John's Blog

Can how I handle my credit affect my hazard insurance rates?

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:57:46 -0500

Answers on this vary from state to state, but if you are in Oklahoma the answer is yes. There is usually a base rate, then discounts applied on a sliding scale for the increased financial responsibility. I have been asked what the corrolation is. While I am not the spokesperson for the process, it seems to be based on the thought that the more risk you are willing to take with your money, the more risk you are willing take with your other property. Here is the upside to this.. you have an opportunity to really reduce your rates. A few years back my wife would apply for any credit card offers just to save on the counter purchase. What she didn't realize was how it was impacting our credit... which impacts everything from home loans to home insurance rates. Well, after a bad experience with a credit card she stopped this practice. By doing that alone my overall rates were reduced 10-20%. Amazing. Another client, I brought them on with a huge savings over their prior carrier, then when reviewing again this year we dropped another 10%. What a great conversation it was to call them and tell them that their rates went DOWN this year.

So when you have a client that has just cleaned up their credit history.. add value to their relationship with you. Have them check for a positive impact on their rates.

Replacement cost vs. Market value

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:05:44 -0500

I often get asked the difference between replacement cost for insurance and the market value for a home being resold. Since I know this is a question/concern out there I thought that I would write about it. Replacement cost is the cost it is estimated to take to put that house back with like quality features in today's market. Usually this will be a higher value than resale. I will list a couple of reasons for this. Scenario 1) You are selling a home that is a great deal for someone, but needs a little updating. The updating requirements are going to push the market value of the home down. But from an insurance perspective if you have to rebuild that home, the same quality sinks, carpet, paint, roof, etc... have to go back into the building process. These items will be bought at today's prices and today's like quality, not a discounted price because tastes have changed over the years. Scenario 2) You are selling a new tract home in a new neighborhood. The rebuild cost will often come in higher because you are looking at replacing that home without the benefits gained from mass production.

In summary, the goal of the policy is to be there for the insured with the amount of money needed to put them back in like kind and quality of home.

The path from a Physics degree to an insurance agency

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:05:20 -0500

I have had many people ask me how I ever went from a getting a degree in physics to becoming an insurance agent. The answer is simple. I made my decisions the same way for the past 11 years and they are all focused on one thing.... family.

Right out of college and newly married my wife and I headed for a high tech job in Richardson, Tx in the telecom industry. We loved the area, but later began to realize that it was not where we wanted to raise children. Mergers upon mergers followed opening the doors to move back to Oklahoma and beyond if we desired, but we decided to call Owasso home. As time ticked on we weathered layoffs, callbacks, company changes, job description changes... the works. But one day I started to realize what my kids saw, and I did not like it very much. They saw their dad going to work in the morning, making it home just about bedtime, being paged away from family gatherings and such, but had no idea about what "work" meant. I wasn't teaching them to work, I was teaching them to expect me to be gone all the time. As I pondered this one day I was impressed that it was time to change. Time to change to a business that I could teach the kids life skills with. Time to change to a business that I could offer them an opportunity in later. Time to go.

So long story short, here we are, and I really couldn't ask for a better job. I get to help people daily, and get paid to do it. The kids are free to come to my office when needed and now I can teach them my trade. I love it! I hope that you love your job as much.

The difference between an adjuster and a repairman

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:50:46 -0500

In the real estate business I am sure that you will get some of these calls. They go like this "We had a storm last night and I had a spot show up on my ceiling. Should I get an adjuster out from my insurance company?" The thing I want my customers to know going into the process is that their insurance is fully behind them and to understand the process so that they will be completely satisfied with the result. If an adjuster comes out prematurely they may agree that there is a spot, they may be able to give them an idea of what it would cost to fix the spot, but the paths may part there because the adjuster is looking for signs that physical damage that caused the spot. If the spot was caused because of a general maintenance issue the customer is now frustrated and may believe the adjuster is just trying to beat them out a settlement.

I encourage my customers to talk to the repairman of their choice first to get an idea of what is happening to their house (if it is not obvious). This does two things: 1) The customer is educated before they ever enter into a discussion for any settlement, leaving them feeling like they have more control, 2) The customer is hearing from someone that they feel does not have a vested interest in steering them in one direction.

