Top 5 Insurance Moves for 2026

As we say goodbye to 2025, it’s only natural that you would want to be prepared for whatever comes your way in the new year. The new year brings with it new challenges, and you’re going to want to ensure that your insurance coverage is as current and comprehensive as possible. Let’s go over the top 5 insurance moves that you’ll want to take into account as we move into 2026.

Home & Property Insurance 

Have you recently purchased a new house or a second home? If so, you’ll ideally want to update your home insurance. One way to do this is to verify the replacement cost. The replacement cost value, better known as RCV, is how much it would cost you today to replace your belongings. 

Perhaps you’ve recently done extensive renovations or upgrades to your house. Make sure your coverage is up to date going into the new year, so that if anything goes awry, you have the coverage to address it. 

Luxury Assets

Jewelry, fine art, wine collections, and yachts are some examples of things that might be in your high valued asset list. You might also have a list of valuable items in your possession, or a schedule of them, that you would want to insure. As 2026 approaches, reviewing this schedule of items to ensure the information and appraisals are up to date is paramount to protecting your assets. 

Income Protection

Life insurance is a necessary safety net for those who are left behind in a fatal event. It can serve as a replacement income for a family, cover outstanding debts after death, or fund future education costs for family members. If you’ve gotten a bonus or an increase in your pay, it would benefit you to look at and assess the life insurance limits against your current earnings. Even though it’s difficult to ascertain how much is necessary to put aside, there are a couple of life insurance strategies that you can utilize:

• Multiple-of-Income Approach: A quick and easy way to determine your life insurance coverage is to multiply your total annual income by 5-10. However, this often doesn’t leave those left behind with enough to meet their goals. 

• Human Life Value Approach: This method replaces your income, estimating how future changes affect your needs to provide more flexibility.

• DIME Method (Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education): Another basic way to calculate life insurance is to add up the significant financial costs and apply your life insurance to that total. Adding up the coverage of outstanding debts, income replacement, anything left on your mortgage if necessary, and the cost of education for your children are some significant financial needs that you may find that you need to account for. 

• Capital Needs Analysis: This highly personalized, complex plan outlines exactly what you need to bridge the gap between a life-altering event and your family's needs. By examining assets, estimating expenses, and judging the return on investments, you should be able to get precisely what you’d need.

Business Interests

Contingency planning is essential when planning a business. As noted earlier, life moves fast, and it’s best to be prepared. When creating a business continuity plan, ensure the key people in your company are listed, excluding the owners. This would be sales managers, superintendents or managers, people that you would trust with your business. Updating and making key adjustments to buy-sell agreements will ensure your successors maintain the success. 

Tax & Estate Planning

As the new year is upon us, tax season comes with it. Your wealth advisor should be your primary advocate for tax efficiency. At Corporate Financial, Inc., we can work with you to coordinate insurance strategies that will make your tax season smooth sailing. You’ll also want to confirm your beneficiaries' designations and your trust's arrangements to ensure peace of mind in the new year. 

The new year is all about starting with a clean slate. Do right by yourself and your business by ensuring your insurance assets are up to date so you can start the new year on the right foot.