Tornado Truths That Can Help You Stay Safe

Tornadoes have caused severe and irreparable damage to tens of thousands of Americans and their property in recent years. On top of the physical and emotional fallout, many have also lost their lives as a direct result of a tornado.

Although you can never control the weather or the outcome of a destructive storm, there are steps you can take to help you and your family remain protected in the event of a tornado. Those steps of action begin with knowing fact from myth.

Here are a few tornado truths that could help keep you and those you love safe:

 

When indoors, shut all windows and doors. Do not leave them open in an attempt to follow the mythical need to “pressurize” your home because the result would more likely be debris flying through the window and causing severe harm, or wind pressure working to lift the roof off the house from the inside.

 

If you are inside your home or other structure, retreat to the lowest level (a basement is ideal) or the room closest to the middle of the home or farthest from windows and doors. Do not seek a “corner” of the structure for your retreat; instead, go to the center-most point, away from windows and anything heavy that could fall on your head.

If you’re outdoors, find the lowest spot, such as a ditch or dry river bed, and lie flat on your stomach, covering the back of your head with your hands.  Do not follow the myth of seeking shelter underneath a bridge or overpass because it could collapse on top of you or large debris and winds could come rushing underneath and potentially sweep you up into the tornado itself.

If you are in a vehicle, abandon the vehicle and try to find shelter in a structure or outdoors in a low place where you should lay stomach-down and cover the back of your head with your hands. Most importantly, do not attempt to drive away from the storm unless it’s very obviously far away and moving in the opposite direction. 

Do not take shelter near a road or foothill and expect the tornado to miss you. Some myths say that tornadoes will reverse their directions when nearing a road or foothill, but a tornado doesn’t discriminate and will keep on its path.

Keep head gear handy. Head protection can be the number-one most important factor in remaining protected from flying debris—indoors or outdoors—so know where bike, football, batting, boxing and other helmets are in the house, and make them easily accessible.

 

At Fey Insurance we want to help you know the tornado truths that will help keep you and your family safe. For more tornado safety tips, visit the Storm Prediction Center’s comprehensive guide at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html.

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Prevent Water From Going Where it Shouldn’t

One of the most disheartening experiences is to find flooding or extreme water damage to your treasured home in Oxford or Cincinnati, OH.

 
At Fey Insurance we know you want to protect what’s important. That’s why we’re offering these tips to help you prevent many of the most common causes of water damage.

Just a little time and some effort can prevent a lot of heartache and hassle.

Ø  Make sure your water pressure is not set too high. For just $6 or so, you can purchase a gauge that will help you test your pressure for the appropriate level, which should be set between 60 and 80 PSI.

Ø  Standard hoses on new appliances are not as durable as they used to be. So check your appliances. If they’re rubber, either replace them with longer lasting stainless steel braided hoses or replace them every three years.

Ø  Keep water from leaking into the walls or floor of your bathroom by replacing cracked tiles and re-grouting when it’s needed.

Ø  Examine the shingles on your roof. Worn, curled or missing shingles allow water in, so replace them as soon as noticed.

Ø  Consider buying a water alarm, which can help you find leaks, or automatic shut-off mechanisms, which can help avoid bursts.

Ø  A lot of water damage occurs when you and your family are away from home.  Make a practice to avoid running the washing machine or dishwasher while you’re out.

Ø  When you leave for vacations, turn off the water supply to appliances.

Ø  Keep up maintenance on all appliance hoses, because slow leaks from worn out hoses can cause major damage (and they are not covered under Homeowners insurance).

At Fey Insurance we hope these pointers will ensure your house stays nice and dry this year! 

