I’ve heard the saying, “If you don’t know jewelry, know your jeweler”,

but isn’t insurance all the same?

From time to time Monica and I get away from the office to sandy sunny destinations. I’m always amazed at the super great deals we see in the straw markets at some of these destinations. As tempting as it is, I refrain from buying gigantic diamonds for my gal at a fraction of the cost I see in the local jewelry store. I figure if the diamond shatters a few weeks later I wouldn’t be able to return to the place of business, I wouldn’t know the guy who sold it to me, and whatever I said about the experience in a Google Review it wouldn’t do me any good.

I hear stories and have even experienced events of my own where a product or a service promised didn’t turn out the way it was presented. Who hasn’t? In the insurance business claims can be denied because of fine print limitations or exclusions. What may seem like an awesome deal on a new policy can turn out to be a scam. I must admit that there are even scum bags in the insurance industry just as there are in any other profession.

Unlike a sand-floor thatched roof hut selling “diamonds” that we can easily live without, insurance for your home and autos is a necessity. How  then, do you know you are working with a professional agency and insured by a reputable insurance company?

You have to do your homework. You have to sort through the good, the bad, and hopefully avoid the ugly. Choose an Independent Agency that works with different insurance companies. Go online and research the agency you selected to see what others are saying about them. Go to the Indiana Department of Insurance to verify that the agency is actually licensed and in good standing. Find an agent willing to take time to explain the coverage, their processes, and answer any questions you have about the company. Lastly you can check the ratings of an insurance company with AM BEST, Standard & Poor’s and Moody.

No matter whether you are in the market for home, auto, business, or life insurance, the same can be said, if you don’t know insurance, you should know your insurance man. Do your homework and feel free to ask us any questions!

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“Do I have Enough Insurance?”

To be honest, I don’t know if you have enough. I don’t even know if you are paying for more coverage than you need. But let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions before we dive deep into finding these answers.  I often hear people talk about ‘full coverage’; what does that mean to you? Do you assume it means that everything will be covered by your policy after an auto accident – – – no matter what?  Do you believe that your policy will pay for the other persons injury, no matter what the extent or length of time it takes for the other person to fully recover? Or does “full coverage” simply mean that your automobile has coverage for if, or when, it is damaged?

“Full coverage” is a term that I try to not use when discussing insurance with my clients.  It’s a widely used term yet, there is no set definition.  All to often people believe it means one thing just to find out later, it doesn’t. In order to address the question, “am I paying for too much insurance”, we actually need to focus on your liability insurance. The question now becomes, “how much liability insurance do I need”; and better yet, who decides what is ‘enough’ versus ‘too much?’

I sometimes suggest you buy as much as you can afford or as little as you can stand to lose. Simply put, ask yourself what is at risk if you do not have enough liability insurance to cover all the costs associated with an accident you are found to have caused. Nobody can predict how a major claim will turn out – but the very best you can do is protect yourself and your family by insuring for the worst-case scenario.  Isn’t that what insurance is for?

Back to the question:  How much liability insurance do I need?  Another way to think about it is to consider what you have.  Did you save up a nice nest egg? Do you have a steady income? How much equity have you built into your home? These considerations may help in deciding to keep or even increase your liability limits to prevent using these hard earned funds to pay off a liability to another. You can also consider what you want someday. Do you want to buy a home? Would you like a newer car? Do you hope to help your children with college costs or plan to retire soon? How would low liability limits on your auto policy, which did not satisfy an injured needs and then had to be paid out of your future savings, offset your dreams?

If nothing else, I hope this encourages you to review the limits on your policy. I also hope you see that there could be a real cost to not having enough liability insurance. People are often shocked to learn that increasing their liability coverage on their auto policy doesn’t increase the premium by only a mere few dollars. Give us a call for a quick review of what you have, or to learn what you don’t have, in your auto policy! Don’t wait to be surprised and find out it is too late to make a change.

