POLICY MATTERS: ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND DOLLAR$
Printer-friendly versionJuly 1, 2009 (San Diego’s East County)–Yes, I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but it could also be worth a thousand (or THOUSANDS OF) dollars! I can’t tell you the number of times in my 30+ year career in the insurance business that I’ve listened to a distraught policyholder after a loss struggle to remember everything that was stolen or lost in a fire. Many times I’ll get a call many months after the loss because the client just discovered that, “They got my Grandma’s silver too. We didn’t realize it until we were setting the table for Thanksgiving dinner.” This is why a picture fest at your home is a great idea. The whole process wouldn’t probably take you more than an hour. Start by just walking around your house and take pictures of everything you own. Well, you don’t need to document your underwear drawer, but take pictures of almost everything else. Please remember that the purpose of the pictures is twofold: a. To help you remember every thing you have. b. To document (i.e. prove) to the insurance company) that you really did own all this stuff. Here’s a short list to get you started… Take a panoramic shot of every room in the house. Some rooms may need pictures from several different angles to get it all in. Then open your cabinets in your kitchen and get pictures of all your dishes, cookware, etc. Take a look in all the drawers and take pictures of any unique items you may have. Get a black cloth or dark towel and spread it out on your floor or bed. Lay out any special or expensive items such as Jewelry, Silver, furs, CD collections, collectibles, baseball cards, plates, dolls, etc for better close ups. While you’re at it, take pictures in the garage: Tools, cars, contents of your cars, file cabinets, lawn mowers, etc. Take a picture of your back yard patio furniture, tool shed, etc. Open your closets and take pictures of your clothing. Reminds you of the amount and some of the pieces. Take close-ups of all the pictures, art and decorative items hanging on your walls. Take pictures of your cars: Inside and Out. All the way around. Now…. here’s the important part….. ! ! ! ! If these are digital pictures, put them onto your computer and make a couple copies onto some CD’s. Take one to your office or give one to a friend or mail one to your Uncle in Toledo, but GET IT OUT OF YOUR HOUSE. Last thing you want is to remember that all your “pictures” burned up in the fire or got stolen with your computer. Make a reminder to at least consider updating the pictures once a year AND whenever you make a major purchase like stove, refrigerator, art pieces, jewelry, etc. This will make your life SO MUCH EASIER if you ever have a loss. Till next time… Dennis Volz is an insurance agent for a large national insurance company and the author of The San Diego Insurance Blog. He has served the East County area since 1978. Dennis and his team have built their business around their mission statement: We enable our policyholders to manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and to realize their dreams. We strive to build personal, long-term relationships with our customers by offering quality service, a friendly atmosphere, mutual trust and integrity. Contact Dennis and his team at 619-670-1000 (24 hours a day), email at Dennis@DennisVolzInsurance.com or on the web at www.DennisVolzInsurance.com. Printer-friendly version
POLICY MATTERS: HOW TO REVIEW YOUR HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE RENEWAL STATEMENT
Printer-friendly versionBy Dennis Volz June 2009 (San Diego’s East County)–For most of us, our home is our single largest and most important investment. Many of us have poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into maintaining, improving and (hopefully) paying off our homes. Many people own their homes free of any mortgage. These assets are pure equity. Certainly its worthwhile to invest 15 minutes a year to be sure it’s properly insured. Thankfully, the insurance company offers you a perfect reminder and opportunity in sending out your annual renewal statement. Even if your insurance is paid by your mortgage company as part of your impound account, the insurance company still mails you a statement of renewal every year to update you with your current coverage limits and deductible. Here are a few important steps you can take to be sure that HOME SWEET HOME is properly protected. 1. Check the basics. Check your name, address and any other description of the insured property. Make sure there’s been no change of vesting or ownership that needs to be updated. Check your address to be sure no numbers are transposed. 