 

-Safeco Insurance Article

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Home Security System

On a daily basis you see ads on TV for home security systems. We at Fey Insurance highly recommend the installation of a Home Security System to add additional protection for you and your family. Insurance will work to put your property back in place after a fire or burglary, but a Home Security System will work to prevent or minimize the effects of that fire or burglary. If you are interested in such a Home Security System, please call us and we will tell you our opinion of the various manufacturers and what features to consider. For example battery backups are usually included in Home Security Systems, but we would also recommend cellular backups for your system in the event your normal phone service goes down or even disabled by a potential burglar. We would include carbon monoxide detectors in your system especially if you have a natural gas furnace or hot water heater. Central station monitoring is preferable to systems that go directly into a police or fire dispatch. Both are considered superior to a system that only sounds a local alarm in your home. There are discounts on your Homeowner policy for the installation of a Home Security System. Please call us to review those discounts. But the most important reason, in our opinion, to install such a system is for additional security for your family and peace of mind that you are doing everything to protect your family and your property.

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Alternate Sources of Home Heating

The high cost of home heating and the current recession have led many Americans to search for alternate sources of home heating.  Many of these sources of heating may be acceptable if appropriate safeguards are used.  However, be aware these supplemental heating devices are responsible for thousands of home fires each year.

WOOD STOVES

Wood stoves cause more than 4,000 residential fires each year.  Carefully follow the manufacturer's installation and maintenance instructions.  Look for solid construction, such as plate steel or cast iron metal.  Check for cracks and inspect legs, hinges and door seals for smooth joints and seams.  Use only seasoned wood for fuel, not green wood, artificial logs or trash.  Inspect and clean your pipes and chimneys annually and check monthly for damage or obstructions.  Cleaning more often may be necessary.  Be sure to keep combustible objects at least three feet away from your wood stove.

ELECTRIC SPACE HEATERS

Buy only heaters with the Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) safety listing.  Check to make sure it has a thermostat control mechanism, and will switch off automatically if the heater falls over.  Space heaters need space, keep combustibles at least three feet away from the heater.  Always unplug your electric space heater when not in use.

KEROSENE HEATERS

Buy only UL-approved heaters and check with your local fire department on the legality of kerosene heaters use in your community.  Never fill your heaters with gasoline or cam stove fuel, both flare up easily.  Only use crystal clear K-1 kerosene.  Never overfill an portable heater and never fuel the heater when it is hot.  Use the kerosene heaters in a well-ventilated room.  Kerosene heaters pose perhaps the worst exposure largely due to improper use and the fact they contain a highly flammable liquid-not to mention potentially dangerous fumes.

FIREPLACES

Fireplaces and wood stoves regularly build up creosote in their chimneys.  They need to be cleaned frequently and chimneys should be inspected for obstructions and crack to prevent deadly chimney and roof fires.  Check to make sure the damper is open before starting any fire.  Never burn trash, paper or green wood in your fireplace.  These materials cause heavy creosote buildup and are difficult to control.  Use a screen heavy enough to stop rolling logs, and big enough to cover the entire opening of the fireplace to catch flying sparks.  Do not wear loose fitting clothes near any sealed metal container outside the home.

Finally, having a working smoke alarm dramatically increases your chances of surviving a fire. Always remember to practice a home escape plan frequently with your family.

Source: US Fire Association

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Insurance Things to Consider on Rental Properties

Over the last few years many homeowners have turned into landlords.  With the real estate market drop, those that decided to purchase a new house also decided to not sell their prior home for fear of a financial loss on the property.  Instead, they have turned their prior house into a rental.  The trend still continues today even after the real estate market has rebounded some because landlords are seeing great cash flows from renting.  

Here at Fey Insurance Services we insure a number of these properties and on occasion we are asked by clients if we have any insurance tips in renting a property.  When asked we always mention these five things:

1.  Temperature Requirement in the Lease:  It is a good idea to include a clause in your lease that requires the tenant to keep the heat no colder than 59 degrees.  This is important because around the Holidays many tenants will travel and if they want to try and save a buck they may turn off the heat.  Pipes do not enjoy this especially with a polar vortex threatening again this year.  This way, if they do turn the heat off and pipes break you can pass that damage on to the tenant.

