Now what if a tree falls on my car or my neighbors or my tenants car, will my homeowners policy cover the damage?  Like any answer with insurance, it depends.  You have to look at each situation independently and consider all of the factors to make a proper determination.

With the high winds that we had just over a week ago I had a number of people ask this question.  I had two situations, the first a tree fell not only on a clients house, but also his neighbors car and his car as well.  The second scenario was a tree on a landlord’s property fell on his tenants car.  In both cases the trees fell due to the high winds.

So the question remains, will your homeowners’ or landlord policy cover the damage to your neighbor’s or tenant’s car?  In both of these cases the answer is a resounding no.  The neighbor and the tenant would have to rely on their own auto insurance to pay for the damage, and they have hopefully purchased comprehensive coverage to cover this type of damage.

The homeowners’ and the landlord policies wouldn’t respond to the damage because the homeowner and the landlord did not cause the damage.  The damage was the result of “an act of God” A.K.A. “mother nature”.  They cannot control the weather.  The trees were otherwise healthy trees that had been around for a number of years showing no apparent signs of deterioration.

Now this case would be different if the homeowner knew that the tree was deteriorating and would pose a potential risk to property around it.  Say for instance the neighbor or tenant mentioned to the homeowner or landlord that they were concerned for their property because they can see that the tree is infested with termites and woodpeckers and other insects that are slowing destroying the tree.  And the homeowner or landlord’s response was “I don’t care, it’s not endangering my property and I’m not paying to have it taken down, I’ll just wait for it to come down on it’s own.  Now if the tree fell on the neighbor’s or tenants car, the homeowner or landlord policy would provide coverage to the neighbor and tenant.  The homeowner or landlord would have been aware of the situation and did nothing to remedy it.

So if you are a homeowner or a landlord be sure to inspect the trees around your property that could pose potential danger to people or their property and have them pruned or taken down if necessary.  If you are a neighbor or tenant of someone that has a tree that you see as a potential danger due to the deteriorated state of the tree, notify the neighbor or landlord in writing of your concerns so they can properly address them.

If you would like a FREE no obligation auto or homeowners insurance quote, give us a call at 585-663-2004.

This is a question that I get more often than you would think.  It’s usually regarding someone who has bought a plot of land that they plan to build a home on someday or a hunter that owns land that he just uses for hunting.  My clients will call me and say that they need to buy an insurance policy to cover their liability in case anyone gets hurt on their vacant land.

I’m always happy to tell my clients that there is no need to purchase an additional insurance policy to cover this exposure (which is rarely the case when it comes to insurance).  Their liability is automatically extended from their current homeowners or renters insurance policy.

Insurance policies can be difficult to read and understand, but I would recommend to everyone that you read and understand the “Policy Definitions” section of any insurance policy.  The “Policy Definitions” section helps you clarify coverage questions you may have.  It gives good insight into how broad or restrictive your policy may be.

In the example above with the vacant land, if you wanted to determine if it was covered under your current homeowners policy, you just need to go the “insured location” definition under the “Policy Definition” section and you would find this:

“insured location” means:

1. the residence premises;
2. the part of any other premises, other structures, and grounds acquired by you during the policy period which you intend to use as a residence premises;
3. vacant land, other than farmland, owned by or rented to anyone we protect;
4. cemetary plots or burial vaults of anyone we protect.

Now this wasn’t a complete list of “insured locations”, I just summarized it to keep it brief.  You would want to refer to your own policy for your own policy’s definition of “insured locations”, since they may vary from above.

If you have a policy question or would like us to quote your auto or home insurance, give us a call 585-663-2004.

Have you ever wondered how our current fire department system got started?  Honestly, I never really gave it much thought.  All I knew was that if I have a fire I call 911 and the fire departments shows up to put out the fire.  But there was an article in the December issue of the Insurance Journal magazine that gave me some background on the beginning of the fire departments, which I thought was quite interesting.

Before there were municipal fire departments with clear boundary lines, there was only volunteer fire departments.  Whenever there was a fire call, every fire department would respond and the fire department that arrived first and successfully extinguished the fire would get paid.  There were plaques on the houses that told the fire fighters what insurance company provided coverage for the house.  The fire departments liked this because they knew who to bill for their service and were assured a faster payment if the house was covered by insurance.

Insurance companies wanted to find a way to protect their properties better (and most likely save some money), so they started their own fire departments in areas where they insured a high number of homes.  Rumor has it, that if a insurance company sponsored fire department responded to a fire call and they were first to the house, but the house was insured by another insurance company, they would stand there and watch it burn and let the next fire department to show up fight the fire.