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“What Does That Mean?“

We are always here to answer insurance questions that come our way. We do not answer questions when we don’t know, with absolute certainty, that what we are sharing, is the truth. When asked about the specifics of a policy, Chris often says, “If we cannot put a highlighter to it, it might not be true”. When necessary he will ask an underwriter, a claims adjuster, or one of our company representatives to show us their answer by highlighting the policy language as validation that we can prove, or they can prove, what they are saying is correct. We can not leave to chance just “believing” something to be true. Maybe this is why we get calls from so many other people that are not just our clients asking for advice. Last weekend our pastor said that we should want to be called “Goody-Two-Shoes”. If you don’t know the story behind this expression, it is a Cinderella story that tells of a goodwife’s joy on merely getting two shoes. Because this goodwife held herself to a higher standard, and was overjoyed at receiving two shoes, “Goody, two shoes!” she would go around in joy telling all who would hear, people began saying, as we do today, she is “too good” or “too nice”, “too smart” or “too by the rules”. Doing things right is not always easy, but it is the right thing to do both in life and in business.

In this business being “close enough” is not good enough. Being close enough is not good enough when you have a fire and your home and your belongings must all be replaced. It is not good enough to be “close enough” when you lose your spouse and find out their life insurance will not cover the remaining debts or mortgage on your home. You may hear from our neighbors and family members about their perception of how insurance should work. All of us hear the commercials telling us this or that about insurance. Knowing the “words” within your insurance policy becomes very important when someone knowledgeable about a particular insurance policy is not there to help guide and advise you. I wonder when you have a tooth ache or get a letter from the IRS requesting audit information for your business, do you stop by your neighbor’s house for the answers, or do you wait for a comical commercial to tell you how things are going to work out? Please do yourself a favor and don’t let someone who is untrained take care of your dental, tax, or insurance needs.

Here is a list of basic insurance terms we think everyone should know. In our business these terms are widely used. But don’t stop here, keep going. Keep asking questions. Keep learning. I will end with a phrase that Thomas Jefferson liked to quote from the late 16th Century philosopher Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is Power”.

Insurance 101:

Risk:
   A “risk” is why a lot of us buy certain types of insurance such as home insurance; we do not want to carry the entire “risk” ourselves,               should  a loss occur. A risk is the possibility of losses, some  of which gets transferred from us, the insureds to the insurer (insurance               carriers like Auto Owners, Celina, Indiana Farmers, Pekin, Progressive, Safeco…) for a certain length of time; normally  either 1 year or 6-       month terms. Insurance companies then evaluate each risk individually and set a price based upon that specific risk.
Policy Declaration: or your declaration page(s), often referred to as “Dec Pages”
  Here you will find the following information:
     *Name and address of policyholder
     *Policy number, effective date, and expiration date
     *Name of the insurance company
     *The premium for each coverage part included in the policy
      **We advise all our clients to look over all the information on this document and carefully review it for correctness: check for misspellings          of name, incorrect address, inaccurate policyholders. It’s important to understand what and how much is covered, and what is                         excluded.   This is, however, only a snap shot of your policy.
Premium:
   This is the amount you, the insured, pays an insurance company in return for taking on a portion of the “risk”. The premium amount                 depends on different factors.  A couple factors include the coverage limits and deductibles you choose.
Deductible:
   This is the amount of “risk” you retained. It is the amount of money paid by you, the insured, when a loss occurs. The insurance company       pays the amount in excess of  your deductible. Your carrier will DEDUCT this amount from the total claim payment. As a heads up, policy       premiums and deductibles are conversely linked: higher deductible = lower premium, and vice versa.
Liability Coverage:
   Liability coverage offers you, the insured, protection against claims from injuries and damage to other people and/or their property.
Collision Coverage:
   Collison coverage protects your property when damage occurs when there has been a collision with another object no matter who caused      the accident. You do not have to carry collision coverage on your vehicles, this is optional.
Comprehensive Coverage: sometimes called “other than collision coverage”
   Comprehensive coverage protects your vehicle when there is damage from something “other than a collision” such as vandalism or a fire       or a tree falling on your car. This is coverage is also optional.
Peril:
    A peril is a specific cause of loss that puts an insured, their items, or property in danger of injury, damage, or loss. Only certain perils are        covered on policies! Know what perils are covered and what is not. The worst thing that can happen at a time of loss is hearing, “I’m sorry,      you are not covered for that”.
Claim:
    A claim is a statement or request from you the insured to the insurance company requesting compensation for “said” damages that                 occurred for a covered loss on your policy. Since you, the insured have just “claimed” that something has happened an adjuster will               confirm  the incident occurred and falls under the perils of your policy.
Adjuster:
   An insurance adjuster is trained and specially educated to examine a loss, determine coverage limits, and settle losses. An adjuster will be     a well versed and knowledgeable person to speak to after the claim has been filed.