The goal in the end is a thoroughly satisfied customer. Good luck out there today!

How green is Green?

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:34:29 -0500

You know, for every popular swing in opinion there is a marketing bonanza that just brings in floods of people dying to use it to pry dollars out of your hands. But not all actually fall into lock step with the actual initial intent of the message.

Before you start getting ideas to the contrary, I probably grew up in a greener home than most of the voices of the green movement today, but we didn't call it being green, we called it waste not, want not. I remember the long profitless and thankless days and evenings spent with my father tearing down an old house to salvage the lumber. This wasn't a business for him, but the home was going to be demolished and was full of hardwood building materials. So, we settled with the owner to tear it down for the lumber in it. It was hard work, but for a couple of years after that people would stop in occasionally needing hardwood, or better quality wood than they could buy on the current market, and dad would oblige. I remember learning to use a reel mower because "it was so pointless to run the gasoline powered mower". But you know, when we did that we were the odd ducks that "just must not be able to afford a better lifestyle" in the eyes of onlookers.

Having said all this I will get to the point. When someone wants to sell me a lightbulb that will save the earth, is anyone looking at the consequences of the manufacturing process? What about the mercury gas in that bulb. Sure, sure the label says dispose of properly, but what is properly, and how many people are doing that? My education is in Physics, and I get excited about making the most benefit out of the least amount energy usage, but I am starting to have some questions. For instance, what are the consequences of creating the solar panels? Will more energy ever come out of them than has been used making them? Those high tech materials take a lot of processing to create. Are we taking this into account when looking at the benefits? The problems always faced with electric cars has been portability. Put the electricity into lead batteries and you have a lot of weight (not from the electricity)..... and lead. So now we have new capabilities with batteries, but these are not easy on the enviroment. They take increased mining and more intrusive smelting processes.

In conclusion, I say the following. We have to start somewhere, and we have to change. But WE determine the market place, and consequently have to do our homework. A 30 second advertisement may have a conflict of interest when it comes to fully informing us of what is the best for the world. Going green may not always be glamorous but it can be done, often times with less expense than we are investing now.

Security for the self employeed

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:30:32 -0500

On a previous post questions came up regarding Disability Insurance. I will try to outline as simply as possible these products and also provide some reference material. There are two basic types of disability insurance. These are Short Term Disability and Long Term Disability. These are meant to replace some percentage of your income if you are unable to work. Each one of the policies will have a period of time that you must be disabled before you are able to draw benefits. This is called the elimination period. They also will have a maximum amount of time that they will pay out. A Short Term Disability policy will have a shorter elimination period and a shorter payout period. Inversely Long Term Disability will have a longer elimination period and a longer payout.

Of course each provider will have their own twists to the basic policy structure. Some have minimum requirements on length of time in profession if you are self employeed. Some policies are for accidents only. Usually you can add provisions that will pay you a partial income in the event that you are only partially disabled, other options include the ability to adjust the policy over time for cost of living changes.

One big question often asked is how affordable the coverage is. This is affected by how extensive the conditions of coverage are, the type of job you are doing, and of course the amount of income you would need to replace. Another option is that you may be able to gain access to a group policy through a trade organization or your management structure.

Things to look for: What are considered disabilities, what the elimination period is, your ability to renew, and the stability of the company that you are purchasing from.

For a detailed read I would encourage you to look at http://www.iii.org/individuals/disability/.

Buying life insurance during a slow economy

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:43:01 -0500

When someone looks at their budget these days they immediately start looking for things that can easily be eliminated. This is a good practice to do from time to time, regardless of the economy. A slow economy is a good time to look at life insurance because you are assessing your costs and liabilities critically. When doing this it is simple to identify what your needs are if an income were to cease due to a death in the family.

Additionally a market time like this helps you assess how much you should really be depending on that group life at work. Can you really control whether that job and group offering will be there tomorrow? Also you need to ask yourself whether you really plan on working until the day you die in order to keep that group offering in place.

Owning a personal policy can accomplish an uninterupted plan to account for each of these. Term plans with conversion options can often times make coverages affordable even on a tight budget, while protecting ones insurability and liabilities they have as a family.

