This week, TWO FORTUNE 100 INSURANCE COMPANIES are out looking for capital to shore up their books. Both companies suffered losses in their investment portfolios and now need cash infusions to remain solvent. This is a pretty scary situation given that insurance companies are supposed to be the most risk-averse and conservative when it comes to investing their money. I can't say this any more clearly: Make sure you look at the most recent financial rating of any insurance company you plan to purchase insurance from. If they've been recently downgraded, that is a warning sign to all investors and customers.
I'll say it again: MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THE MOST RECENT FINANCIAL RATING OF ANY INSURANCE COMPANY YOU PLAN TO PURCHASE INSURANCE FROM. They may not be there when the time comes to pay out claims.
Trick or treating is a time honored tradition each October 31. But before homeowners open their doors to the witches and superheroes that live on their block, they should consider taking precautions to make their property as safe as possible for potential trick-or-treaters.
Check your Outdoor Lighting: Make sure your property is adequately lit before trick-or-treaters arrive.
Inspect Your Property: Make sure the path to your door is safe. Look for cracks in the sidewalk and loose stair railings. Remove any obstacles that can lead to a trip or fall.
Watch the Decorations: Make sure Halloween decorations are not obscuring walkways and causing hazards. Use artificial lighting instead of candles to reduce the risk of fire-related accidents. If you do use candles, make sure you extinguish them before going to bed.
Drive Carefully: With nearly 25 million families participating in trick-or-treating each year, neighborhood streets are going to be crowded. Use extra caution while driving and if you are planning to drive, steer clear of alcohol.
Keep Your Pets Inside: Even if your dog enjoys the parade of children that arrives on your doorstep each year, the neighborhood children may not enjoy meeting your family pet.
Homeowners can be held liable should a trick-or-treater be injured on their property. Each October many invite neighborhood children onto their property and drive on crowded neighborhood streets. Everyone needs to be extra vigilant about safety during this time and make sure they have the right amount of insurance protection.
While a homeowners policy provides a level of liability protection, it may not be sufficient protection if injuries are severe. A personal umbrella policy (PUP) works with the homeowners and auto liability coverages and provides additional protection.
Additional benefits for homeowners who may be considering purchasing a PUP policy include:
You will not have to face court alone. If you are sued over an incident covered under your personal umbrella policy, Allstate will retain and pay for an attorney to represent you in court.
Your coverage goes everywhere. So, you are covered no matter where you are, including outside the U.S.
Helps with gaps in your coverage. Homeowners and auto policies do not cover certain types of incidents, like those alleging slander. But a personal umbrella policy helps provide protection for this kind of incident as well as others.
Allstate pays on your behalf. In the event of a covered claim, you will not have to pay out of your own pocket first and submit for reimbursement.
Reimbursement for lost wages. You will be reimbursed for the wages lost for your absence from work for a court appearance, up to the limits specified for this benefit in the policy.
More than 100 teens representing Mary E. Phillips, Enloe and Apex High Schools joined together for an Allstate Foundation Keep the Drive Summit and Rally on Tuesday, October 14, 2008. Keep the Drive Raleigh is a teen-to-teen movement to help students change the way they think and act in a car. It empowers teens to be smart driving activists among their peers. As one of 14 summits nationwide sponsored by The Allstate Foundation this year, the event encourages teens to help reduce the more than 5,000 teen deaths caused by car crashes each year. After the event, student leaders at Mary E. Phillips High School staged a rally to take on the No. 1 killer of teens and recruit fellow students to join them. These students left behind their mark on school grounds through a memorial to represent the teens that die each day in motor vehicle crashes, as well as banners and signs reminding their peers to drive smart.
Have you ever seen the series 'Planet in Peril' on CNN? Well, we've got our very own perilous situation right here in North Carolina. Our insurer of last resort along the coast, 'The Beach Plan' is in trouble. A new independent study performed by The Property & Casualty Insurers Association of America finds that the Beach Plan is not financially prepared to handle even a single severe storm.
What does this have to do with you? Well, nothing if you don't live in North Carolina. But if you are lucky enough to call The Old North State home, then it has a lot to do with you, especially if you own a home here.
The problem is overexposure to risk and underfunded catastrophic reserves. The Beach Plan insures about $70 Billion in property and is growing by $1 Billion every month.
According to their own records, the Beach Plan has about $1.5 Billion in reserves while a severe storm could easily cost over $7 Billion.
So I'm sure you're wondering where the other $5.5 Billion will come from. Well, when there's a shortfall, the plan is designed to spread risk among all the private homeowner insurers throughout the state - even among those that are smart enough not to insure homes along the coast. That means that in the event of a major storm, many homeowner insurance companies will go out of business.There is no disputing this fact.
Companies are scared. Scared enough to pull out of the state altogether, as we've seen with Farmer's Insurance this past year. Scared enough to raise rates statewide, as most major carriers have already done this year.
ALL NORTH CAROLINA HOMEOWNERS are being forced to pay higher insurance premiums because of the Beach Plan's exposure along the coast. NC homeowners are paying to insure coastal properties even if they don't own property on the coast.
We have about 8 more months to get this worked out before our next hurricane season, and remember, we get a chance to elect a new Insurance Commissioner this year - make sure your vote counts!
Finally, a mainstream news article that tells it like it is about buying insurance. Although the article is written specifically for purchasing auto insurance, you can quite easily translate the advice into home insurance buying or any kind of insurance purchase for that matter. The two most important points in the article in my opinion are:
1.) Insurance shouldn't be treated as a commodity like buying gas where you look for the best price no matter what.
