Loss of business income coverage is often an overlooked coverage by most business owners.  Typically when I sit down with a business owner they are concerned that they have adequate coverage to rebuild their building and/or replace their inventory and that they have enough liability coverage to cover a potential lawsuit. 

A conversation that a business owner should be having with their agent is if I have a fire or another type of claim that closes down my location for a period of time what is the potential loss of income to my business?  In order to answer this question the business owner has to have a good handle on the total revenue and expenses of the business.  And an understanding that it can take a year or more in some cases to have your location repaired and up and running again. 

I usually recommend business owners to carry at least 12 months of loss of income protection and if they are on a tight budget 6 months.  This will allow you to have adequate time to get your property repaired or find a new location. 

This coverage allows you to pay for your employees wages while they are not able to work.  This way you don’t lose good employees because of an unforseen disaster.  As any business owner knows, employees are truly the heart of your business.  Having to find all new employees is a time consuming and difficult task.   

Now most small business owners insurance policies will automatically provide this coverage for the actual loss sustained, but some will not, so it’s important to ask the question.

If you would like us to provide a review of your policy, give us a call at 585-663-2004.

I was surprised in the past couple of weeks, I’ve had 2 clients call to ask me about wood burning stoves that they are looking to purchase and wanted to know how it would affect their homeowners insurance.  As we transition out  of heating season into warmer weather, this can be the ideal time to find good deals on close-out stoves. 

These clients wanted to know what they should consider from an insurance stand-point regarding the purchase of their wood burning stove.  The first thing that you want to make sure is that the stove is U.L. listed.  “U.L.” stands for Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., which is a non-profit safety testing and certification organization.  You can tell if a stove is U.L. listed because it will state it right on the metal plate attached to the stove that tells you the make and model of the stove.  It will usually give you a U.L. number to reference.  This assures you that the stove has met Underwriters Laboratories safety standards. 

Next you want to make sure that it is installed by a qualified and insured contractor.  Correct installation is important because if a U.L. listed stove is installed improperly there is a greater chance for fire damage to your home.  When reviewing a contractors insurance ask for his insurance agent to send you a copy directly listing yourself as a “Certificate Holder” on the policy.  This way you will be notified of any changes to the policy or if it cancels.  Also, make sure that the contractor has adequate coverage.  You would want the contractor to have at least enough liability coverage to cover the cost of rebuilding your home in case of a fire. 

Now most contractors are going to install a wood burning stove that meets an insurance companies requirements.  If you want to double check the installation guidelines, call your insurance agent and ask them to send you the minimum requirements that they are looking for when they inspect a wood burning stove and compare them to the contractors. 

After the stove is installed be sure to conduct proper maintenance on the stove.  Heating fires account for 36% of residential home fires in rural homes every year.  Often these fires are due to creosote buildup in chimneys and stovepipes. 

For more information on woodstove safety, check out http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/all_citizens/home_fire_prev/heating/fireplace.shtm.

Imagine this, a part-time server at a small restaurant complains to her manager that one of the cooks continually makes sexually suggestive remarks about her body and clothing.  In fact, the server is so upset by the commentary that she would often switch shifts to avoid working during the same time as the cook.  She complains to her manager about the harrassment, but since the restaurant is short-handed, he is reluctant to terminate the cook.

The server quits and files a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In this type of situation, it’s likely the EEOC would provide the server with a right-to-sue letter after their initial investigation. 

Most likely the restaurant owner doesn’t have Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) because it either was never offered to him/her or it was and it was too expensive for him/her to afford. 

Unfortunately this has been the case with many small businesses, that EPL insurance was never offered or was too expensive.  A case like the one above has a potential settlement of $40,000 with legal fees in excess of $10,000.

The scary thing about these types of lawsuits is that over 75% of the claims are groundless and the burden of proof is on the employer.  Once a claim is filed the claimant can just sit back and watch the company rack up legal fees to defend their claim. 

Now this is the type of claim that most people relate to large corporations, but 52% of the charges filed with the EEOC we against small businesses with 200 employees or less. 

EPL insurance not only protects employers against harrassment charges, but also provides coverage for discrimination and wrongful termination claims.  An employer can purchase optional coverage to cover any lawsuits that may be brought against them by their clients as well. 

