Solving Your Insurance Puzzle

Apr 09 2025 | Back to Blog List

For clients putting their risk management plan through our comprehensive review process, there can be a sense of alarm when we spot gaps in their coverage. They may feel exposed and vulnerable; some even question the wisdom of the counsel they’ve been getting. Fortunately, blame (usually) isn’t warranted.

Insurance is hard, especially in complex business and financial situations. It takes time and skill to understand all of the implications of an insurance policy, let alone multiple policies, all with different aims, beneficiaries, and fine print. 

That’s why it pays to work with a fiduciary adviser who is dedicated to your best interests, rather than an insurance broker who also happens to sell investment services.

Our fiduciary approach ensures that we understand the bigger picture of what you’re trying to achieve and protect; that in turn allows us to review and recommend insurance strategies that align with your life. We do not sell insurance, but do have all of the resources necessary to help understand and tailor the coverage you need. It’s all about solving the puzzle of insurance you’ve been staring at for months. That’s something we know you can get behind.

Here's how we’re analyzing and optimizing risk management plans for our clients differently.

Common Insurance Gaps and Oversights

Our detailed review process begins with a complete analysis of your current insurance policies, combining our fiduciary expertise with state-of-the-art technology designed specifically for in-depth coverage analysis. That’s usually when we first discover shortfalls, overlaps, or inefficiencies that could compromise your financial security. Those can include things like:

• Insufficient Liability Coverage: Clients with significant assets frequently underestimate their liability exposure, forgoing umbrella policies—assuming they can self-insure—or worse, that catastrophe couldn’t possibly find them. While relying on your liquid assets to cover any claims that may arise feels good, it can leave your estate and legacy vulnerable to potential legal damages or unforeseen liabilities—especially as the cost of litigation continues to rise. A robust umbrella policy can provide a crucial layer of protection many people miss.
• Life Insurance Misalignment: Many high net-worth families hold life insurance primarily for the estate liquidity and potential tax-free death benefits it provides, but not all remember to update their beneficiary designations as their estate plans evolve—a seemingly minor change that can cost your heirs, and your legacy, big time when it comes time to distribute your estate.
• Long-Term Care (LTC) Miscalculations: Many assume their assets are sufficient to cover LTC costs but never actually run the numbers. An extended illness requiring specialized care, such as Alzheimer's or stroke-related care, can rapidly deplete your savings, dramatically altering retirement and legacy plans. Proactively planning for LTC scenarios by exploring insurance solutions as a part of your broader portfolio can help protect your assets and maintain your family’s standard of living.
• Specialized Risks Overlooked: Your lifestyle might introduce unique insurance needs you’ve never considered. For instance, renting out your home on Airbnb during extended absences, hosting fundraising events, or regularly traveling internationally could expose you to liability risks not covered by standard insurance. Identifying and addressing these unique scenarios ensures you're protected, no matter where life takes you.
• Multiple Property Coverage Issues: Owning multiple properties and managing them through multiple policies or providers can inadvertently create gaps in your coverage. Coordinating these policies under a unified strategy and/or through a single, trusted provider, may help eliminate vulnerabilities and simplify the management of your insurance portfolio.

Our goal is not just to uncover these gaps, but also to help you build a risk management strategy that fits seamlessly into your broader financial life plan. How we do that is part of what makes our firm different among other wealth management firms.

A Holistic Approach to Insurance

At Cedar Point Capital Partners, we believe in a holistic approach that views insurance (along with all of your assets) as a carefully coordinated puzzle. Every policy—homeowners, auto, life, health, disability, umbrella, and more—must work in harmony to avoid gaps, inefficiencies, or unintended risk exposures. When policies are handled in isolation, it’s easy for small gaps to develop—and it’s those small gaps that can turn into big problems when you need your insurance coverage the most.

But a holistic approach isn't just about adding more coverage. It's also about taking the time to ask better questions: Is this coverage truly necessary? Is it still serving you and your goals? Looking at that term life insurance policy with five years until premiums spike—you may not need it at this point, but should you discontinue it now even though the payments are so small? We can talk through those specialized and unique situations to help you make the best decisions for your family, and your legacy.

In every risk management review and discussion, we aim to strike the right balance between protecting what matters most and avoiding unnecessary complexity or expense. Some tactics may include:

• Life Insurance as Strategic Liquidity: Beyond replacing income, life insurance can offset estate taxes, ensuring your heirs do not have to liquidate assets to pay tax liabilities. Properly structured life insurance can also balance inheritances among beneficiaries with differing tax situations—your life insurance benefit can go to the child with the higher tax rate, while IRD (Income in Respect of a Decedent) property can go to the child with the lower rate.
• Robust Liability Protection: Comprehensive umbrella liability coverage acts as a critical shield, safeguarding your hard-earned assets from catastrophic liability claims that exceed standard home or auto insurance limits. A properly designed umbrella policy can also cover gaps you didn’t even realize existed, such as protection for claims of libel or slander or incidents occurring while traveling abroad. As your wealth grows, often times so does your visibility—being prepared for unforeseen claims is a core part of protecting your financial future.
• Tailored Long-Term Care Solutions: Traditional long-term care insurance tends to follow a "use it or lose it" proposition, which is why more clients are exploring hybrid solutions, such as life insurance or annuity products that include long-term care coverage benefits. These products offer the flexibility to tap into benefits if care is needed, while providing value to your heirs or estate if it is not. For example, certain annuities allow contract holders to access a multiple of their original annuity premium toward long-term care benefits, providing enhanced security without the fear of wasted premiums—potentially all tax-free!
• Specialized Asset Protection: Collectibles, antiquities, fine art, vintage vehicles or even business interests may be covered under tailored policies, closing common yet overlooked gaps. Specialized coverage ensures that irreplaceable assets are protected for both their monetary and sentimental value.

If it’s time to review your insurance policies or if you need to fill a gap in your protection, we are happy to connect you with a trusted third-party provider that specializes in helping clients with a fiduciary adviser find high-quality insurance policies from top-rated insurers. We do not receive any sort of commission or payment from the referral—it’s just another way we strive to provide the highest level of fiduciary care.

Start Your Comprehensive Insurance Review

Insurance is rarely the most exciting part of financial planning, but it is one of the most important. It’s the safety net that protects everything you’ve worked so hard to build. And like any good safety net, it needs to be strong, thoughtfully designed, and checked regularly to make sure it’s still doing its job.

If you haven’t put your risk management plan through a comprehensive review recently—or if you’re simply wondering whether your coverage still fits your life—we can help. It’s never too late to solve your insurance puzzle, and we’d be honored to help you put the pieces together. Give us a call or send us a message and let’s start your planning journey.

---