2.  Renters Insurance for Tenants:  Since you may have passed on the risk of pipe freezing damage to your tenant you then want to make sure they have insurance in place to pay for such damages.  Requiring tenants to have renters insurance is a good idea.  Not only does it protect their contents (which is excluded under your policy), it protects your property if they are negligent in causing damage to your property.  I would recommend they have liability limits at least the value of your property.

3.  Dogs:  Know your states laws on dog attacks.  For example, in Kentucky there was a law recently passed that could drag landlords into dog attack claims.  This may make it difficult to get insurance for a property that has a dog.  If you are going to allow dogs to live on your premises it is best to limit which kinds as some insurance policies exclude coverage for "vicious dogs".

4.  Loss of Rents Coverage.  Make sure your rental property insurance policy includes coverage for loss of rents.  If you sign a year's lease with someone and then have a fire a month later, you are going to be out 11 months of rent or at least however many months it takes to rebuild the house.  You can recoup this loss with loss of rent coverage.  Also, make sure that you have enough loss of rent coverage.  Many polices give  you 10% of your dwelling limit or give you a flat $25,000.  Add up your annual rents and make sure you have enough coverage.

5.  Certificates of Insurance from Contractors:  Unless you yourself are handy, you may be employing contractors to do fixes around your rental property.  We strongly recommend you ask these contractors for proof that they have insurance.  If they were ever to cause damage to your tenants contents or to your tenants person, you would want to make sure they have insurance to cover such things.

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Insurance Tips Before and After A Disaster

“If only I knew.” Four words spoken after disasters by people who’ve learned they don’t have the insurance coverage they thought they had. In our agency, we never want you to be in that situation, so here are some tips to help.

Advice you need before a disaster

You might have purchased your insurance a long time ago. Do you remember the coverage choices you made and your deductibles, endorsements and exclusions? These details can make or break a family after a disaster, so take a few minutes to call us to see if your coverage fits your current needs. Be sure to report life changes and significant purchases or home improvements.

Do you know how much coverage you have if your home or possessions are damaged by rain, hail, lightning or tornadoes? If your roof was damaged in a storm, would it be repaired or replaced? How soon after a storm do you need to report a loss? Are you aware that most renters and homeowners policies don’t cover floods or earthquakes? Do you have loss-of-use coverage in case you have to vacate your home temporarily? If a tree falls on your car, do you have the right auto coverage?

If you don’t know the answers, it’s important to call us to learn what your policy specifies.  Another helpful tip is to create a home inventory every few years. It sounds like a headache, but anyone who has filed a claim will vouch for its value, and technology has made the process quick and easy. Videotape or photograph your possessions room by room. Get close-ups of valuable items, and keep receipts. Create an inventory by downloading an app or using a website like knowyourstuff.org, recommended by the Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness (OCSWA). Store this inventory on the web or somewhere outside your home to keep it protected.

Insurance tips for after a disaster

Inspect your property and vehicles. Make a list of what is damaged and how. Take photos for documentation. And report your loss in a timely manner. Also take steps to protect possessions from further damage after the disaster.

If you need to move out of your residence temporarily, provide us with a phone number where we can call you. Find out the monetary limit your loss-of-use insurance covers before you choose a hotel. When you file a claim, back it up with written estimates and your home inventory information.  Prepare now, and your family will be grateful if there ever is a disaster.

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Extended Dwelling Coverage on a Homeowner

Many moons ago all insurance companies used to have guaranteed replacement cost endorsement you could put on your homeowner policy. This endorsement would guarantee that the insurance company would rebuild your house exactly as it was prior to the claim even if your limit of insurance on the house was lower than the cost to rebuild. Today many insurance companies limit that endorsement to only homes that are considered high value (homes valued at $500,000 or more). The endorsements also require that the insurance companies send out professional reconstruction appraisers to figure out as best they can what it would cost to rebuild your home.

For those homeowner clients who have a house valued at less than $500,000 the endorsement that needs to be added to the homeowner policy is Extended Dwelling Coverage. What this endorsement does is give a percentage of the homeowner limit as extra coverage in case of a total loss on the home. For example, if you have 25% Extended Dwelling Coverage and your house is insured for $200,000 then you would actually have $250,000 if your home suffered a total loss ($200,000 X 1.25 = $250,000).