Student for a lifetime

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:09:59 -0500

When I started college I had in mind that I would get college over with and get down to the real stuff, making a living. Education time would be over and I could get serious about making a living (I.E. cash flow... something we didn't have in college). As I progressed through the process to gain my Physics degree I started to see that with the gains in science I would be having to refresh my education continually.

Upon graduation I entered into the corporate world, into a job not directly related to my degree, so the lectures and lab time stopped. But you have already guessed, in order to get promotions and to keep up I was continually learning something new, or learning more thoroughly the process that I already was assigned. Later as I had employees of my own, I tried to improve the materials provided them to learn, tried to make more obvious to them the resources available. From time to time though I would still have employees approach me and say "nobody ever trained me". I would point out to them the classes that had been provided, the training meetings, and last but not least, the actual on the floor, on the job training. Unfortunately those employees usually never suceeded, they could not see the opportunity.

I say this all to say, I am seeing now more than ever that I need to be a student for a lifetime. In trying to make a small business go, I have started reading. Each book I try to put into practice, and see that it helped me get a little closer. But I always have to pick up another book and start reading and practicing. I am never completely there. At first it was hard to start reading again, but now I see what I lost in the time I wasn't reading. How much better would I have been at my other jobs if I added ongoing reading to the mix? I am reading to my kids and while they get a tremendous amount out of it, I think I get more. More opportunity to visit with them, to see how they think, to train them to think, to prepare them for life.

Be a student for a lifetime, read, practice, experiment, live.

Pick an agent that you like, because you need to have a relationship

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:32:04 -0500

In the past 2 weeks I have had people call in to advise me that they were moving. Each time neither had any idea but the change caused a significant drop in their auto rates. Todays rates (especially auto) are determined by many factors, unlike the old days when you just avoided a red car that was considered high performance. As in any good business insurance companies continually are reviewing the business to properly assign risk. What county you live in, what state you live in, the safety rating on your car, and how far you drive to work are just a few of the factors that figure in.

So, long story short, pick an agent that you like. To maintain you and keep you at the best rates that they can offer you will need to talk to them. Your agent should never try a one size fits all approach, and in order to do any differently you will need to feel comfortable giving them all the details.

How to insure

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:02:46 -0500

Saturday night I was awakened by a electrical snap in my bedroom. The thunder immediately after made me realize that it was lightning and it was close. I got out of bed quickly going through the house unplugging the expensive items... most were on a surge protector that made it easy to get many at a time, but before I made it through the kitchen I heard two outlets begin to sizzle and then one of the glowed briefly and let off a funny smell about the same time as the thunder clap. Lightning had hit the tree beside my house, exploding a fence charger, knocking out my central heat and air, a ceiling fan, a TV, a router, and a cable modem.

As you can imagine, I am insured, but with any luck I will be able to re-coupe and still stay below my deductible. You are probably asking yourself why I say "with any luck I can stay below my deductible". I say it because of this. I insure myself the way I encourage others to insure. I don't insure against the things that will ruin my day, I insure against the things that could ruin my life. Had that lightning caught the house on fire, that would have been beyond ruining my day. In the long run however it is far more expensive to try to insure against something that will ruin my day than the amount it will cost me to replace these items.

The Go-Giver

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:13:08 -0500

Today I set out to begin reading a new book. The book is called the Go-Giver. Something about reading stimulates the mind, calms the spirit, and helps you re-focus. The first of this book focuses on giving more in value than you take in payment. As I think on how to apply this it occurs to me that value and product are not the same thing. Product is something that you buy and sell. Value is the something that you add to the transaction. There have been a few people in my life that I have held as friends, but which passed on, truly leaving a void in the lives around them when they left. We mourn when any friend departs, but I am talking about those that thinking of the world without them truly hurts still today when you stop and think of them. These are people that truly added value. It wasn't financial, it was intangible, but it was there.

Today do 2 things: 1) Seek out those people that add this value to your life, and call them, e-mail them, or spend time with them. You need them, and they need you; don't delay. 2) Become one of these people. This will lapse into tomorrow and the day after, and the day after.... Get started today.