2.) Always buy from a reputable agent who offers all lines of coverage.
I can't tell you how many prospects we come across who are only interested in price and pay very little attention to the details of the policy. Too much is at stake come claim time. Please remind your clients to get themselves the best insurance they can afford to carry.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that there were 493 fewer DUI related driving fatalaties in 2007 compared to 2006. That amounts to a 3.7% drop nationwide. 37 states had declines in DUI deaths.
Hidden in the details were some disturbing figures for North Carolinians. Even though fatalaties were down ON AVERAGE nationally, North Carolina's fatality rate actually INCREASED. Not only that, but the state had the LARGEST increase in the number of people killed in DUI related accidents year over year at 66. South Carolina had the second largest increase (44).
Also hidden in the figures was the fact that MOTORCYCLE DUI deaths went up nationally by 7.5%. And here in NC? The increase was 29.5%.
I'm not laughing. I have two pictures posted in my office. The first is the picture of a 36 year old father of two. The second is the picture of his 10 year old son. Both were killed by one of my policyholders this year while driving drunk. Coincidentally, the father and son are the same ages as myself and my son.
Cameron Bagherpour Home & Auto Insurance Agent Cary, NC 27519 919.460.0606
In September, Farmers Insurance will no longer issue new homeowners insurance policies in North Carolina. Then in November, Farmers will begin non-renewing their ENTIRE homeowners book in the state, month by month. This is not necessarily good news for insurance consumers. One less carrier means one less option to get your rates down.
Even though I am an Allstate Insurance agent, it's never good to see another carrier pull out of the state. Although I now have one less competitor, it also means the state as a whole has one less carrier to spread catastrophic risk upon.
The reason cited by Farmers is that they cannot bear the potential risk of hurricane assesment if there were to be a major hurricane in the state. The article in its entirety can be found here:
Many homeowners become landlords at some point in their real estate ownership careers.
When they do, they often overlook a critical step: To replace their homeowner's insurance policy with a landlord insurance policy.
A homeowners insurance policy does not provide the same kind of protection that a landlords policy will.
For example, if the rental house burns down, the landlord will need protection for lost rental income but will need little protection for contents.
Most new landlords don't make the switch because they either don't know they need to or because they think the landlord policy will be more expensive than their homeowners policy.
Surprisingly, most of the time the cost of a landlord policy ends up less than the cost of the original homeowner policy.
Cameron Bagherpour Home & Auto Insurance Agent Cary, NC 919-460-0606
I'm writing this as a follow up to my earlier post about hurricane Bertha. It got me thinking. If we ever get another season with a few major storms like Katrina and Andrew making landfall in the US, who will end up footing the bill for all the damage? The answer may surprise you.
Of course the insurance companies get to pay for their share of losses. But insurance companies have become pretty smart. They don't like going bankrupt just because of one storm. So the smart ones have gone out and purchased catastrophe policies to cover their losses above $1 or $2 billion.
But what about for FLOOD? Every good Realtor, lender and insurance agent knows that homeowner's policies won't cover for FLOOD.
Well, when the NFIP runs out of money, it borrows money from the federal government. So do you know what just happened earlier this year? FEMA (parent of NFIP) requested that its flood-related debts be forgiven and the feds granted the request.
Whoa! Stop the press! Did I hear that right?
So who do you think ends up footing the bill for the excess FLOOD LOSSES: Every taxpayer in the nation. That's right - even if you don't live anywhere near the coast - you get to pay for it through your taxes.
You see, if we don't come up with some sort of national catastrophic insurance plan, the precedent has been set. We will all be made to act as the defacto stop-gap for catastrophic flood losses.
Here we go again. Bertha is churning in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and within just a few hours has now been classified as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum wind speeds of 115 mph. This means that we have just entered the 2008 Hurricane Season!
Woohoo!
Although the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts that Bertha will blow harmlessly out to sea over the coming days and weeks, let's hope that she doesn't foreshadow a more active hurricane season this year. The official NHC prediction is that this year will be 'above average' in hurricane activity.
No matter what happens this year, make sure your clients buy enough insurance to protect their homes and other possessions against the damage from the storm and resulting floods or storm surges that come with them.
Cameron Bagherpour ~ North Carolina Insurance
More than 100 teens representing Mary E. Phillips, Enloe and Apex High Schools joined together for an Allstate Foundation Keep the Drive Summit and Rally on Tuesday, October 14, 2008. Keep the Drive Raleigh is a teen-to-teen movement to help students change the way they think and act in a car. It empowers teens to be smart driving activists among their peers. As one of 14 summits nationwide sponsored by The Allstate Foundation this year, the event encourages teens to help reduce the more than 5,000 teen deaths caused by car crashes each year. After the event, student leaders at Mary E. Phillips High School staged a rally to take on the No. 1 killer of teens and recruit fellow students to join them. These students left behind their mark on school grounds through a memorial to represent the teens that die each day in motor vehicle crashes, as well as banners and signs reminding their peers to drive smart.
Have you ever seen the series 
Finally, a mainstream news article that tells it like it is about buying insurance. Although the article is written specifically for purchasing auto insurance, you can quite easily translate the advice into home insurance buying or any kind of insurance purchase for that matter. The two most important points in the article in my opinion are:
. This means that we have just entered the 2008 Hurricane Season! 
;)
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