rich small businesses like car washes and coffee shops. Today, however, web technology has created a boom of new opportunities through online crowdfunding, eBay, peer-to-peer lending, Uber, online business, and many others.

And though you may think you should invest in an entirely new business, it’s often easier and more efficient to produce multiple income streams from the business you already own. For example, if your business has a website, there are all kinds of potential revenue sources, from online ads and affiliate marketing to podcasting, e-books, and membership programs.

And no matter what kind of company you run, you can always use your business expertise to make money through consulting, public speaking, book royalties, and franchise opportunities.

With so many investment opportunities to choose from, it’s never been easier to secure your financial future by creating multiple income streams. If you’re ready to shift your investment strategy from accumulation to cash flow, contact us so we can help.

We’ll ensure your current business is as financially sound as possible, so you have ample cash on-hand to fund new ventures. Then we’ll help you find ideal new assets to invest in, and work to ensure that each one generates maximum income with minimal risk.

We can coordinate your legal strategies, tax planning, insurance policies, and financial systems for all of your business assets, so you can keep your money in constant motion and working for you, not Wall Street.

We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule. Or, schedule online.

These days, lots of people consider their pets to be members of their family. Indeed, pets can become our closest companions. As such, it’s only natural you’d want to make sure your furry friend is provided for in your estate plan, so when you die or if you become incapacitated, your beloved companion won’t end up in an animal shelter or worse.

However, unlike your human family members, pets are considered your personal property under the law, so you can’t just name them as a beneficiary in your will or trust. If you do name your pet as a beneficiary in your plan, whatever money you tried to leave to it would go to your residuary beneficiary (the individual who gets everything not specifically left to your other named beneficiaries), who would have no obligation to care for your pet.

Since you can’t name your pet as a beneficiary, your first alternative might be to leave your pet and money for its care in your will to someone you trust to be your pet’s new caregiver. While it’s possible to leave funding for your pet in this manner, it definitely isn’t the best option.

That’s because the person you name as beneficiary (the new caregiver) in your will would have no legal obligation to use the funds properly, even if you leave them detailed instructions for your pet’s care. In fact, your pet’s new owner could legally keep all of the money for themselves and drop off your beloved friend at the local shelter.

You’d like to think that you could trust someone to take care of your pet if you leave him or her money in your will to do so. Yet it’s simply impossible to predict what circumstances might arise in the future that could make adopting your pet impossible.

For example, when you die, the new caregiver might be living in an apartment or condo that doesn’t allow pets, or the individual could be suffering from an unforeseen illness that leaves them no longer able to care for the animal. Or, when faced with the reality of the situation, the person could simply change his or her mind about wanting to look after your pet for the rest of its life.

Additionally, a will is required to go through the court process, which can last for months or even years, leaving your pet in limbo until is finalized. Not to mention, a will only goes into effect upon your death, so if you’re incapacitated by accident or illness, it would do nothing to protect your companion.

In order to be completely confident that your pet is properly taken care of and the money you leave for its care is used exactly as intended, ask us to help you create a pet trust.

By creating a pet trust, you can lay out detailed, legally binding rules for how your pet’s chosen caregiver can use the funds in the trust. And unlike a will, a pet trust does not go through, so it goes into effect immediately and works in cases of both your incapacity and death.

What’s more, a pet trust allows you to name a trustee, who is legally bound to manage the trust’s funds and ensure your wishes for the animal’s care are carried out in the manner the trust spells out. And to provide a system of checks and balances to ensure your pet’s care, you might want to name someone other than the person you name as caregiver as trustee.

In this way, you’d have two people invested in the care of your pet and seeing that the money you leave for its care is used wisely.

To ensure your pet trust is properly created and contains all of the necessary elements, meet with us. With our guidance and support, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your beloved pet will receive the kind of love and care it deserves when you’re no longer around to offer it.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.