Since there have been over 100,000 claims filed with the EEOC and over $376 million awarded, insurance companies have been taking note.  Erie Insurance has decided to provide coverage by endorsment to their business insurance policy to the small business owner at an affordable cost to help protect them against potential claims. 

Erie’s coverage is rated based on the number of employees and the amount of coverage selected.  The nice thing about Erie’s coverage is that if you have less than 50 employees and select $250,000 of coverage or less that there is no additional underwriting required.  The important point to remember about this coverage is that it covers the cost of your legal defense even if the claim is frivolous. 

Employers should be asking their insurance agent/company for a price on this coverage.  As careful as you run your business, you never know when someone could allege discrimination, wrongful termination or harrassement charges against your Company.

With this recent downfall of snow, it helped me see some of the potential hazards that arise around my home due to the snow fall.  I urge you to take an assessment of the hazards that may occurr around you home and be proactive in eliminating them.

There was so much snow on my roof that it drifts over the edges of the roof and creates an avalanche below.  Luckily I haven’t been standing underneath my eaves as the snow comes crashing down, but it is fun to watch from the inside of the house.  It can be so loud that it will sometimes wake me in the middle of the night and I’m a sound sleeper.  I realize that when I leave my front door, I need to look up before proceeding, so I don’t get clobbered, but what about my unsuspecting guests or mail person who aren’t aware of the dangers around my house.  There is a potential hazard of snow and ice dropping from 20 feet above, which could injure someone pretty good.  If you see these drifts on your roof be proactive and get a snow rake from your local hardware store that will allow you to remove some of the snow from your roof.  I do not recommend getting on the roof with a shovel, with the ice and snow build-up you are only asking for a fall and even with all of the white fluffy snow below a fall off the roof will hurt. 

I also recommend checking around the outside of your house for spots where ice forms that could be potential slip hazards for you and your guests.  Remove all of the snow and ice from these areas like steps, walkways and driveways and if necessary use some salt or snow melt to remove any of the remaining ice.  I have a couple of steps on the side of my house that buildup ice and I’m always try to remove it because even though we don’t use the steps at all in the winter, I know that the RG&E meter reader and any other utility company employees will use those steps to get to the back of my house and I want to make sure that anyone that accesses my property is safe. 

Now if you have icicles that build up around your house, you most likely have a heat loss problem.  I would recommend speaking with a qualified contractor to resolve the problem.  Not only are you wasting money on expensive heating bills, but icicles have the potential danger of falling onto someone and injuring them or causing damage to your house like tearing the gutters off or leaking back into the house as the ice damns up and can get under your roof shingles. 

When there is so much snow you run out of places to put it.  I find it tough to see out of the end of my driveway because the snow banks are so high.  I get a double whammy with the street plow and the sidewalk plow.  I make sure that I go slow out of my driveway to make sure that there isn’t any traffic coming that I wasn’t able to see behind my banks and when I have time I try to get out there and knock down my banks, so I can see better. 

Be sure to take an assessment of your house to see where your potential hazards are for you and your guests and do your best to eliminate them. 

With all of the recent hype regarding the Toyota recall insurance agents have received a number of calls from our clients asking us if they are in an accident while driving their Toyota and the accident is caused by your accelerator pedal being stuck under the floor mat in the open position or the accelerator pedal mechanism staying partially depressed or returning slowly to the idle position, will their auto insurance provide coverage for them? 

Well one of the insurance companies that I represent Erie Insurance came out with a statement to ease drivers worries:

If you own a Toyota included in the recent recall and have an accident, or if you are involved in an accident with a recalled vehicle, Erie Insurance wants you to know that the Toyota recall will not have an effect on whether there is coverage available to you for the loss.  ERIE will provide coverage for your loss, subject to applicable policy terms, conditions and deductible. Simply report the claim, as you would any claim, to your ERIEagent or call our 24/7 toll-free claims hotline at (800) 367-3743.

To find out the most recent information regarding the recall be sure to visit Toyota’s website at http://www.toyota.com/recall/?srchid=K610_p228906387.

I’ve grown up pretty much my entire life having dogs as pets.  Christine and I adopted a mutt named “Barney” from Lollypop Farm about 5 years ago.  I enjoy hauling my dog around with me when I can in the SUV (weather permitting, of course).  I’ll take him to the dog park or we’ll bring him on a hike with us, I never really gave much thought about what would happen if we were in a car accident, until I started to sell insurance and my perspective on everything changed. 

