Our family has received phone calls from friends and relatives in Europe asking if we’re okay and if there is anything they can do so the concern goes well beyond the borders of the United States. People are normally concerned about the value of their property and how much the equity in their home is increasing but there is another valuation metric that people need to be aware of and that is the replacement cost of their house in the event of a tragic event. Yesterday I called my Farmer’s agent to inquire about an auto insurance issue and for the first time in years I had to leave a message because they were so busy with homeowner insurance customers inquiring about their coverage. People wanted to know what their coverage was and whether their policy was still in force. While you are wiping the ashes off of your car and breathing smoke-filled air is not the time to check on this and hopefully a few lessons have been learned. You need to make sure that you have coverage in place and make sure you are properly covered. More than ½ of the residential homes in the US are underinsured by more than 20% and if you fall victim to a tragedy and lose your home, you want to be in the 50% that are properly insured. Some agents will low ball the coverage to give you a better premium so you’ll go with them and well, you get it. The responsibility to see that you are adequately covered with homeowner insurance is all yours.