Why you should have a private retirement fund

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:15:25 -0500

The days of starting a career at one company and then retiring on a pension plan from that same company years later are gone. I remember starting for a corporation that had both a 401k and a retirement. I planned on being there until retirement and cashing in on both. 10 years, 4 company name changes, 2 ownership changes, and 1 company bankruptcy later; the retirement fund is gone and the I get a letter in the mail telling how the company was going to change the management of 1 of the two 401k's I had and letting me know how they would re-invest my money, including some purchase of their stock. No thank you, I prefer to invest based on my personal needs. In short, I don't think that the best intending company could possibly know the personal needs of every employee they have.

Statistics say that the average person will change jobs 8 times during a their career. This merely highlights why you would need a private savings plan in addition to your company matched 401K. You want to take full advantage of pre-tax matches, but if you are changing jobs there is likely a reason. If that reason even remotely resembles concerns about financial impropriety you need to seperate you finances from theirs in short order.

If any of these resembles your financial situation contact YOUR financial planner. If you don't have one feel free to contact me, but take care of today so that tomorrow will be easier.

If April showers bring May Flowers, then May storms bring....??

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:13:14 -0500

Well, for an insurance agency, May storms bring..... well, friends. Shortly after the storms started I started getting questions from friends about how they should handle their property damage issues. Many of these had never let me put in a quote for their business, so I was taken back a little.

After thinking it through I decided that I couldn't be more flattered. When it came to watching only the penny, they were scared to rock the boat convinced they had fully shopped the whole market and had the best deal. But when it came to needing someone that they could trust they came to me. And better yet, now they know that it's not only the money, it is having something behind that premium you pay.

Don't be sore if you friends don't all come flocking to your business immediately, they have to know that you are a friend for more than just a sale.

The things that make America great - especially in a tight economy

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:05:24 -0500

As everyone looks at a tough economy and wonders once again how we are going to weather the storm. I think that it is important to take some lessons from history here. The United States has always shown an amazing resilience prompting the age old question... how and why? I have had former employees from a corporate environment state that it is the ingenuity of the American worker. I will never take anything away from my fellow workers, but the time that stands out in my mind as debunking this was when the employee telling me this happened to have one of the worst track records of anyone I had ever met. Others have stated that it is just because we were born in this country.

There is no doubt that we are truly blessed in our country by our creator, and that without those blessings we would not be where we are.

One of the things that I believe has lent resilience is our willingness to invest in tomorrow. Look at the early colonists. Those that first came here left the infrastructure for food and civilization behind to come to starvation, no supporting infrastructure, and they had no "plan B". They invested in their tomorrow. They knew that what they left behind was not good enough. They invested their own wellness in the hope that they could create a better place, a government built on justice and religious freedom, and though it cost many of them their lives, they succeeded.

The same with WWII. We sent farm boys from all over the U.S. to fight a war in countries many of them knew nothing of. Why did our country send them, and why were they so willing to go? They went because they were certain that the world as it was would not stand, and that it would take their investment of treasure and life to set the stage for a better tomorrow. They set out and did this with an unwavering resolve, and this was followed by a time of unparalled prosperity and peace.

I submit that in tough times like these we must set our hand to the task in front of us and set the stage for a better tomorrow. Do this by making sure you plan today and deal with the details that ensure a successful tomorrow. This is a large undertaking, but there are simple things can be done to make a huge impact for your family tomorrow. In a time when many people are mortgaged to a high degree, what are you leaving your family if they have to go through tomorrow without you? It is simple to make sure that you leave them with no debt, tuition, and the liquidity that they need to pick up and recover from such a loss. No one can ever replace you, but you can make sure that if you can't be there the assets you would have created for your family still will.

If you don't have your own personal life insurance policy (not a group plan) call someone today. Take care of this now, tomorrow is not soon enough. Talk to someone, if you don't know anyone call me, but get it taken care of now.

Happiness in all forms

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:24:46 -0500

Hello again. I thought that I would pop in and share some thoughts. In business our ongoing desire is to make our customers; or that prospect we have happy. We are ever striving to do it through "the best price" or " the best product" or the "best advertising". We all want the be the best, and that is great because that is what our country is built on. But as I write this I am thinking of another component, a lesson I learned from my family.

