Author: Steve G

Insurance blog, articles, and news written by Stephen Gebhardt, founder and CEO of Gebhardt Insurance Group an Insurance agency in Casa Grande, Arizona.

How to Insure Your Personal Belongings

by

One great thing about a renters, homeowners or mobile home insurance policy is that it allows you to insure your personal belongings. However, many people don’t take the proper steps to ensure that their belongings are protected if they are lost stolen or damaged, rendering this feature of their insurance policy useless.

Here’s how to make sure your insurance policy will be there to protect your personal belongings when you need it.

Make sure you have the right type of insurance policy

This is an issue that comes up especially often for renters. Many landlords require tenants to have renters insurance so that they are protected if someone is injured or sustains damage to their property while on the property. A renter’s insurance policy can also pay for damage caused to the property by the tenant so that the landlord doesn’t’ have to make a claim on his or her own insurance policy. However you’re your renters insurance policy doesn’t have coverage for personal belongings, then it won’t do you any good if your items are damaged, lost or stolen.

Many apartment complexes in Arizona offer liability insurance through an affiliate so that renters can just add on the cost of the insurance to their monthly rent. It’s important to carefully examine the details of this insurance policy. Some renters are under the impression that the insurance offered by their landlord will protect their belongings if they are lost, stolen or damaged, but that is not usually the case. Normally, the landlord with only offer liability insurance. That alone does not insure your belongings.

Insuring Expensive Items like Jewelry and Electronics: So you have an insurance policy that says it will cover your belongings if they are lost, stolen or damaged. All set, right? Not necessarily. If you want to insure your personal belongings that are very expensive–think $1500 or more–you will most likely need to purchase additional coverage. That’s because your standard insurance policy may max out before it pays for you to replace your expensive handbag collection or home theater.

To avoid this gap, you can purchase a supplement to your insurance policy called an endorsement, or a floater, that will provide protection for your expensive belongings. It may cost you a few hundred dollars more a year to protect your most expensive items, but many people find that the peace of mind it brings is worth it.

So how do you know if an item needs an endorsement or a floater? Find out how much your insurance policy will pay out for each item you might need to replace. If your policy will only pay you $1000 to replace your diamond necklace, and it’s worth $5,000, you will need to buy additional protection if you want your item to be protected. Each time you acquire an expensive item, call your insurance company to let them know so they can talk with you about options for insuring.

Take inventory of all your important belongings

Many people can’t take advantage of the protection that their homeowners or renters insurance policy offers because they haven’t kept detailed records of their purchases. An insurance company won’t be able to help you insure your personal belongings and help you replace them if you can’t prove that you ever owned them.

To do this, you should take photos and video of all of the items you want to insure. Some common items to start with are furniture, expensive clothing, electronics like TVs and laptops and jewelry. Some people do video walkthroughs of their homes, filming their belongings as they go. This is a great way to provide proof of your belongings and it doesn’t take much time.

Now you need to start a list to keep track of the items you have. The list should include:

  • Exact product name
  • Detailed description of the item
  • Price you paid for the item
  • Price the item appraised for (if applicable)
  • Whether or not you have the receipt (and a photo or screen grab of the receipt if you do)
  • The serial number or identifying number (if there is one)

The Insurance Information Institute has a free home inventory tool that allows you to create and maintain a home inventory and keep it stored safely in the cloud. If you don’t want to use a tool like this, you could just create your own list and store it on your own cloud-based storage or email it to yourself. That way, even if everything you own is destroyed in a fire, you will still be able to access your proof.

Update this list regularly and save all necessary documentation—this includes owner’s manuals and receipts. You can take photos of the receipts and add them to your list, but it’s also a good idea to come up with a filing system for your really important receipts.

How much it will cost to insure your personal belongings

Once you have completed you home inventory list, add up the value of all of the items you have written down. This will give you an idea of how much insurance coverage you will need. In general, the larger the cost of your items, the more your monthly premium will be. If you are a renter, you can get coverage for up to ten or twenty thousand dollars worth of items for a very low premium, often less than $150 per year. Keep in mind, for any very expensive items you may need to purchase a floater because your policy may have limits in place for how much it will pay you for each item.

Be honest.

Never intentionally over-estimate how much your items are worth in hopes of getting more money from the insurance company. Doing this is a felony and if you insurance company thinks you are being dishonest, your settlement can be drawn out for weeks or months. Do the right thing so your insurance company can help you.

If disaster strikes…

If your home is burglarized or your items get damaged or lost, give your insurance agent a call right away. You should also read through the most current version of your homeowners insurance policy so you know what to expect when making a claim. If you didn’t plan ahead and don’t have proof that you owned the items that were lost or stolen, you will have a hard time getting any help from the insurance company to replace them. Search for receipts for online purchases in your email or online accounts, check for proof of purchase on your bank or credit card statements, and look for photos or videos taken in your home that might contain images of the belongings that were stolen.

