Chapter 20 - § 20.21 • INSURANCE COVERAGE

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 20.21 • INSURANCE COVERAGE

It is the representative's duty to provide such insurance against perils as is acquired customarily by prudent persons with respect to their own property of a like kind.³⁴

The representative's lawyer will ask for all of the insurance policies covering realty and tangible and intangible personalty, to determine whether the coverage is that which the prudent person would have on his or her own property. Since the lawyer ordinarily will not be an expert on insurance, he or she will need the help of a competent insurance adviser specializing in general lines of insurance, other than life and health. The insurance adviser will be able to suggest what prudent persons are doing currently with respect to insurance on their own property and what limits of coverage are considered adequate, taking into consideration current values of property and liability risks.

The representative and lawyer will consider fire, replacement cost, depreciation, extended coverage, boiler, public liability, property damage, rental value, burglary, comprehensive, blanket, additional living expense, workers' compensation, explosion, inventory reporting, fidelity, products liability, contractual liability, and various package plans, such as homeowners' policies, and perhaps many others, depending on the nature of the properties and the nature of the liability hazards. It would be a rather rare thing that the ordinary probate practitioner would be fully informed about the intricacies of all these coverages and the current practice with respect to them; for that reason, he or she should be willing to admit the deficiency and seek the help of a layperson whose everyday activities are in this field.

The various possible coverages will be considered in connection with the family home, rental properties, furniture, automobiles, employees, business interests, securities, and receivables. It may well be that it will be considered prudent for the representative to carry types of insurance that the decedent did not carry, since the decedent may have been willing to be a self-insurer. In many cases, the extent of the coverage will be increased because the representative should be less willing than the decedent to carry part of the risk.

The representative's lawyer will see to it that all additional policies of insurance taken out mention, as named insureds, all of those persons who have an interest in the subject matter of the policy, so as to avoid any question that all...