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Comment by warner25 | Hacker News Reader

> Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage.

Agreed. I'm a personal finance nerd, and it felt like an epiphany when I discovered this a few years ago, because it's rarely discussed but seems so important. I max out our UM/UIM coverage now.

Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners. The closest thing I've found is UM/UIM coverage, since the most likely cause of disability is a car crash. Presumably it would pay for at least some of the other things beyond medical bills.

> Buy liability insurance when you rent a car.

Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance?

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>>My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids.

There is absolutely disability insurance for homemakers and non income spouses in the USA. I've written that exact policy both individual and for employers / employees.

>Side note: My wife is a stay-at-home mom and I've long wished for a disability insurance product that would cover the economic value that she provides, i.e. cover the cost of daycare / after-school care if she couldn't care for the kids. As far as I can tell, there's no such product for people who aren't wage earners.

AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow.

The only other alternative I know of is life insurance but of course that covers death, not disability.

> AD&D... most commonly offered by workplaces

Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance?

I remember finding one product sold to individuals including stay-at-home parents a few years ago by Bright Peak Financial. Now I can't even get their website to load to see any details, so maybe it doesn't even exist anymore, but the coverage limits were pitifully low. Like it would cover only fraction of our childcare costs, and only for a time measured in months.

We definitely have term life coverage on her that will run until our youngest kid is a teenager.

>Like the employer offers coverage that extends to a non-employee spouse, like family health insurance?

Yes. I believe it’s typically offered for just you, you+spouse, or you+family - like health insurance. Lots of info on Google.

> AD&D (accidental death and disability) is the closest you’ll come. It’s most commonly offered by workplaces I believe, and is not expensive. On the flip side the situations it pays out are pretty narrow.

This is the problem. Those policies usually cover “unable to work at all” which is extremely narrow (some won’t pay out if you can do any job anywhere, even if you were a doctor lawyer 10 programmer CEO before).

You can find a policy to cover stay at home spouses, but they’re often somewhat custom, expensive, and only pay out until children are X age. Long-term care can also be added, even more.

Getting the umbrella is good, because during the process they review the rest of your insurance (at least they did for me).

>stay at home mom

I'm in the same situation, it sure would be nice. We do both have life insurance at least.

>Why do you say this instead of just relying on the liability coverage under your regular auto insurance?

To be careful. If you don't buy it, make absolutely sure that your own auto insurance covers it. [also people who don't own a car won't have auto insurance..]

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