We feel this coverage is important for two reasons. One reason is we do not send out professional reconstruction appraisers to every house. Instead, insurance companies use in house software that helps determine reconstruction cost on your house using things like square footage, construction type, location, year built, etc. to come up with a value. These programs are usually very accurate but nothing replaces the accuracy of an in home visit with measuring tape and details of the type of amenities in the house. The Extended Dwelling Coverage endorsement helps make sure that if for some reason the calculations on the house are a little off, there is still enough insurance there to replace the house to its original state.

The second reason we encourage this endorsement is for catastrophe situations. Let’s say a tornado wipes out not only your house but two other neighborhoods worth of homes. Every builder and building supplier in town will be in demand. Economics 101 will tell you that if demand goes up and supply is the same, then prices are going to rise. That home that only cost $200,000 to rebuild just got a lot more expensive but if you have the Extended Dwelling Coverage on your homeowner you would be in a much better situation.

One thing to note about this endorsement, you can’t use it to underinsure your home. In our example above, you can’t insure the house for only $160,000 and add the 25% Extended Dwelling Coverage (which would put your total insurance at $200,000). That is not the intent of the coverage. The insure companies will use their software to figure out a good estimate of the cost to rebuild your house and you would have to have it insured for that amount in order to add the coverage.

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Named Peril vs. Open Peril Homeowner Policies

Many today feel all homeowner policies are the same, that they are a commodity of sorts. In our professional opinion this is not the case. One glaring difference between homeowner policies is whether they are “Named Peril” or “Open Peril” homeowner policies.

Named Peril insurance policies specifically list the risks they will cover your home for. The policy contract will cover such happenings as wind, lightning, fire, smoke, theft, etc. If something happens to your home that doesn’t fall into the insurance policies definitions of the name peril terms than there is no coverage.

Open Peril insurance policies state that all risks are covered except for a list of exclusions that are outlined in the policy contract. This type of contract gives broader coverage than a Named Peril because the incident that happened to your home or personal contents doesn’t have to fit into a certain definition of coverage. As long as the incident isn’t excluded it is covered.

A homeowner policy that is using a “Named Peril” contract will always be cheaper than an “Open Peril” contract. It is important to know this so that you don’t fall victim to purchasing solely on price. You may be excited to see a savings from one policy to the next but that savings could be at a much higher cost and exposure to you. Unfortunately you may not know this until you actually have a claim and are staring at a bill that would have been covered under an Open Peril policy but is not covered now under your Named Peril policy.

This is just one example of what may be different between homeowner policies. Other things like deductibles, specialty items coverage, fallen tree coverage, water backing up sewers and drains, and earthquake coverage are a few others to consider.

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Rough Notes Homeowner Video

The Rough Notes production department has put together a wonderful video that goes over the basics of a homeowner insurance policy and how it protects your house.  This is a great video for any homeowner to view, especially someone buying a house for the first time.

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Thanksgiving Safety Tips from NFPA

Here is an article from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) on Thanksgiving Safety Tips.  From our family here at Fey Insurance Services to yours, have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving! 

THANKSGIVING SAFETY TIPS
The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially at Thanksgiving. Kids love to be involved in holiday preparations. Safety in the kitchen is important, especially on Thanksgiving Day when there is a lot of activity and people at home.

Safety tips:


•Stay in the kitchen when you are cooking on the stovetop so you can keep an eye on the food.

•Stay in the home when cooking your turkey and check on it frequently.

•Keep children away from the stove. The stove will be hot and kids should stay 3 feet away.

•Make sure kids stay away from hot food and liquids. The steam or splash from vegetables, gravy or coffee could cause serious burns.

•Keep the floor clear so you don’t trip over kids, toys, pocketbooks or bags.

•Keep knives out of the reach of children.