Once again, these are just some basic terms; but, there are so many more. What about the terms Actual Cash Value verses Replacement Cost, or a named non-owner policy? And what is Medical Payments (med pay)? And do you know how much you have or what in the world is an Umbrella Policy? Would you be surprised to know that this type of policy could save you from financial ruin for less than 50Cents a day (now I sound like a commercial)!  There is so much to know and learn about in regard to insurance. We can help you feel secure and not leave things up to chance. We are here when you have questions, just ask.

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Auto Owners helped put together a wonderful synopsis of the basics of an Umbrella Policy. We are tackling this topic again because we realize not enough people know the value of an umbrella policy. Does your car have to have seat belts or air bags? Well no, but I would pay extra to get them and I would surely never pay less to go without these features. And, they can save your quality of life. A personal umbrella policy can also save your quality of life. An umbrella policy is an insurance policy with high liability limits designed to provide protection over other insurance policies like a homeowners and personal auto. A personal umbrella policy can provide coverage in excess of other policies limits, and in some cases if coverage is excluded on other policies the umbrella will “drop down” to cover the loss.

WHO NEEDS AN UMBRELLA POLICY:
Anyone who wants to protect their personal assets is a candidate for an umbrella policy. With the costs of lawsuits increasing, individuals need to protect their families as best they can. An umbrella is a perfect way to preserve current assets as well as future earnings so you can maintain your livelihood and lifestyle in the event you have a loss and are sued. Consider the following statements to determine if you’re a good candidate for an umbrella policy:
You own a home You own a recreational vehicle You have significant assets
You have children You own a swimming pool You own a snowmobile
You own a dog or other animals You own a boat or jet ski You provide alcohol to guests
You own a motorcycle You have playground equipment You own a car
*If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you have a good reason to at least consider an umbrella policy
for yourself.

CLAIMS EXAMPLES:
-An insured was driving their boat. An occupant on the boat was standing on the front of the boat while it was moving. The occupant fell in the water and sustained injuries as a result. The occupant has sued for limits above the watercraft liability policy.
-An insureds dog jumped up at a neighbor. The neighbor fell to the ground and caused injury to their vertebrae. The neighbor sued for limits above the homeowners policy.
-An insureds son was operating an ATV while two friends were riding on the back. While going down a dirt trail too fast they hit a stump and crashed. The friends were severely injured and sued the insured for limits above the recreational vehicle liability limit.

We would venture to say that we seem to live in what often feel likes a “sue-happy” everyone out to get “what I am entitled to” society where most of us could use an umbrella policy. These policies are fairly inexpensive for the coverage you are afforded. Give us a call or shoot us an email to set up a time to come in and talk over something that could honestly, one day, protect your way of life, your savings, and maybe even your future earnings.

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I turned off the valve coming into the house but still heard it. I went outside and checked the meter; it was still spinning although no water was being used. I then turned off the main valve and called a plumber.

Sure enough, there was a break in the waterline where it connected to the house. Our home was only 13 years old at the time. It was thought the contactor may have over-grouted the connection so there wasn’t enough give, but it was well beyond the time to go after the contractor.

Then it dawned on me, I had helped add the Underground Service Line coverage to the Indiana Farmers Insurance homeowners product but had failed to add it to my own policy! I would have had $10,000 in coverage with a $500 deductible for less than $20 with the Underground Service Line coverage. Instead, I spent $5,000 and two very hot weekends putting the lawn back together.

I refuse to be embarrassed twice. So, when my wife and I built a new home last year, I made sure to add the Underground Service Line coverage. I also opted for the HO-5 instead of the HO-3 for maximum protection for the largest property asset we own.”

Be sure to discuss the Underground Service Line coverage with your clients. They will be much better protected, and you won’t be put in a tough position when this coverage is needed! To learn more about the Underground Service Line coverage view the Homeowners Optional Coverages flyer or the HOM 1016 endorsement.

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This is a very popular question that we get asked…”Should I file a claim”. In the above scenario Safeco does a good job at trying to hit the different points that need to be considered before answering this question. Even if you do not have Safeco as your carrier this information will start you on your way to a clearer understanding of whether or not you should be filing that claim https://fileaclaim.safeco.com/should-i-file

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