Almost everyone knows someone who had a tree come down on their property in a storm...but what if a tree from MY yard falls on a neighbor's property, or if my neighbor's tree falls on my property....who's insurance pays up? Great questions, and here is the answer: If a storm causes your neighbor's tree to fall on your house, then your insurance pays for the damage. Wait, that doesn't sound fair! Sound fair or not, your neighbor's home insurance, under the dwelling portion of the policy covers only one house in this situation....his. And visa-versa for you. There are some policys that may vary however regarding who pays what when cutting up the tree and removing it.
As for the tree...what caused it to fall? We said that it was a big storm, right? "Cause" is a big part of who pays what. Now if your neighbor is practicing his putting skills (or the lack thereof) in his back yard, and then clubs a golf ball through your kitchen window....who's insurance pays there? In that case HIS insurance pays the bill. Why? If your neighbor CAUSED the accident, then your property damage is covered under the Liability and property damage portion of his home policy. Hey...a little bit of justice after all!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Your Homeowners Insurance: Does It Cover Flooding?
No... it does not. Flood insurance is easily confused with a common homeowners policy rider called water back up coverage. Here is the difference: Flood insurance covers against the peril of water entering your house through the walls or through the floor. Water back up on the other hand is water backing up from a sewer or drain, or the result of a sump pump failure. Water is water right? It does the same thing to your basement or first floor right? Makes a huge mess and leaves undesirable results either way right? Thats' right but it is a distinction your insurance company makes when paying or NOT paying for a claim. Maybe a call to your agent is in order for a separate flood policy.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Take Your Agent Up On The Offer For An Insurance Review
What exactly is an insurance review anyway? Sounds like a phony, nebulous excuse by my agent to hit me for more insurance, right? Well, an insurance review may involve an offer from your agent to purchase broader coverage or an additional policy, but more importantly, an insurance review will remind you of where you stand regarding your current coverage. Plus, during an insurance review, you both might just discover an additional discount or two that you may now qualify for! Hey yeah, I'll take that discount!
As an agent, I can't begin to tell you how many times a client calls me after, for example, a heavy rain. It rained so hard that the client names his basement after a once popular movie: "A River Runs Through It". Then the question comes: "Insurance Man, do I have coverage for all this water in my basement?"
"Well, Mr.Client", I begin, "no you don't....you see when I called you two months ago to offer you an insurance review, you said 'I have all the insurance I need, and I'm just fine!', then you hung up. Now if you had just taken five minutes and allowed me to go though the original coverage you chose, we could have exposed this precarious possible danger you were risking by not carrying water back up coverage."
No sane human being likes buying more insurance coverage...but those same sane human beings love to discover that they have the proper coverage when something bad happens. So, the decision to purchase or not purchase an additional coverage, may just determine what side of the fence you end up on if something serious happens.
Insurance reviews are a good thing. If you have a good insurance agent, he or she will write or call at least once or twice a year and offer you one. When they do, take them up on the offer.
As an agent, I can't begin to tell you how many times a client calls me after, for example, a heavy rain. It rained so hard that the client names his basement after a once popular movie: "A River Runs Through It". Then the question comes: "Insurance Man, do I have coverage for all this water in my basement?"
"Well, Mr.Client", I begin, "no you don't....you see when I called you two months ago to offer you an insurance review, you said 'I have all the insurance I need, and I'm just fine!', then you hung up. Now if you had just taken five minutes and allowed me to go though the original coverage you chose, we could have exposed this precarious possible danger you were risking by not carrying water back up coverage."
No sane human being likes buying more insurance coverage...but those same sane human beings love to discover that they have the proper coverage when something bad happens. So, the decision to purchase or not purchase an additional coverage, may just determine what side of the fence you end up on if something serious happens.
Insurance reviews are a good thing. If you have a good insurance agent, he or she will write or call at least once or twice a year and offer you one. When they do, take them up on the offer.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
I Don't Want Any Life Insurance, What I Want Is.....
I don't need any more life insurance....but what I need is something that will guarentee that if I die that my family won't be under so much financial pressure! If I die my income won't be flowing into the house anymore, so it would really help if you could tell me how I could relieve several of the big money pressure points for my spouse, like the monthly mortgage, or the kids education fund, or the car payments, or the credit card debt!
Did you know that is exactly what life insurance can do for you? I know what you're thinking....life insurance is supposed to provide enough money to bury me so my family isn't stuck with a funeral bill right? Sure life insurance takes care of this, but it does so much more than just that. When a household wage earner suddenly passes from the scene, life goes on for the rest of the family, and so do the bills!
Another thing you may be thinking is this: "I have life insurance at work, so I am all taken care of". That is one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming they have enough when they have life insurance at work.
Financial experts generally agree a head of family wage earner needs 10 to 15 times his or her salary in life insurance, when most jobs provide only 2 to 5 times your salary on average. Another leap in the dark is this: if you are putting all your eggs in your group life insurance basket plan, you are assuming you will work at your current job until the day you die. Other assumptions you are making are....