 

If you want to insure your personal belongings and gain some peace of mind, give us a call at Gebhardt Insurance Group. We shop more than 40 different insurance carriers to find you the coverage that best fits your lifestyle and budget and we can walk you through how to insure your personal belongings. Call us today at 520-836-3244 or calculate your coverage costs now.

Safe Driving Tips for Your Teen Driver

by

In Arizona there are roughly 100,000 car crashes each year. In 2014, more than 8,000 crashes involved people under the age of 24. Teaching your teen driver to be safer while driving is an important step to make sure that they are not only safe from injury, but that they don’t harm other people on the road.

The first step in teaching your teen to be a better driver is learning what distractions they might face on the road.

Cell phones—Not Just for Texting

Did you know that 53 percent of all American 6-year-olds have a cell phone? Letting your child have a cell phone, especially when they reach driving age gives you peace of mind knowing that they can call you, or call for help if they need it.

But phones aren’t just for talking anymore. Kids use their phones for building their perfect driving playlist, for getting directions to the new store where they are meeting their friends, scrolling through social media and texting. All of these things can cause unnecessary distractions while driving.

GPS: Teach your teen to input the address of their destination before leaving the driveway or parking lot. That way they aren’t flying down the street, glancing at the phone on their map, still trying to figure out why Siri wants to take them to an address in the next town over.

Same goes for music. Teach your teen driver the “set it and forget it” mindset. They should not be looking at their phone trying to skip to the next track while they are cruising down the freeway. If they have a passenger, encourage them to let that person DJ. If the passenger is you then by all means crank up that 80s rock. Then next time they are the passenger in your car, let them pick the music. Setting a good example for them is one of the best ways to ensure that your teen will be a safe driver. It might not seem like it anymore, but your teen is looking to you for driving tips, and your opinion means more than you think.

Texting: Some cities in Arizona have adopted stricter ordinances than others to try to manage texting and driving, but it isn’t technically illegal. However, that doesn’t mean it is encouraged. A study conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory showed that texting and driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving.

Teenagers often feel invincible and have a “that could never happen to me” mindset, but the truth is that even sending just one text could be enough to distract them from the road long enough to cause an accident or fail to react to another car coming into their lane. This means no browsing through Facebook or Instagram while driving either.

Non-Electronic Distractions

Passengers: Every 16-year-old is going to want to take their friends for a drive as soon as they get their license, but studies show that the more passengers in the car, the more likely an accident is to happen.

One way to limit this danger is by putting a restriction on how many people are allowed as passengers in your teen’s car. In Arizona, new drivers aren’t allowed to have passengers in the car for the first 6 months he or she has a license unless the passengers are siblings or a parent or legal guardian. After that it is up to you to limit the number of people your teen drives around.

If you aren’t comfortable doing that (or don’t think they will listen to you) teach your teen driver that when they do have passengers in the car, it’s okay to ask them to turn the music down or stop rough housing in the back. It doesn’t make them lame, it makes them a good driver. Their friends will likely respect their wishes and may even adopt the same attitude themselves when they are driving.

Drinking and driving: Even if you don’t think your child is drinking, the fact is that 11 percent of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S. is consumed by young people ages 12 to 20. Even if you know your teen hasn’t experimented with alcohol yet, you never know when they will. So it is important to let them know that it is never okay to drink and drive. Set a zero-tolerance drinking policy and lay out the consequences clearly. Let them know that if they ever are in a situation where they have experimented with alcohol, they can call you to pick them up, no questions asked.

Late night driving: Did you know that in 2010, 41 percent of all teen driver fatalities happened between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.? That’s why it’s a good idea to limit your teen’s nighttime driving—especially during the first year they have a license. In Arizona, individuals aren’t allowed to drive between midnight and 5 a.m. during the first six months they have a license.

While it may be more dangerous for teens to drive at night, it’s also important for them to practice, so be sure to go driving with them after dark at least a couple of times a month so they can get the hang of driving at night with you there to provide tips and support.

Before They Hit the Road

Buckle Up: Of the teens that died in car crashes in 2012, 55 percent of them weren’t wearing seatbelts. Just because you set a good example and taught your child to always buckle up, it doesn’t mean that they will practice that same behavior when you aren’t around. Especially if he or she has a friend who doesn’t like to wear theirs—peer pressure can be a powerful thing. Teach your teen driver to not only buckle up each time they enter a vehicle, but to make sure their passengers are buckled up too. In Arizona, the driver of the car can be ticketed for having unbuckled passengers in their vehicle. Which reminds me, make sure your teen knows what to do if they get pulled over.

