Simply Explaining Insurance

There is a particular way to make sure your jewelry is covered properly on your insurance policy. If you have a small amount, many times it is covered in the base home policy. For example, the policy I offer can come with $5000 total, up to $1500 per piece.

Anything over that amount, you want to have scheduled on the policy using a jewelry floater. Imagine a diamond ring having its very own policy. Inside of that policy, you can decide if you want the ring covered for replacement cost, or an agreed upon value. What’s the difference?

If you choose replacement cost, we will replace the jewelry to the exact specs that we have on the appraisal. You will get that piece of jewelry back. We have relationships with jewelry wholesalers though, where we can get the jewelry back at a lower cost. So if you paid, $10,000 for a ring, we can get it for say $7,500.

If you choose agreed upon value, we will get you the $10,000 back and you can repurchase the piece of jewelry on your own.

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #86- Agreed Upon Value appeared first on Dietz Agency.

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There is a coverage that is available as an endorsement on your homeowners policy called, “Sewer and Drain”. What does it cover?

Honestly, it’s a deceptively named endorsement. This will help cover any damage done by a backup or overflow, into your house from a blockage that is off premises. So if there is a clog down the street from you, that causes water to back up in your home there may be coverage.

Or if there is flooding on your street which causes the backup of water or sewage into your home. These are the types of events that you may find coverage for with the Sewer and Drain endorsement.

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #85- Sewer and Drain appeared first on Dietz Agency.

The post Simply Explaining Insurance #85- Sewer and Drain appeared first on Dietz Agency.

I had two conversations with clients last week regarding the difference between 1099 contractors and W2 employees when it comes to insurance. This is an important distinction to get right for a number of reasons.

Many new business owners want to hire 1099 contractors for one main reason. It’s cheaper. They don’t have to pay payroll taxes, and they don’t need a workers comp policy. This is absolutely true. The issue is, not everyone can be a 1099 contractor.

In order for someone to qualify to be 1099, the business owner cannot train them on how to do their job. They also cannot when to do their job or them how to do their job. There are more qualifications, but these are the big three that most people would fail on. Here is what the IRS says on it.

The other thing is, when someone is hired to do a job, there needs to be some sort of workers compensation coverage in place. If you are a business owners with W2 employees, by law you need a workers comp policy to protect these employees if they get hurt on the job. If you hire a 1099 contractor, you are not obligated to have a WC policy, but the contractor is and you have to collect proof of that to have on file.

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #84- W2 vs. 1099 appeared first on Dietz Agency.

The post Simply Explaining Insurance #84- W2 vs. 1099 appeared first on Dietz Agency.

If you are a business owner and you have a partner, a buy sell agreement should be an important part of your business plan.

A buy-sell agreement in its simplest terms is a life insurance policy that the business owns in the event of the untimely death of one of the partners.

When a business partner dies, the shares of the deceased generally will go to the surviving spouse. Now the spouse is part owner of the business. This life insurance policy is owned by the company, and its beneficiary is the surviving partner. That money is used to buy out the spouses portion of the business.

It’s important to have this all laid out in your partnership agreement put together by a lawyer. The value of the business needs to be predetermined in the agreement. From that value, it is easy to come up with the face amount on the life insurance policy.

This policy can be a term policy which would be a business expense, or it can be a permanent policy and grow into a company asset. As always, it’s important to meet with a licensed insurance professional to walk you through the process.

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #83- Buy Sell Agreements appeared first on Dietz Agency.

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The carrier that I work for just added two exciting endorsements to our latest homeowners policy. If there was ever such a thing as an exciting endorsement to a homeowners policy, this is it.

This first one is a service line endorsement. It covers things like, the main water line running to the house from the street. If that sucker springs a leak, this endorsement will cover the excavation and repair of said pipe. Many homeowners policies do not have this coverage. You can add this on our policy for a whopping $25 month.

We are also adding an equipment breakdown coverage which covers what I call the “guts” of your house. Things like your HVAC system, your water heater, appliances, etc. This is close to an aftermarket home warranty program. If your furnace goes down, there may be coverage. If a power short affects your appliances and they are damaged, there is coverage. This is all for $35 year.