1)You will automatically get another job right away (Even though the country is currently approaching 10% uemployment)
2)Any other job you go to will automatically have the same or better group benefits that you have now (even though no one knows where the chips will fall when it comes to major changes in what employers will continue to offer in healthcare given the changes in store next year).
3)You are also assuming you will never get seriously ill, because if you do, you may have to leave your job and depend on a personal life insurance policy, which you never purchased because you assumed you had enough life insurance at work, which you may not be able to get now because you are seriously ill.
Are you beginning to see the downside of all of these assumptions? Leaps in the dark are precarious....and they are especially dangerous when it comes to leaps in the dark regarding the financial future of your family if something happens to you.
Every family needs a personal, permanant life insurance plan, regardless of whatever group benefits you have from work.
Did you know that is exactly what life insurance can do for you? I know what you're thinking....life insurance is supposed to provide enough money to bury me so my family isn't stuck with a funeral bill right? Sure life insurance takes care of this, but it does so much more than just that. When a household wage earner suddenly passes from the scene, life goes on for the rest of the family, and so do the bills!
Another thing you may be thinking is this: "I have life insurance at work, so I am all taken care of". That is one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming they have enough when they have life insurance at work.
Financial experts generally agree a head of family wage earner needs 10 to 15 times his or her salary in life insurance, when most jobs provide only 2 to 5 times your salary on average. Another leap in the dark is this: if you are putting all your eggs in your group life insurance basket plan, you are assuming you will work at your current job until the day you die. Other assumptions you are making are....
1)You will automatically get another job right away (Even though the country is currently approaching 10% uemployment)
2)Any other job you go to will automatically have the same or better group benefits that you have now (even though no one knows where the chips will fall when it comes to major changes in what employers will continue to offer in healthcare given the changes in store next year).
3)You are also assuming you will never get seriously ill, because if you do, you may have to leave your job and depend on a personal life insurance policy, which you never purchased because you assumed you had enough life insurance at work, which you may not be able to get now because you are seriously ill.
Are you beginning to see the downside of all of these assumptions? Leaps in the dark are precarious....and they are especially dangerous when it comes to leaps in the dark regarding the financial future of your family if something happens to you.
Every family needs a personal, permanant life insurance plan, regardless of whatever group benefits you have from work.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
How High Should My Liability Limits Be?
Both your auto and homeowners insurance policy have a portion of coverage called "liability" protection....that's the part that protects you from being taken to the cleaners if you or one of your household members is responsible for injuring someone else or damaging their ride.
If you do injure someone else in a serious accident, who knows how high the victim's medical costs will be? With the cost of health care it could go into the gazillions, right? So should you carry a huge amount of liability for just such an occurrence?
Well, maybe not. The idea here of liability protection at it's very essence is for your financial protection in the event that you or one of your family members injurs another party. In other words, what you own is what you protect. So you should set your liability to the limit of what you own...your assets. For most people, their biggest asset is their house, then you can add other stuff like your cars, boats, vacation homes, your classic Johnny West cowboy action figure collection, and whatever else. This is the stuff injured people can potentially take away from you if you happen not to have enough liability to cover their injuries (No, Not My Johnny West action figure collection!!). On the other side of that coin, they cannot take from you what you do not have. So then the limit of your liability should be based on what you do have.
Unless you own absolutely nothing, you should never, never, never choose minimum state limits of liability. Take some time and add it all up, then check your policy limits. If they are not set where you think they should be set, call your agent and request your limits be raised. The difference in your premium will be minimal compared to other policy changes, like adding another car or driver to the policy. If you have young drivers in the house just starting out, your insurance company will match their liability with yours, so you need not worry about what your financial exposure may be for something your teen driver may do to someone else.
If you do injure someone else in a serious accident, who knows how high the victim's medical costs will be? With the cost of health care it could go into the gazillions, right? So should you carry a huge amount of liability for just such an occurrence?
Well, maybe not. The idea here of liability protection at it's very essence is for your financial protection in the event that you or one of your family members injurs another party. In other words, what you own is what you protect. So you should set your liability to the limit of what you own...your assets. For most people, their biggest asset is their house, then you can add other stuff like your cars, boats, vacation homes, your classic Johnny West cowboy action figure collection, and whatever else. This is the stuff injured people can potentially take away from you if you happen not to have enough liability to cover their injuries (No, Not My Johnny West action figure collection!!). On the other side of that coin, they cannot take from you what you do not have. So then the limit of your liability should be based on what you do have.
Unless you own absolutely nothing, you should never, never, never choose minimum state limits of liability. Take some time and add it all up, then check your policy limits. If they are not set where you think they should be set, call your agent and request your limits be raised. The difference in your premium will be minimal compared to other policy changes, like adding another car or driver to the policy. If you have young drivers in the house just starting out, your insurance company will match their liability with yours, so you need not worry about what your financial exposure may be for something your teen driver may do to someone else.