Vehicle maintenance: Before handing your child the keys, make sure they know some basic vehicle maintenance. You should teach them how to change a flat tire, check their vehicle’s fluid levels and jump-start a dead battery—all without the help of a smart phone—you never know when they might be stranded without it! Also make sure that your teen knows who to call if they need a tow. Many insurance policies will cover this service if you use one of their approved towing companies.

You can’t control every situation, but having a new driver in the family doesn’t have to be scary. As long as you teach your teen driver to limit distractions, never drink and drive, buckle up and maintain their vehicle, they will be at less of a risk.

At Gebhardt Insurance Group, we shop more than 40 insurance carriers to find the best insurance value in Arizona for your whole family. Call us at 520-836-3244 or calculate your coverage costs for free today.

Should I file a homeowners insurance claim?

by

A homeowners insurance claim could cost you more than just your deductible.

So you came home from work to find your floor covered in water.  What now? Your first thought may be to call the insurance company to get someone to come out to look at the damage, but knowing when to make a homeowners insurance claim and when to fix the damage yourself could save you money—right now and in the coming years.

Here’s what you should do to make sure you choose the repair option that will save you the most money upfront and ensure that your insurance rates don’t skyrocket in the future.

Ask a professional first.

Without knowing the extent of the damage, it’s hard to estimate how much the repairs will cost to determine whether or not you should file a claim and pay the deductible or pay out of pocket.

It’s a good idea to find a reputable restoration company to come to your home and take a look at the damage. They will be able to tell you how much damage is done, what it will cost to fix it, and may even be able to give you advice on whether or not to make an insurance claim. Slate Restoration, a company based here in Arizona, will educate you about your options so you will know whether or not the problem is something you can fix yourself, pay them to fix for less than your deductible, or if you really do need to make an insurance claim.

Determine the cause of the damage.

Is your roof leaking because you should have had some shingles replaced a while back? Did a water pipe burst due to negligence on your part? Don’t attempt to claim any type of damage that was caused due to a lack of routine maintenance because even if your claim is denied, your insurance rates may go up.

Know what types of damage are excluded from your policy. For example, many policies don’t cover termite damage, sewer backups, and mold.

Know your deductible.

Sometimes home insurance deductibles work a little differently than auto insurance deductibles. Depending on your policy, you might have a typical flat-rate deductible (like you do for your car insurance) or you might have a percentage-based deductible that’s based on the insured value of your home. There’s also a split deductible, which works like a flat rate deductible for most claims, but changes to a percentage-based deductible for particular scenarios laid out in your policy.

Home insurance deductibles vary greatly. Like $500-$25,000 greatly. It may seem like a no-brainer that you should pay your deductible if your damages are going to exceed that number. However, there are other things to keep in mind when making this decision, like how much your insurance premiums will go up if you do make the claim.

A $1000 claim now could mean higher insurance premiums for years to come. A report released by InsuranceQuotes.com found that, on average, a single claim will raise your monthly premium by 9% and a second claim could raise them 20%.

Some insurance companies will even drop you if you make too many claims. After that happens, it might be hard to find another company to insure you thanks to CLUE (the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange). It’s a database that tracks your auto and property insurance claims going back seven years. It’s available to all insurers and they use this information to determine whether or not they can cover you and how much to charge.

Pay out of pocket if you can.

Think about your homeowners insurance policy as a backup in case your home sustains catastrophic damage, like in a fire. If the repairs are going to cost you $3000 and your deductible is $1000, it may seem like the right idea to make the claim and pay the deductible. But if you are able, you should really try to pay for the repairs out of pocket. That’s why it’s so important to have an emergency fund set up.  Some repair companies will also let you make payments if you aren’t able to pay for the repairs upfront.

It may be frustrating that it isn’t advisable to file a homeowners insurance claim every time your home sustains damage, but just remember that your homeowners insurance is there for you if major damage happens in the future. And the money you pay each month for that peace of mind is totally worth it.

And if you think you are paying too much for your policy, let Gebhardt Insurance Group shop around for you. It’s our job to find you the best value for your homeowners insurance policy. Give us a call at (520) 836-3244 or get a free quote right now.

Save Money By Switching to Liability Only Coverage on Your Car

by

Insuring all of your family’s vehicles can get expensive. Switching to liability only coverage on one or more of your vehicles is one way to save money, but you should weigh the benefits of having full coverage against the benefits of saving money before you make this decision.

Here’s some information about the different parts of your auto insurance policy and some helpful tips to keep in mind.