I have had instances in the past where clients have called up and asked about specific scenarios that did not end up being covered on their homeowner policy. A main water line leak and a power surge. I had to tell my clients that I was sorry there is no coverage. Now there is!

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #82- Service lines and Equip. Breakdown appeared first on Dietz Agency.

The post Simply Explaining Insurance #82- Service lines and Equip. Breakdown appeared first on Dietz Agency.

Are you are in the business of flipping houses? It is important for you to understand how to insure this risk.

A house that is being purchased, remodeled and resold, requires a different policy than you average homeowners policy or landlord policy. It’s a completely different risk. You may have to write a vacant property policy that allows for a remodel.

If you are doing a complete gut job, you may need to write what is called a builders risk policy. These policies are most commonly written for new construction and are in place while the house is being built. After it’s finished, the policy would transition to a homeowners or landlord policy.

What if you are having someone doing the work for you and hire a general contractor? It’s vital that the GC has a general liability policy in force while they are doing the work. In this case, you may need a vacant policy and the general contractor has their liability policy and you have the coverage you need for the project.

As always, consult with an agent who has experience with these situations. They can build a proper protection plan for you.

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #81- Flips appeared first on Dietz Agency.

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The world has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. The iphone launched, apps were invented and almost everything we do, is different.

You want a taxi? Order one up on your phone. You want a place to stay in Manhattan? Select a place on your phone and book it. This has also changed the way insurance companies insure.

These are new risks with limited data to dig into. Insurance companies love lots and lots of data. It is still unclear on how much more of a risk it is to rent out a room in your house to a stranger. Or how much more of a risk it is to turn your car into a weekend taxi.

What this means for you is, you need to make a phone call to your agent to make sure you are covered. Every company works at its own speed. Some have “rideshare endoresements” that will cover a gap in insurance that is found if you are an Uber or Lyft driver. Other don’t have that endorsement yet.

Some companies have endorsements if you are starting to Air BNB. There are also different kind of Air BNB’s. Do you rent your primary home out? Or do you rent just a room in your house? Do you rent a separate structure out and live in the main house? All of these are different risks and some companies won’t cover any of it, and some may cover all of them.

It is ultimately up to you, if you are choosing to take place in the shared economy, to make sure you have the proper coverage in place.

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

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The post Simply Explaining insurance #80- Shared Economy appeared first on Dietz Agency.

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“I’m an excellent driver”. I hear this all the time. Now, you can prove it and pay less for your insurance. Driver tracking technology isn’t new and it has been around for a decade or so. It is getting more sophisticated though.

The tech that I am familiar with is called the Signal App and it lives on your smartphone. It scores your driving a number of different ways. The most important portion of this app, is it scores how often you drive distracted.

It also will track, how fast you accelerate, how hard you break, when you drive and how much you drive. At the end of the day, you get a score for how safe you drive.

This is something that parents of teenage drives should be drooling over. Many parents already have apps put on their kids phone to monitor this. Many pay a monthly fee for it. This app pays you! You get a discount on your insurance for using it.

Call your agent, see if your company offers something like this to you. If not, and it’s something you want to try, hit me up!

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

Simply Explaining Insurance on ITunes

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #79- Driver Tracking tech appeared first on Dietz Agency.

The post Simply Explaining Insurance #79- Driver Tracking tech appeared first on Dietz Agency.

Let’s say that you were involved in an auto accident and your vehicle sustained a substantial amount of damage. To repair that damage, it would cost more than the vehicle is worth. What are your options.

You have 2 options. Your first option is to give the car to the insurance company. They will salvage it and they will pay you actual cash value for your car. Actual cash value is determined by a third party vendor who does a thorough assessment of the vehicle gives a value for your car.

Your second option is to keep the car. The insurance company will give you a percentage (% varies by state) of the actual cash value of the vehicle. If you choose this option, the title of the vehicle will change to a salvaged title. A vehicle with a salvaged title can be more expensive to insure and the vehicle can be worth less than the same vehicle with a clean title.

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Music by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

Simply Explaining Insurance on ITunes

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The post Simply Explaining Insurance #78- Total Loss appeared first on Dietz Agency.

The post Simply Explaining Insurance #78- Total Loss appeared first on Dietz Agency.