•Be sure electric cords from an electric knife, coffee maker, plate warmer or mixer are not dangling off the counter within easy reach of a child.

•Keep matches and utility lighters out of the reach of children — up high in a locked cabinet.

•Never leave children alone in room with a lit a candle.

•Make sure your smoke alarms are working. Test them by pushing the test button

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Flood Insurance Facts (Re post from 11/23/09)

With all the flooding that has occurred as a result of Sandy we thought this might be a good time to re post an old flood insurance blog article that gives a few facts about flood insurance.

Posted November 23, 2009 on www.feyinsuranceblog.com:

Flood insurance had its fifteen minutes of fame after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. During this time period the media was making everyone well aware that flood insurance is not part of your typical homeowner policy. Today that is still the case and with this post I would like to point out a few more facts about flood insurance.

Flood insurance is run through a government program called FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). You can purchase it through insurance agency such as Fey Insurance Services but the backing is from FEMA. Typically it takes 30 days for a new flood insurance policy to go into effect. The one exception would be for a mortgage closing where flood insurance is required. So you need to plan ahead. Hearing about a big rain on the nightly news and calling your agent the next day will not work. Many people think of flood insurance when they think about what is stored in their basement. Flood insurance will only cover things such as furnaces, water heaters, washers, dryers, air conditioners, freezers, pumps and utility connections. Everything else you store down there (old cloths, furniture, carpet, TV, etc) is not covered unless those items are on the first floor of your house and the flood reaches that level.

In some cases flood insurance is required in order to get a loan. If your home or a home you are about to purchase is in a 100 year flood plain (meaning at least once every 100 years your location is under several feet of water) you will be required to purchase a flood insurance policy to close on your loan.

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Deductible Basics

When a covered insurance claim happens the insured, in many cases, will be responsible for the first few dollars of most losses. The amount they are responsible for is called the deductible. More often than not, deductibles are only associated with property damage of the insured’s own possessions whether that is a vehicle that was damaged or damage to their contents, their buildings or even their loss of income. On some occasions you may see deductibles on liability claims but not in many.

Deductibles can come in many different forms on insurance policies. You can have a given dollar amount, say $500. Often times you see this type of deductible on home insurance or business property insurance. Some deductibles might be a percent of the loss like 1% or 10%. Sometimes you will see this type of deductible on a home or business but many times it will be associated specifically with earthquake coverage. Deductibles can be vanishing deductibles. As the insured racks up years of no losses, their deductible gradually drops each year until eventual it is $0.

In most cases the deductible is per claim. This means that each time you have a claim you pay a deductible. It isn’t like your typical health insurance policy where you have an out of pocket deductible for the year and once you meet that limit you are done with the deductible. In property and casualty, if you have a $500 flat per claim deductible you will pay $500 each time you have a claim no matter how many you have in a given year.

Deductibles can be a helpful cost savings tool. They can be raised to help drop premiums but the insured needs to understand that by raising deductibles they have taken on a bit more of the burden of possible claims.

It is important for insureds to understand what their deductible is so that they can be prepared to financially meet its requirement if a claim were to happen. I mention this more in connection with a percentage deductible. The insured should know if the percent is on the cost of the claim or on the coverage limit. For example, if a person had a $200,000 house and an insurance policy with a 5% deductible (on the coverage limit) it would be best to know that you have a $10,000 deductible before you have a claim. Someone that doesn’t know their policy might think that it is 5% per the cost of the claim.

Deductibles are just one of many facets to an insurance policy. Be sure to familiarize yourself with your policy and policy coverages and consult your independent insurance when ever you have any questions.

