07/25/2022
With summer upon us, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting another active hurricane season for 2022, we wanted to help ensure you and your family are financially prepared for the uncertainty of inclement weather. Here are some tips to create a financial preparedness kit.
Maintain an emergency fund. Keeping three to six months of savings that you can draw on quickly can be invaluable during a natural disaster. Also consider keeping a few hundred dollars in cash on hand in case your area loses power or ATMs are out of commission.
Use account alerts.1 This will help you stay on top of your accounts and bills if you’re displaced from your home. Also, make sure that your phone number and email are up to date. You can do this by calling our customer assistance line at 1‑800‑219‑9739.
Protect your credit. Keep the contact information for your creditors — such as your mortgage lender, credit card companies, and utilities — in your financial preparedness kit. If you have to evacuate your home, reach out to creditors as soon as possible to request a temporary reprieve from payments.
Review your insurance. Your insurance policies can help you recover financially from a disaster, provided you have the right coverage. Review your property, flood, life, and disability insurance policies once a year when you receive the new documents from your insurer.
Gather key documents. Keep birth and marriage certificates, passports, wills, deeds, tax returns, insurance policies, and stock and bond certificates in a safe place, or on an external hard drive. These records are often needed for tax and insurance purposes.
Take inventory of your possessions. Make a list or use a smartphone or camera to make a visual record of your possessions, including cars, boats, and recreational vehicles. Upload ALL to your Cloud as phones can be destroyed .
Back up your Phone /Computers nightly (best) or weekly including contacts and messages to your Cloud. Be sure your business computers are backed up securely. Speak to your administrator about your company procedures and security systems to be compliant.