I have a grate that keeps him in the back of the vehicle, so he’s not jumping over the seat or licking my ear/face when I’m driving.  I figured this would help keep him in the back of the vehicle in case we were ever in an accident and help protect him and us.  Even though the grate will keep him from propelling into the back of us or even worse out of the vehicle, undoubtedly he would still sustain some injuries depending on the severity of an accident. 

Now I know that if I’m hurt in an accident or any of my passengers, my auto insurance policy with pay for my medical bills.  But what about Barney’s medical bills?  Two of the insurance companies that I represent will cover the medical bills for your dog/cat, Erie Insurance and Progressive Insurance.

Erie Insurance will pay up to $500 per animal for reasonable veterinary costs incurred due to an injury in a covered auto accident.  If the injury results in death, Erie will pay up to $500 to replace the dog/cat, which includes the first wellness visit and the cost to spay or neuter the dog/cat.  There is no deductible applied to this pet coverage.  Anyone that has an Erie Insurance Auto Policy automatically has this coverage built into their policy at no additional cost. 

Progressive provides up to $1,000 for veterinary bills for your animal that is injured in a covered auto accident.  Progressive will pay you up to $1,000 to replace your animal, even if you opt not to replace your animal.  Now in order for Progressive’s pet coverage to apply to your policy, at-least one of the cars on your policy has to have collision coverage.  If you have collision coverage on at-least one vehicle, the pet coverage is automatically included on your policy and applies to all vehicles on the policy even if they don’t have collision coverage. 

For all of the dog/cat lovers out there, these are great coverages to protect your pet. 

With all of the snow that we had this past weekend and are projected to get for the rest of the week, how could we not talk about snowmobiles.  I’m sure some people may have even given or received a snowmobile as a gift this past holiday season. 

I know my neighbor received a snowmobile for Christmas, I could tell by all of the tracks in his front yard.  Good thing he received a trailer to haul his snowmobile because I don’t think he’ll get his riding fix on our city sized lot.  So that brings up the questions of insurance and registration, if he is going to take his snow mobile off of his property what does he need to do?

NYS says that if you plan to ride your snowmobile on your own private property or someone elses that you have express permission to ride on you are not required to register your snowmobile with the DMV.  But if you are planning to ride on public trails you do need to register your snow mobile with the DMV and pay a $100 fee.  Now if you are a Snowmobile Club Member your registration fee is only $45.  You can find a local club to join at http://www.snowmobilingusa.com/Snowmobile_Clubs.htm. 

Surprisingly, the DMV doesn’t require snowmobilers to carry insurance.  This opens riders up to a huge risk because if you are injured by another rider most likely they won’t have insurance to cover your medical bills and you won’t have any insurance to cover them yourself.  Snowmobile insurance policies are similar to motorcycle policies in the fact that they don’t automoatically provide any medical coverage to the rider, it needs to be selected and you pay an additional premium for it. 

Now you can insure your snowmobile relatively inexpensively by adding them to your homeowners or auto insurance and these will provide you with limited liability coverage in case you injure someone else.  You can even insure your sled for any physical damage caused by an accident.  Adding your snowmobile to your auto or homeowners insurance is better than having no insurance at all, but we recommend purchasing a separate snowmobile insurance policy.  It is a little more expense, but the coverage it provides you is better because you can select medical coverage to help pay for your hospital bills if you are injured while riding.

According to the National Burea of Labor Statistics, 3 out of 10 homeowners operate a business out of the home.  More than 66% of the estimated 20.7 million people who work at home are self-employed and run a home based business.  It’s estimated that more than half of the homebased businesses are underinsured.  40% of those survey by the Independent Insurance Agents of America say they were uninsured because they believed that their homeowners insurance covered the business.

When you started your business out of your home, getting insurance to protect you probably wasn’t at the top of your to do list or you were one of the 40% above and thought that your homeowners insurance would cover you.  It is important to get insurance coverage for your home based business to protect you when the unexpected happens and it will!  Your homeowners policy specifically excludes any claims resulting from business pursuits and provides a minimal amount of coverage for any business property (usually less than $2,000). 