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Insurance and Your College Kids

Out in front of our Oxford, OH insurance office, it is a busy place. Today 16,000+ Miami University students return to begin a new school year. This annual pilgrimage brings up potential insurance issues pertaining to what parent's personal insurance policies cover or don't cover. Three areas that parents should be aware of:

(1) If your son or daughter is going away to school over 100 miles from home without a car, most companies will rate your Personal Auto Policy for them being married which is a nice discount. Let us know if this discount might apply to your family and your Personal Auto Policy.
(2) Most insurance companies will extend personal property (contents) coverage and personal liability for your son or daughter while they are in college and living in a dormitory. Some, but not all, will also extend coverage if they are living in off campus facilities such as an apartment or other student housing. Please check with us to see if your insurance company provides this extended protection. If not, we should be able to write a Tenant/Homeowner for your student to cover both their personal property and personal liability while they are an undergraduate. If they are in graduate school, they should definitely have their own Tenant/Homeowner Policy.
(3) If you or your children are using a rental truck to take their things back to college, U-Haul, Penske, Hertz and other will offer you coverage on the vehicle (collision damage waiver) and extended liability. While these may be covered by your Personal Auto Policy, not all companies extend the protection, so check with us before renting the vehicle. Whether or not they are covered will depend on the length and Gross Vehicle Weight of the vehicle and several other factors. We may be suggesting you buy the extra protection from the rental company before your trip.

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Dog Law in Ohio to Change

A recent article in The News-Herald does a wonderful job summing up the changes to the Ohio dog law.  The article was written by Jean Bonchak and was posted on April 29th, 2012.  Read below:

"Whether you own a poodle, Pomeranian or any pooch at all, be aware that new laws regarding your canine responsibilities soon will take effect.

Matt Granito, president of the Ohio Dog Warden's Association who also serves as the Geauga County dog warden, presented preliminary information regarding the state laws, which begin May 22, to Geauga County Commissioners at a recent meeting.

Granito said the association initiated the legal action because something more had to be done to protect the public from dogs who bite.

The laws passed by the Ohio General Assembly state if an unprovoked dog bites someone then the dog's owner or person responsible for the dog at the time of the incident can be subject to criminal prosecution. It would range from a fourth-degree misdemeanor to a fifth-degree felony with the possibility of facing time in jail.

"Without provocation," as defined in the legal document, means that a dog "was not teased, tormented or abused by a person, or that the dog was not coming to the aid or the defense of a person who was not engaged in illegal or criminal activity and who was not using the dog as a means of carrying out such activity."

Dogs displaying aggression may be classified as "dangerous" or "vicious."
A "dangerous" label means that without provocation it has caused injury, other than killing or serious injury to any person, or has killed another dog. Dogs classified as "vicious" have killed or caused serious injury to any person.
Owners of dogs deemed dangerous will be required to pay an annual fee of $50, have the animal spayed or neutered, provide up-to-date rabies shots, secure microchipping, purchase a special tag to be worn by the dog warning it is dangerous and have appropriate signs posted on their property. Chain-link fences also will be required."

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Insurance Industry Loses Big in 2011

When a wave of major storms strikes Ohio, or anywhere in the United States for that matter, your carrier uses insurance premiums to pay claims to help customers, like you, recover. If they expect more storms, your rates increase. Ohio has been rocked with several devastating storms this past year, causing damage from hail to tornadoes.

Catastrophe losses in 2011 caused the U.S. property and casualty insurance industry to experience its worst losses since 2002, and analysts say 2012 should only see modest improvement. A.M.Best, the industry rating agency, reported the industry experienced more than $44 billion in catastrophe losses, driving down net income.

Simply stated, a greater frequency and severity of storms create higher premiums, regardless of whether or not you have had a claim.

“We are in the midst of a very long-term trend. Whatever the underlying causes are, this is pushing up the cost of providing insurance in many parts of the country. Insurers have begun to reflect that in their rates,” said Robert Hartwig, chief economist and president of the Insurance Information Institute.

The Buckeye State ranks 6th lowest in the United States based on its average homeowners insurance premium. Even with the increase looming, the cost of coverage remains considerably lower in Ohio than in most other states.

How to save on homeowners insurance

The best way to reduce the impact of a rate increase is to talk to your independent insurance agent about your coverage options and let them find the best solution for your needs. Their knowledge and professionalism is your best option.

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Is Identity Theft Coverage For You?