2. Check the mortgagee clause. Here’s where you can be sure that the current mortgagee on your home is listed correctly. Check the lender, address and your loan number. Be sure there’s no old information there. Maybe you had a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or a second mortgage that no longer applies. Be sure to get them removed. HEADS UP: Whenever you have a significant claim, the mortgage company will be one of the payees on your claim settlement check. Just that alone can be an inconvenience. But it becomes a major hassle when one of the institutions listed no longer has a vested interest in your home. The insurance company is bound by contract to include the mortgage company on all settlement checks beyond a stated threshold. *3. Check the coverage on your home (dwelling or building). This is without question the single most important coverage to examine, consider and adjust whenever necessary. Having been an agent during the two raging firestorms in San Diego, CA in this decade, I can tell you that underinsured homes are just NO FUN! Two of my clients lost their homes in the 2003 fires and fortunately they were both adequately insured. (We call all our homeowner clients once a year to review their coverages and suggest improvements and adjustments) But I can tell you that there were literally hundreds of people in the area that were not so fortunate. Many were underinsured by over $100,000! Contractors were giving rebuilding bids on homes for $400,000 with insurance policies with limits less than $300,000. See if that doesn’t tweak your financial well-being just a little. Here’s the solution. Get an accurate rendering of the square footage of your home. Check county records, take a look at zillow.com, call your favorite Realtor, or get a tape measure and do your thing. Usually you don’t include the garage in this calculation. Once you get your square footage, then you need to determine the building cost per square foot in your area for a home like yours. Call a local contractor for a quick estimate or you can call your insurance agent. Average costs in San Diego run about $200 per square foot. With that, a 2000 square foot would take about $400,000 to rebuild. Custom homes can be significantly more. For a more complete discussion of this, check out: How Much Homeowners Insurance Do You REALLY Need? Your contents coverage is usually 75% of the amount you have on your home. For example, if you have $400,000 on your home, you’ll have an additional $300,000 to cover your personal property (furniture, clothing, dishes, TV, collections, shoes, tools, etc) usually this is enough, but think through it anyway. If you have antiques, art, collections of any kind then you may need more. Ask your agent for help if you need to. 4. Look at your Personal Liability Coverage. This is the coverage you need when you get sued. Little Johnny runs across your front yard and trips on one of your sprinklers and ruins his chances to become America’s Next Top Model and his parents sue your for $250,000. Make sure you don’t scrimp here. It’s not too expensive to get $500,000 or even $1 Million of liability coverage. If you have $100,000 or less, you could be setting yourself up for a mess just waiting to happen. Put a really big checkbook between your assets and someone who sees an injury as a lifetime paycheck. You might even consider a Liability Umbrella. 5. Check your ‘special limits’. This is a REALLY BROAD subject that I just can’t do justice to here in this post. Simply stated, there are limits on many things such as cash, computers, cameras, jewelry, furs, goldware, silverware, tools, etc. Call your company and ask for a review. You can increase many of these limits for just a few dollars a year. Sometimes the available increase isn’t enough. That’s the perfect time to consider a Personal Articles Floater (or it’s called many different names) It’s a policy that’s designed to place stated amounts of coverage on many items from jewelry, business tools, iPods, hearing aids, cameras, musical instruments and on and on. If you have more than ‘the average Joe’ of ANYTHING, then check this out FOR SURE! 6. Check your deductible! This can be a tremendous cost-control tool in your insurance spending. Simply stated: The larger your deductible, the greater your savings. Usually you can save close to $100 per year just by going from a $500 deductible to $1000. Pick the largest number you can stand without losing sleep at night and ask your agent or company the savings you’d realize by changing. If you have a $250 or smaller deductible, it’s definitely time to change it UP! Keep in mind that you usually hit a point of ‘diminishing returns’
POLICY MATTERS: HOW TO REVIEW YOUR AUTO INSURANCE RENEWAL STATEMENT
