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Editorial standards

How we write and check our guides

Informed Insured is education, not a sales pitch. Here’s where our information comes from, how we keep it current, how to report a mistake, and how the site pays for itself.

Who writes the guides

Guides are written by the Informed Insured team. We’re not licensed insurance agents or brokers, and nothing on this site is insurance, legal, tax, or financial advice. Your policy, your state’s rules, and your situation decide the real answer. When it matters, ask your insurer or a licensed professional.

How guides are researched

  • Official sources first. Government and regulator sites such as Medicare.gov, CMS, the Social Security Administration, the California Department of Insurance, the California DMV, NHTSA, and state law, plus the Insurance Information Institute for general background.
  • Numbers come from the source. Dollar amounts, deadlines, and penalties are copied from the official page, with the year they apply to.
  • You can check our work. Each guide ends with a “Sources” list, and key facts link straight to the page they came from.
  • California by default. Where rules differ by state, we say so and point to California’s rules, because that’s where we are.
  • No product picks. We don’t rank or recommend insurers, agents, or policies.

How guides are kept up to date

Every guide shows a “Last updated” date. We revisit a guide when an official figure it quotes changes (for example, the yearly Medicare premiums and deductibles), when a law or form it describes changes, or when a reader points out a problem. Small fixes like typos or broken links don’t change the date.

Corrections

Found something wrong, outdated, or unclear? Tell us through the contact form and include the page and what looks off. We check it against the official source. If we got it wrong, we fix the guide and update its date, and for anything that could have changed a reader’s decision, we add a short note in the guide saying what changed.

How the site makes money

Informed Insured earns money in two ways: the $47 Claim-ready kit we make and sell ourselves, and clearly labeled paid (affiliate) links to a few tools, including Amazon links. We don’t sell insurance or quotes, and we don’t take referral fees from insurers, agents, brokers, or claim-help companies. Money never decides what a guide says. Full details: Disclosure.

Last updated: October 14, 2026