Are You Scared Out Of Your Be-Jeebers About Your Teen Driving Soon?
It seems just like yesterday when they were bouncing on your lap eating Gerber smashed peas...and now the time is fast approaching when they will be asking you for the car keys. The only thing that stands between them and the family steering wheel right now is the lack of a legal drivers license....but thats' just a matter of time. The very thought seems to generate within you the same anticipation for say, a root canal appointment. You've seen little reminders for some time now, like that bold crimson Sharpie-marker circle drawn twelve times around their 16th-birthday on the kitchen calendar. Can't help but see it each time you rifle through the fridge for a snack. It's one of those sights that stops you cold, arresting your otherwise happy thoughts with taser-like reality. It is the year of their vaunted new-found independence...a coming of age if you will. But for you the parent, cold sweats and rapid heart beats at the thought of your sky-rocketing insurance rates, or worse yet haunting congerd images of your teen wrapping themselves, along with the family car around an old oak tree off some lonely rural route at 2am on a cold, dark foggy Sunday morning.
Would it help to tell you that your worries are not new? Not a chance! To really put your mind at ease I would have to tell you that your son or daughter will soon be picked up by some covert government agency and placed in a friendly cell for the next five years. Just hearing the word "friendly", you ask no questions. Or maybe this: you know that movie "2012"? Maybe they could just bump that up a couple of years? Problem solved. You've tried to think of creative ways to put this day off but the political forces arrayed against you in your house are just too strong. The anticipation of your teen along with your spouse who can't see a thing wrong with the idea, and then pile on "All my friends are getting their drivers licenses this year!!" You're done. It's over. Just shoot me.
No, I am not a family counselor but I am an insurance agent and the reason I paint this vivid picture is to give you some idea of what to expect on the insurance side of things when all of this comes down. Simply put, when you add your teen to your insurance policy your rates will go up. Period. But the decisions you are soon to make will determine how much they go up. The first thing you need to do before you say "Yes" to your teen getting their drivers license is call your insurance agent. If you have a good agent, he or she should be happy to spend a few minutes with you to explain how adding your teen to your policy will affect your rates. Auto insurance policies vary, thus the impact of adding a teen driver will also vary. Here are some things to ask your agent...
Just one more golden nugget to cement into your cerebellum is this: Good grades=good insurance rates. Good grades=good insurance rates. Good grades=good insurance rates. Oh, and did I mention it would be a good idea for your teen driver to study hard and get good grades at school? When they get good grades (usually 3.0 average or better), you will not only pay much less for insurance, but they will also be building a great foundation for their educational future at some fine college institution.
Some of my clients have even told me about the "deals" they've struck with their teen, linking their school grades to how much access they will have to the family vehicle...if any. Of course not being a family counselor, I am not in a position to recommend anything like that.
Would it help to tell you that your worries are not new? Not a chance! To really put your mind at ease I would have to tell you that your son or daughter will soon be picked up by some covert government agency and placed in a friendly cell for the next five years. Just hearing the word "friendly", you ask no questions. Or maybe this: you know that movie "2012"? Maybe they could just bump that up a couple of years? Problem solved. You've tried to think of creative ways to put this day off but the political forces arrayed against you in your house are just too strong. The anticipation of your teen along with your spouse who can't see a thing wrong with the idea, and then pile on "All my friends are getting their drivers licenses this year!!" You're done. It's over. Just shoot me.
No, I am not a family counselor but I am an insurance agent and the reason I paint this vivid picture is to give you some idea of what to expect on the insurance side of things when all of this comes down. Simply put, when you add your teen to your insurance policy your rates will go up. Period. But the decisions you are soon to make will determine how much they go up. The first thing you need to do before you say "Yes" to your teen getting their drivers license is call your insurance agent. If you have a good agent, he or she should be happy to spend a few minutes with you to explain how adding your teen to your policy will affect your rates. Auto insurance policies vary, thus the impact of adding a teen driver will also vary. Here are some things to ask your agent...
- Would the increase in my insurance rate be solely based on the car they are assigned to, or would the rate be "spread out" over the entire household?
- Would my rates be better if my teen were assigned to his/her own vehicle, or assigned part-time to one of the parent driven vehicles?
- Should I get an older car for my teen driver which does not need comprehensive and collision coverage?
Just one more golden nugget to cement into your cerebellum is this: Good grades=good insurance rates. Good grades=good insurance rates. Good grades=good insurance rates. Oh, and did I mention it would be a good idea for your teen driver to study hard and get good grades at school? When they get good grades (usually 3.0 average or better), you will not only pay much less for insurance, but they will also be building a great foundation for their educational future at some fine college institution.
Some of my clients have even told me about the "deals" they've struck with their teen, linking their school grades to how much access they will have to the family vehicle...if any. Of course not being a family counselor, I am not in a position to recommend anything like that.
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