This obviously isn’t the best outcome for consumers, so you can see why we transitioned into a municipal based fire department system, with clear boundary lines.  If all of the fire departments responded to one fire and then there was another fire call on the opposite side of town, it would take a while for those fire departments to respond to the 2nd fire.

So how do fire departments affect your homeowners insurance premium?  All fire departments are rated and assigned a “Public Protection Classification” (PPC).  The ranking is 1 to 9 with 1 being the best and 9 being the worst.  Depending on where your fire department falls on the scale will impact your homeowners insurance premium.  The best fire department that we have in Monroe County is the Rochester City Fire Department and their PPC is a 2.  So if you live in the City of Rochester you are paying less for your homeowners insurance compared to if your same house was in another part of the county.

If you are interested in having us review your homeowners or auto insurance with you, give us a call at 585-663-2004.

The December holiday season is my favorite season.  It can be a hectic time of year, but I really enjoy getting together with all of my family and friends that I haven’t seen in a while.  And really, who doesn’t like to receive gifts?  Not only do we celebrate Christmas eve and Christmas day with extended family, but we just celebrated Christmas this past weekend with my side of the family.  So not only do we celebrate Christmas 3 times, but December is also my birthday month!

Now I obviously don’t get as many presents as I did when I was a child, but that is perfectly fine with me.  I’m to the point where I’m trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible.  It’s amazing at how I’ve accumulated so much stuff over the years!

I take this time every year to review my clothes and other belongings and see what I haven’t worn or used in the last year and put together a donation pile to take to Salvation Army or Volunteers of America.  Not only does this help make room for the new stuff, but it is also nice to get your tax deduction in before the end of the year!

This is also a good time of year to update your inventory of your belongings for insurance purposes.  I always get the question, “if I have a fire how do I prove to the insurance company that I owned the belongings that were destroyed?”

Now if you are a super analytical type person, you may want to keep a list in Microsoft Excel of all of your belongings that you can add and remove items to your list each year.  I recommend to my clients that they take pictures of all of their belongings and then store them in their e-mail account or other web-based application.  This way if you have a fire and your camera or computer is destroyed you can still get onto the Internet and access your pictures.

At the time of loss the insurance adjuster will want you to compile a list of everything that was destroyed in the fire, which is very difficult to do off the top of your head.  This is why it is good to have photos to go back and refer to.

I want to make sure that you get all of the money that you deserve from the insurance company at the time of a claim and these photos will help you do that.

If you are not a client and would like us to quote your personal or business insurance, give us a call at 585-663-2004.

We experienced a nice complement last week, that we were actually quite shocked to receive.  We weren’t shocked because we didn’t deserve the complement, but we were more surprised at our clients comment. 

At the beginning of every month we run a report of all of policies that are renewing the following month.  That’s the first step, but not the reason we received the complement.  We don’t stop at just running the report, we actually call all of our clients prior to their renewal to see if they have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment to do a full review of their insurance policy to make sure they still have the proper coverage based on any changes in their life that may have occurred over the last year. 

When we called our client last week he said “WOW! I’ve never received a call like this before from an insurance company or agency.  Thank you for calling…” and then discussed a couple of his questions with us.  Now I guess he didn’t come right out and give us a complement, but by his sheer surprise I would take that as a complement.  His surprise shows me that we are going a step beyond what other agencies or companies are doing for their clients. 

Now I’m sure some of you are thinking, that I just want to sell you another policy…well, you’re right, but that’s not the only goal of the call.  We want to make sure that you are properly covered and getting the best value for your dollar.  The majority of people that have accepted my offer of a full insurance review have actually walked out saving money by taking advantage of new discounts or adjusting coverages to meet their current needs. 

A lot can change in a year!  There are births, marriages, deaths, you can move, get a new job, or be layed off from a job.  These are all things that affect your insurance situation and we should be adjusting for. 

If you would like a free, no obligation review of your current insurance give us a call at 585-663-2004.

When is the last time that you reviewed your homeowners insurance coverage?  I had a prospect this week that hadn’t reviewed their homeowners insurance in over 20 years!  Unfortunately, that is a common scenario for people who purchased their insurance when they first bought their home and it was set-up to be paid by their mortgage company every year.  It’s something that they didn’t need to think about because it automatically happened every year.

I would recommend reviewing your homeowners insurance at least every 5 years.  Insurance policies and coverages change, so it is important to have a review to make sure you are still properly covered. 

