Whether we’re talking about employee benefits or extra features attached to your credit card, those large and small add-ons can be significant. As an example, some credit cards will cover rental car insurance premiums. These premiums are often more than one day’s rental. Sometimes there are restrictions where you must reserve the rental car with the affiliated credit card. A benefit like this can save you money and simplify the rental car process. Employee benefit programs usually have some sort of life and disability insurance coverage. But, under what circumstances do they pay out? For how long? And, what happens if you leave your work? Knowing you have a benefit is not the same as understanding the specifics so you can plan and streamline other areas of your finances to integrate these things. And, thinking you have a benefit, then discovering at the time of claim that what you thought you had wasn’t actually the way the benefit worked is not the time to do your research. This is often the case with disability insurance claims or some household insurance policies.

Where would you start to fully understand the specifics of your benefits? Begin by sourcing your policies, employee handbooks and other information about extra benefits attached to financial vehicles. Make sure you have a record of the details and that someone in your family could easily find them if you were unable to handle your affairs. Next, start to make notes about what benefits you have so all this information is in one place. While you are documenting your benefits, highlight the language that might be unclear, or questions that come up, or potential gaps that surface so you can take this information to your financial professional for review. Benefits, especially insurance benefits, are not something to be taken lightly.