Printer-friendly versionBy Dennis Volz May 2009 (San Diego’s East County)–You can save TONS OF MONEY by just taking a few minutes to look over that annoying little renewal statement that has your insurance bill attached to it. We sure get a lot of paper these days. It seems that in this paper-LESS society, we shouldn’t have quite as much paper as we do. And although we can scan it, archive it, or just throw it away. There is one piece of paper that you’ll want to pay attention to — It’s your Auto Insurance Renewal Statement. You’ll get these once or twice a year depending on how often your auto insurance renews. You’ll probably also get one whenever you adjust your coverage or change vehicles. One of the reasons the insurance company sends these statements out to you is to give you an opportunity to pause and determine if those coverages and limits and deductibles you started with so long ago still apply to you. Things change and so should your insurance policy. Sometimes people keep up with it; sometimes they don’t. By not paying attention to these renewal statements, you could be spending needless premium on coverage you no longer need or want, or you could be setting yourself for an uninsured or underinsured loss by having limits that are too low or thinking you have coverage that you really DON’T have. Here are a few steps to help you quickly and systematically look over that statement in just a few minutes. 1. Quickly review all the basic information: Name, address, vehicle description. OK there? 2. Next take a look at the rating information. You might need a little help from your company or agent on this one. Companies apply different rating factors for different driving characteristics. These can include how many miles you drive, your age, your years of driving experience, ticket, accidents, etc. A quick call to your company or agent and they can walk you through these in just a couple minutes. 3. Check your LIABILITY LIMITS. This is usually the first coverage listed. This is probably the most important coverage to examine. This is the coverage that stands between some accident that you may cause and everything that you own. Individual state laws mandate different minimums. California minimums are 15/30/5. Others are listed here. This means the insurance company will pay up to $15,000 for the injuries you cause to any one person, up to $30,000 for the injuries you cause in any one accident, and up to $5,000 for any property damage you may do (the car, house, light post, whatever you happen to hit). While these limits may seem like lots of money, they can evaporate very quickly. Consider a recent client of mine who sustained injuries in an accident and spent over $14,000 before ever even leaving the emergency room. My recommendation is to think in terms of at least 100/300/50 instead of whatever your state minimum might be. Consider more if you own a home or have appreciable assets. Cut and slice and minimize on other coverages, but this one is where you protect everything you own against the possibility of a large liability lawsuit. 4. Check your Medical Payments. This is usually listed second. It’s the coverage that provides (depending on your state insurance laws) coverage for injuries to you and other people in your vehicle. There’s some overlap here with your health insurance. This can be used to pay deductibles, copayment and other portions of your medical bills that may not be covered by your health insurance. 5. Check the coverage on your vehicle — Specifically Comprehensive and Collision coverage. Collision coverage pays for your car when you sustain damage from a collision. Comprehensive covers (almost) everything else. Decide if the annual cost of these individual coverages makes sense compared to the value of your car. Check here for a more detailed discussion of this process. 6. Don’t neglect Uninsured and/or Under Insurance Motorist Coverage. There are LOTS of uninsured drivers on the road these days. Some surveys estimate as high as 25%. That means one out of every 4 drivers on the road can be uninsured. This is the coverage that for just a few dollars a year ‘constructively’ gives all those drivers insurance coverage to pay you if they cause an accident with you. You should consider having limits at least equal to your liability limits (#3 above.) 7. Make sure you’re receiving ALL the discounts you can get. Here’s where that phone call can pay some dividends. There are many discounts available. There are discounts related to your car: Airbags, alarm system, theft tracker systems and others. There are also other discounts. One of the biggest can be the Multi-Line Discount. This is where you save even more on your auto insurance if you have other policies such as homeowners or life insurance with the same company. Also remember to check for short mileage, good student, mature driver, defensive driving class, loyalty (with the same company for a long time). Just call the company and ask them to list all of the possible discounts to see for which ones you can qualify. This process might take you a little longer the first time you do it. I suggest you make some notes right on your renewal notice and file it for next time. Then when you get your next renewal, you can get your first one out and compare and use the notes you make to ask more questions that will either save you money or better protect your hard-earned assets. Till next time… Dennis Volz is an insurance agent for a large national insurance company and the author of The San Diego Insurance Blog. He has served the East County area since 1978. Dennis and his team have built their business around their mission statement: We enable our policyholders to manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and to realize their