In the case above, when they originally purchased the insurance they insured the home for $150,000.  I’m not sure how they came up with that number at the time, but when we reviewed their policy we discovered that the actual market value of the property was around $250,000 and the rebuilding cost was over $400,000.  So they had a potential insurance shortfall of $250,000!

That’s what can happen in over 20 years when you don’t review your insurance.  This is the riskiest point for them if they ended up having a severe fire.  They are counting on this property to help fund part of their retirement and they could potentially take a big financial loss if something were to happen causing them to have to delay their retirement or decrease their standard of living.

Now even if they had a small claim, they most likely wouldn’t be happy with the coverage because they are going to get hit with a penalty for not insuring the house to at least 80% of the rebuilding cost.  The insurance company is going to depreciate their claim, so they won’t be able to repair the damage without putting in more of their own money.  This essentially increases your deductible. 

Give us a call to review your current homeowners insurance 585-663-2004.

I know we are at the end of motorcycle season, but this blog came to mind because last week I had a customer purchase a new motorcycle, well at least new to him and I’m working on a motorcycle quote for a prospect.

The prospect asked me if the quote that I was going to provide him would provide medical payments coverage to his spouse when she is riding on the back of his bike.  This isn’t a question that I get asked very often and I don’t think it’s because people aren’t worried about the medical payments for their spouse, but rather they don’t realize that some insurance policies don’t provide coverage for your spouse riding as a passenger.

After our meeting I realized that he didn’t ask if the policy would cover his medical payments.  In New York State you are required to carry $50,000 of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or you might hear people say “no-fault coverage” on their AUTO insurance.  This coverage basically covers YOUR medical payments in an accident.  Your auto insurance policy says that each company will cover their insured’s medical expenses up to $50,000, they don’t care who’s at fault (hence the term “no-fault”).

What most people don’t realize is that a motorcycle policy doesn’t provide PIP coverage to the driver.  They have to purchase separate medical payments coverage to cover their medical bills from an accident.  My recommendation for this coverage is to buy as much as you can reasonably afford.  You can easily replace or not replace your motorcycle, but your medical bills quickly escalate after an accident. 

If you look at your motorcycle policy, you will see PIP – Pedistrian coverage, but it only provides coverage to a pedestrian if you strike them while riding your bike and provides no coverage to you. 

Call us to review your current motorcycle insurance and get a quote 585-663-2004.

I recently had a client call me to inquire about a potential claim.  My client lives in a house with an in-law apartment, so the units are attached.  Her family members who live on the other side of the house own a cat and the cat is not allowed on my clients side, which we found out the ban was for good reason.  The cat had found a way into my clients unit and tore up her couch.  This wasn’t just surface scratch marks, this cat dug right down to the wood frame of the couch.

So the inevitable question always is, “is it covered”?  At first glance this may seem like something that would be covered.  You don’t own the cat, so you’re not responsible for it, it is a sudden and accidental event and it caused damage to your property.  Unfortunately, insurance isn’t that simple, you need to dig into your policy and read the covered losses and exclusions.  Luckily, I do that for you. 

The answer to the “is it covered” question for the majority of homeowners is ‘no’.  This is because most homeowners policies cover your belongings on a ‘named perils basis’ (not sure what that means, give us a call to review your coverage to find out), even if you have a special form policy (again give us a call) your contents are most likely insured on a named perils basis.  We have one insurance company that will insure your belongings  on a comprehensive basis (giving you much broader coverage), meaning that this scenario would have been covered if they opted for that policy.

The only exclusion that the policy applies to that situation is if the animal is owned by you it is not covered.  They figure if you own the animal it is your responsibility to control it.

Now the funny  thing with insurance, is that most likely there is no coverage for the above scenario for a homeowner, but if this happened to someones car instead of their couch there would be coverage.  Your auto insurance policy doesn’t even care if it’s your dog or not.  If your animal or any animal destroys the interior of you car, if you have purchased comprehensive (“Other than Collision”) coverage on your car and the damage exceeds your deductible the insurance company is going to help pay for the damage. 

It makes you wonder why the insurance industry made an obvious effort to exclude this type of claim on your homeowners policy, but then provide such broad coverage on your auto insurance.  Most likely, it’s because this happening in your home is more likely than you car.

If you would like us to review your coverage and provide you with a no obligation quote, give us a call 585-663-2004.

The song “Goodnight Irene” by Jim Reeves lyrics say “Goodnight Irene, I’ll see you in my dreams”.  I’m sure  hurricane Irene wasn’t in the dreams of the people who were in her path, but more like in their nightmares.  The shear force of nature never ceases to amaze me.  I was glad to see how the communities in Irene’s path were preparing for the worse.  They had an action plan to keep the people in their community safe.