Consulting firm Javelin Strategies and Research reports more than 11 million people are affected by identity theft each year, at a cost of $54 billion to the victims. In trying to deal with this threat, the insurance industry has developed products to help a policyholder recover from this kind of loss. The monetary loss is not the only issue with identity theft. A victim can spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to clean up credit records due to the thief using personal information to obtain credit with no intention of repayment, thus destroying the victim’s financial reputation. Identity theft insurance protection is designed to help you with this problem by covering expenses and sometimes professional services, that will help the victim recover from this type of loss.

Even with coverage provided, following simple steps can help protect you from this threat:

Shredding documents. Anything that contains sensitive information absolutely must be destroyed. There are specific documents that must always find their way to the shredder.
Old Tax Returns. Unless the IRS suspects you of fraud in your tax filings, you are usually only exposed to the threat of an audit for three years at a time. The National Endowment for Financial Education advises you to keep three to four years of tax returns, and shred anything older. Your tax return contains sensitive information, primarily social security numbers.
Bank Statements. Anything with bank account numbers should be shredded, including paper bank statements.
Credit Card Offers. These offers should go from the mailbox directly to the shredder, unless you are actually going to take the bank up on its offer. A lot of identity theft happens within families, so don’t leave these offers lying around.
Old Photo IDs. These IDs contain information, which by itself is probably not enough to be damaging, but used with other information could help perpetrate a fraud.

Pay Stubs. Absolutely shred your pay stubs. Some financial institutions will ask you the amount of your last deposit to use as a validation. A past pay stub can give that information.
Credit Card Convenience Checks. The most dangerous thing you can receive in your mailbox are convenience checks often sent with your credit card bill. These represent a live loan to whoever holds this check. Shred these immediately.
Canceled Checks. Canceled checks contain not only your account and routing numbers, but also your address and possibly your phone number. People often include their full account or credit card number in the memo section when paying with a check. Do your duplicate checks display your account and routing numbers? Don’t overlook these carbon copies.

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Preparing for Winter

Wintertime and winter weather can be tremendous fun, but cold and snow can also pose danger. Slippery roads, downed power lines and limbs, and freezing cold temperatures all bring an added measure of suspense to our daily activities. There are simple steps you can take that will take the chill off your wintertime experience.

In your car. It is not enough to throw a safety kit, including emergency equipment such as blankets, candles, a shovel and traction aids into the trunk of your car and think that you are ready for operating your vehicle in inclement weather. The single most important thing we can do while driving in severe winter conditions is to slow down. A safe speed for conditions might be well under the posted speed limit. Triple the normal driving distance between you and the car in front of you. If your vehicle begins to slip, immediately take your foot off the accelerator and steer gently in the direction you want the car to go.

If your car gets stuck, clear the snow in front of and behind your tires and spread sand, kitty litter or traction mats in the front and back of your tires. Gently accelerate until you feel the tires begin to spin. Put the car in reverse and back up slowly until stopped by the snow. Rock forward again using a low, steady speed.

At home. Have your heating system inspected to make sure it is working properly. If you have an alternative heating source, it should be UL approved and inspected before using.

Good insulation will also help if power is lost. Check for possible air leaks around doors and windows. Seal electrical outlets and switches on outside walls. Stock up on easy to prepare food, first aid supplies, batteries, flashlights and a battery-operated radio.

If you do get snowed in at home and the situation isn’t dire, just relax and preserve heat by hanging blankets over windows and doors. If you use a supplemental heating device, make sure it is UL approved, in good operating condition and maintaining safe distance from flammable items.

Outside. Make sure to remove garden hoses from outside faucets. Hopefully, you remembered to clean your gutters of leaves and debris. Better yet, install gutter guards. These can help keep snow and ice from building up, which can form ice damns and damage your house. Outside heating appliances like heat pumps must be clear of snow and debris to work efficiently.

If you have to go outside, wear tight and layered clothing and sturdy watertight shoes. Make sure to cover exposed parts of the body by wearing hats, gloves and scarves. Failure to protect skin and prolonged exposure to the cold can result in frostbite. The nose, cheeks, ears, fingers and toes (your extremities) are most commonly affected.