The least costly way to cover your business is to add an endorsement to extend your personal liability coverage on your homeowners policy to cover your business pursuits.  This is extremely important coverage to have, especially if you are going to have client meetings at your home, customers coming to you home to drop-off or pick-up merchandise, or have any other members of the public enter your home.  The liability coverage will protect you in case anyone is injured while they are on your property.  You can usually add business liability coverage to you homeowners insurance policy for less than $100/year.  If you wanted to get a separate business liability policy the premium would start at $300-$500/year.

Now most homeowners policies will limit the amount of coverage that they will provide for property related to the business, so you will have to purchase extra coverage to cover your business property.  So be sure to ask what the business property limits are to make sure that you are adequately covered.  You don’t want to find out at the time of a fire that your $10,000 of inventory that was destroyed was only insured for $2,000.  Now some insurance companies will automatically increase the amount of coverage for your business property when you extend your liability coverage.  The company will allow you to allocate up to 10% of the insurance that you carry on your personal belongings to cover your business property. 

Other types of insurance that a home based business might want to take into considerations are: workers compensation (if you have employees), product liabililiy (if you make a product and it doesn’t work correctly or causes injury to someone), errors and ommission (if you provide a service like accounting, insurance or attorney), malpractice (for doctors that have offices out of their home)

Having your identity stolen, is a fear at the back of most people’s minds.  There is a great deal of our personal information in electronic form that is held by companies.  If these companies are hacked into our information can be compromised.  Before you know it you are suddenly receiving collection notices for credit cards that you don’t have and for services that you haven’t received. 

Now if you have a homeowners or renters insurance policy with Erie Insurance they have a Identity Recovery Coverage that you can add to your policy for $20/year.  This coverage provides you with $25,000 to help you cover the cost of restoring your identity.  The $25,000 includes $5,000 for loss wages that you may have to incur because you have to miss work to go to legal hearings associated with recovering your identity.  The $25,000 also covers the cost of re-filing applications for loans, grants or other credit instruments, certain legal fees, notarizing affidavits, ordering credit reports and actual costs for supervision of children, elderly or infirm relatives or dependents. 

This is a nice coverage to help you recover your identity, but it’s not going to help you prevent your identity from being stolen or help you identify if you identity has been stolen.  If you are really concerned about having your identity stolen, I would recommend one of the companies like Lifelock, Identity Guard or Watchdog, which are going to actually help to prevent your identity from being stolen.

Everyone sooner or later will have a contractor come to their house to do some repair work.  It can be as small as fixing a leaky faucet, adding a few new electrical outlets or larger jobs like re-roofing your house or building an addition.  It is important to always get 3 quotes for any major repairs to make sure that you are getting the best value for your money. 

When you are getting your quotes you will have the common questions that will help you determine which contractor will get the job, like what materials will you use?, how long will it take to complete the job?, when would you be able to start?, do you offer any type of warranty?.  These are all valid questions, but the question that most people will overlook is whether they have insurance or not. 

Now most contractors will volunteer their insurance information to you and show you a piece of paper as they’re going through their presentation showing that they have insurance.  I would ask you to go a step further and ask them to have the insurance company send you a certificate of their insurance listing you as a “certificate holder” or even better an “additional insured”.  This will allow you to get a certificate directly from the insurance stating they have insurance and the amount of insurance that they carry. 

You wouldn’t want to find yourself in a situation that a contractor caused damage to your house, but you weren’t able to repair it because the contractor didn’t have insurance or they did have insurance at one point, but they were late on a payment and it cancelled the week before they started your job. 

I decided last week that this week’s blog post would be about contractor’s insurance because I had a prospect call looking for insurance for his business.  I asked him my usual questions learning more about his business and himself.  I usually ask if they have a website and he did, so I went and checked it out.  All over his website it stated that he was fully insured and bonded.  He seemed to be advertising this for quite a while because I googled his company name and I was able to find old promotional flyers on-line from previous years that stated the same thing. 

The funny thing is that when I was asking him about his business he said that he didn’t have prior insurance, so I called him back and asked when was the last time that he did have insurance, thinking that he may have just let it lapse for a month or a year.  He said that he never had insurance that he bought the business from his uncle in the 90s and he thinks that he may have carried insurance on the business back then. 

That is why it’s important not to rely on the ads that state that the contractor is fully insured and to actually take the extra step to have the insurance company send you a certificate verify their insurance coverage.  Now most contractors’ are honest, but it’s important to make certain that you are covered.  If someone comes in with a super low bid for your job, it might be a good indication that they’re not properly insured.