What most people don’t realize is that insurance companies prepare for the worst as well.  All of the companies that I represent were preparing for the impending claims.  They were increasing their staffing to handle the calls for reporting the claims to keep people’s wait times to a minimum.  They are also dispersing their catastrophe vans, which essentially come into a community and set-up a claims shop where all of their adjuster will report to.  They allocate their adjusters to the affected area to make sure that people get their checks quickly to help them get back on their feet. 

This is exactly what I want to hear from the insurance companies that I represent.  Even though upstate NY really didn’t see much of hurricane Irene other than some increased wind, it comforts me to know this is how they would respond to a disaster in my area. 

Whenever we have a major disaster like Irene, it always raises concerns with people who were affected by the disaster and even those who weren’t.  People want to know, “is this covered under my policy?”

I can give you a definitive ‘maybe’ to that question.  It really depends on what type of policy you have.  There are 3 main homeowners policy forms for homeowners insurance and each insurance company seems to have their own variation on each of those forms.  This is why it is important to have your insurance reviewed by a professional. 

The majority of all forms are going to provide you coverage from the wind damage.  Where most people are going find themselves in trouble is the damage caused by the flooding from all of the rain.  All homeowners policies exclude damage from flooding.  You have to purchase a separate flood policy through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which we could help you with. 

If you would like us to go over your policy with you, give us a call at 585-663-2004.

There is a new trend in the insurance industry that is spreading rapidly.  Its called usage based insurance pricing.  I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials with the ever happy Flo from Progressive talking about the discounts that you can earn if you put this little device in your car that will track your driving habits.

Currently, insurance companies are making this optional for clients and it is only rolled out in 37 states.  What this is essentially going to do is give you an individual price for your auto insurance policy.  You will be rewarded if you drive your car less, if you don’t drive during rush hours and if you drive responsibly.  I couldn’t find any insurance companies that currently penalize you based on this usage based price, but if you don’t meet their guidelines for a discount, you simply won’t get one.

It is optional now, but I can see in the future this being mandatory to install in your car.  This is how I see it progressing.  The people who are currently responsible drivers will opt for this usage based pricing option because they will see a savings on their insurance.  Now, most likely these individuals are already getting the insurance companies best price, so they will get an even greater discount.  Since insurance is basically the pooling of everyone’s premiums to pay everyone’s claims, it can only follow that the policyholders who don’t opt for this usage based pricing will end up paying more.  These preferred drivers already have fewer claims than other drivers, so by reducing their premium, but not reducing claims, the rest of the pool’s premiums will have to increase to cover the existing level of claims.

The next step will be for the marginal drivers to accept the technology.  They will see their premiums increase because the preferred drivers have opted for this technology, so it will almost force them to adopt it.  The only way for the marginal drivers to decrease their premium would be to install this technology in their car.  Now this is where the insurance company will see a difference.  This marginal driver pool is for the most part good drivers, but they travel during rush hour, drive an average or above average amount of miles and at times drive less responsibly than the preferred group (like if they’re running late for an appointment or taking a long road trip and want to shave some time off).  The insurance company and the client should benefit from this because hopefully the marginal driver will be more aware of their driving because they know their insurance company is watching and by speeding it could have a direct impact on their wallet.  This will hopefully result in fewer claims by this group, so the insurance company is happy and the clients’ premium should decrease because they will be rewarded for their changed driving habits.

So this just leaves the last group, the poor drivers.  This group’s premium will dramatically increase because now not only are the preferred drivers paying less, but also the marginal drivers.  Even though the marginal drivers should have fewer claims from adopting the usage based technology, I’m sure the 80/20 rule applies to insurance claims as well.  Most likely the poor drivers account for 20% of the driving pool, but account for 80% of the total losses because when they have a claim it’s a big one!  These are people that are driving 20 or more miles per hour over the speed limit, are tailgating and just driving erratically in general. 

The poor drivers are essentially going to be forced to adopt the technology because their premiums will skyrocket and the only way to reduce it will be to adopt the technology.  This is where everyone wins!  Hopefully, this will change their driving habits, making everyone safer on the road, decrease their premiums, and reduce the amount of large claims for insurance companies resulting in a reduction in everyone’s premium.  Now this is of course the fairytale ending and only time will tell how much resistance the insurance companies receive trying to implement this technology.

And just so you know where I stand on the technology, I would install it in my car.  I would classify myself as a preferred driver and I’m frugal, so anything I can do to save a buck I’m up for!