As my three children grow, I am continually looking for the "new" "best ever" thing to bring them joy and build lasting memories. It goes from the baseball glove and ball (which have now somehow completely disappeared), to the fishing pole (which my son reminds me continually of the danger of fish hooks). Next we move on to the motorcycle, which I must admit was barrels of fun until it was run into the wall. Yes, I had him get back on it and ride to get over the fear, but the boy still won't touch it. In an effort to help him over this phobia I even rode the thing around the backyard. All went real well until about 15 minutes before I was explaining to the neighbors how a grown man could run through their fence on a kids motorcycle.... you fill in the blanks. Yes, the motorcycle reminds me of some of my great marketing campaigns. Great on paper, but about the results... not so much.

Moving on, there was the new Play Station. This was immediately ditched for the out-dated, hand me down, Nintendo from somewhere in the 1990's. So as my oldest approaches his teens my search has reached a feverish pitch. Then suddenly it happened. Picture this, it is a Friday evening, the kids are all wanting dinner, but everything is on hold, waiting on the arrival of grandma. Grandma wants to eat dinner with us, and is traveling from 2 hrs away to do so, therefore we will wait dinner. Grandma arrives, but she has a box with her. The kids open the box, and out they start pulling.... bubble wrap. We are talking about what had to be 50 foot of 3 foot wide strips of bubble wrap. Not just cheap little bubble wrap, no the high quality big bubble, guaranteed to make a loud pop every time bubble wrap.

Hunger was forgotten. Desires to go to the park were forgotten. That ongoing plea for a capgun suddenly went silent. There was bubble wrap that required popping. As it was placed on the floor and the walking and stomping began you could not hear yourself think. Soon even my wife was involved. After several minutes of watching the kids my wife said "you just can't help but smile when you pop bubble wrap". On this there was no age limit, just simple happiness. Soon the kids came up with new ideas for the bubble wrap. The oldest wrapped himself in it and asked if his mother would tape him up. Of course she refused, but no worries, no dissatisfaction, just on to another bubble wrap idea.

So now I sign off to go on to my quest of the day, which is to figure out how to add a little "bubble wrap" to my agency. I want them to just have to smile every time they see me. Have a great weekend!

P.S. break out the bubble wrap this weekend.

What good are neighbors?

John Tooley (John Tooley Insurance Agency) — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:02:29 -0500

Well, here goes my first attempt at a blog. Today I want to talk about relations and what they mean to each of us. Growing up in a small town, now living in a thriving growing town, I am struck by two stark differences between the two. First is the amazing difference in the ability you have to create a thriving business. The success of our friends and neighbors always brings amazing opportunities for those that surround them. The old adage "Love your neighbor as yourself" carries more water than most people seem to realize. But enough of that for now. The second thing that stands out is the ability for people in need to fall through the cracks. It is easier than ever in a booming community to get lost when you need something. But it doesn't have to be this way.

This last weekend I was in the store when I ran into a friend. She began describing to me how she ordered a cake from a bakery, but was now buying something completely different because her bakery had a disaster. She told of the scene where the air conditioner was overflowing water through the ceiling and all the orders were ruined with the exception of one wedding cake that they were trying to save. We ended our conversation and went our separate ways, but something nagged at me. What about the small business owners trying to recoup across town? Who was looking out for them? After thinking about it for a while it dawned on me... I know a small business owner who specializes in cleanups and is ready at a moments notice. He wants the job and this shop owner needs the help.

What I am saying here is that by nature of our business we have the privilege of meeting people from all walks of life. We can change peoples' quality of life by listening and responding. How much easier will it be to do business with someone after they find that just by knowing us their quality of life has improved? It really goes beyond business considerations; it just boils down to being a neighbor.

Well, yes, you guessed correctly. I went home and called the man with the clean-up service. In the end he had the option of following up with an immediate prospect, and the struggling shop owner had the option of just saying "I need help" to the next guy that walked through their door. After all, what else can you ask of a neighbor? Look out for your neighbor; they will look out for you.