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Extended Dwelling Coverage on a Homeowner

Many moons ago all insurance companies used to have guaranteed replacement cost endorsement you could put on your homeowner policy. This endorsement would guarantee that the insurance company would rebuild your house exactly as it was prior to the claim even if your limit of insurance on the house was lower than the cost to rebuild. Today many insurance companies limit that endorsement to only homes that are considered high value (homes valued at $500,000 or more). The endorsements also require that the insurance companies send out professional reconstruction appraisers to figure out as best they can what it would cost to rebuild your home.

For those homeowner clients who have a house valued at less than $500,000 the endorsement that needs to be added to the homeowner policy is Extended Dwelling Coverage. What this endorsement does is give a percentage of the homeowner limit as extra coverage in case of a total loss on the home. For example, if you have 25% Extended Dwelling Coverage and your house is insured for $200,000 then you would actually have $250,000 if your home suffered a total loss ($200,000 X 1.25 = $250,000).

We feel this coverage is important for two reasons. One reason is we do not send out professional reconstruction appraisers to every house. Instead, insurance companies use in house software that helps determine reconstruction cost on your house using things like square footage, construction type, location, year built, etc. to come up with a value. These programs are usually very accurate but nothing replaces the accuracy of an in home visit with measuring tape and details of the type of amenities in the house. The Extended Dwelling Coverage endorsement helps make sure that if for some reason the calculations on the house are a little off, there is still enough insurance there to replace the house to its original state.

The second reason we encourage this endorsement is for catastrophe situations. Let’s say a tornado wipes out not only your house but two other neighborhoods worth of homes. Every builder and building supplier in town will be in demand. Economics 101 will tell you that if demand goes up and supply is the same, then prices are going to rise. That home that only cost $200,000 to rebuild just got a lot more expensive but if you have the Extended Dwelling Coverage on your homeowner you would be in a much better situation.

One thing to note about this endorsement, you can’t use it to underinsure your home. In our example above, you can’t insure the house for only $160,000 and add the 25% Extended Dwelling Coverage (which would put your total insurance at $200,000). That is not the intent of the coverage. The insure companies will use their software to figure out a good estimate of the cost to rebuild your house and you would have to have it insured for that amount in order to add the coverage.

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Market Value vs. Replacement Cost

Here is our first attempt at catering our insurance education to the visual learner.  We at Fey Insurance are not artist so please keep that in mind.  Enjoy this video that talks about the difference between market value and replacement cost.

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“Wear and Tear” Vs. “Sudden and Accidental”

Two terms that are important to know when it comes to the reason behind an insurance claim. Those terms are “Wear and Tear” and “Sudden and Accidental”.

“Wear and tear” is defined by Wikipedia as “damage that naturally and inevitably occurs as a result of normal wear or aging.” An example on a home would be a house settling over time, a pipe that corrodes and leaks water over several months or years, or a roof that after 15 years starts to drop shingles. All these items would not be covered under an insurance policy as an insurance policy does not cover “Wear and Tear”. Insurance policies cover “Sudden and Accidental” events.

So what is “Sudden and Accidental”? The best way to define it is by giving examples. If a pipe in your house just suddenly burst from pressure or because of freezing that is sudden and was done accidently. If wind blows through your neighborhood and suddenly blows off your roof or chunks of your roof that is sudden and accidental. If a tree falls and damages your home that event is sudden and accidental.

“Sudden and Accidental” events are things people can not totally prevent which is why insurance exists and covers them. On the other hand, “Wear and Tear” damage can be prevented by making sure your property is well maintained and updated. Insurance policies are not maintenance contracts.

So next time you have damage to your property ask yourself is this “Wear and Tear” or “Sudden and Accidental”? If it is “Sudden and Accidental” be sure to call your insurance agent or if you are not sure which it falls under call your insurance agent and let them help you figure that out.

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