Understanding the different types of coverage

Full coverage insurance contains comprehensive, collision and liability insurance on one policy. If you are still paying off your car then you are usually required to keep full coverage on your vehicle and wouldn’t be able to opt for liability only.

Liability insurance is the bare minimum that all states require by law that you carry in some form or another. This is what protects you if you were to injure someone else or damage someone’s car in an accident while driving.

The amount of insurance you are required to carry varies state to state. Take Arizona for example. Drivers are required to hold coverage up to $15,000 for each person injured in an accident up to a maximum of $30,000 for the entire accident, and $10,000 worth of coverage for property damage.

Comprehensive insurance is what protects your car from damage that isn’t caused by collision with another car or single car collision, like fire, theft, falling objects, explosions, floods and vandalism.

Collision insurance covers both accidents that happen with another vehicle and damage that your car would sustain if you hit another object that wasn’t a car, like a light pole or a fire hydrant.

Consider how much your car is worth

Before you drop coverage to liability only, you should consider how much your car is worth. You can check out sites like Kelley Blue Book to help you come up with an estimate.

Let’s say your car is worth $2500 and your premiums for full coverage insurance are $100 per month, or $1200 per year. Your deductible is $500. If you were to drive your car into a pole and cause major damage, would it be worth it to you to pay the $500 deductible? Or would that money be better spent going toward a new vehicle?

If you are paying more in premiums in a year or two than your car is worth then it may be time to drop your insurance down to liability only.

Keep in mind that if you are in an accident caused by someone else, his or her liability insurance will cover you and your vehicle. Another reason to focus on the road at all times and to be a safe driver!

What’s in your emergency fund?

Do you have enough in your emergency fund to replace your car if you were to back into a tree the day after you drop your car’s full coverage insurance? Is your car worth enough that you would want to pay for those repairs in full?

If your emergency fund doesn’t contain enough money to replace or repair your car if an accident happens and you don’t have another vehicle to drive, then you shouldn’t drop your coverage.

Dropping collision only

If you consider yourself a safe driver, but you aren’t ready to drop full coverage completely, you can try dropping collision first and continue paying for comprehensive and liability. That way you will still be covered if your car gets vandalized or that tree does fall on it.

This is a good idea as long as you are keeping enough money in your emergency fund to pay for the deductible.

Want more tips about whether or not to drop your insurance to liability only? At Gebhardt Insurance Group we are independent Insurance specialists, so we shop the nation’s top insurance carriers to find you the absolute lowest insurance rate for your home, automobile or business. Call us a call today at 520-836-3244. We’re here to help!

Home Insurance: Bang for Your Buck

by

When it comes to home insurance there are many ways that you can get the most bang for your buck. Today we’re going to discuss the five most effective ways to save money on home insurance.

1. Keep your inventory list safe
This might sound like a no brainer but far too often we’ll hear about people losing their inventory list due to a fire or theft, or in other words, when they need it most. Fortunately, this is a completely preventable situation. To ensure that you are never in this same situation follow these tips. First, if your inventory list is a physical copy, make sure it is kept somewhere protected, your bank box or in a fire proof safe are usually good places to start. We like to recommend having both a physical copy and an online copy of your inventory list and any related photos, videos saved somewhere such as Dropbox or One Drive, in other words a secure cloud account. Although it is not the end of the world if your inventory list is lost or damaged taking the time and effort to make sure that is remains secure now will safe you stress, money, and even more time in the long run.

2. Make sure you’re receiving the appropriate amount of coverage (not too much, definitely not too little)
Once again this tip is pretty self-explanatory. You don’t want to be paying more than you have to but you also want to make sure you are covered for the things that matter. Finding the balance is key and our experienced insurance agents at Gebhardt Insurance Group can help you do so.

3. Be aware of ways to save on your premium.
When it comes to saving on your premium there is a multiplicity of options available. The first basic way is to make sure that you “disaster-proof” your house as much as possible (i.e. alarm systems, dead bolts, fire alarms, updated electrical systems, etc.). All of these not only increase your chances of remaining safe but help to lower your premium. Other ways to save on your premium are to pay attention to the actual house you are insuring, for instance if it’s 100 years old chances are your premium is going to be a bit higher. On the same hand, if you live closer to a police department your premium might actually be lowered! These are all factors that you can take into account if you’re buying a home. The final tip for saving money on your premium is to make sure you have good credit. Many insurance companies will view your score and adjust accordingly. In addition, having good credit never hurt!

4. Ask what discounts are available
The straightforward options always seem to be the least obvious. Sometimes all it takes is asking if there are any discounts available to get you a discount! For instance many insurance companies will lower your premium if you buy home and auto insurance together, all you have to do is ask.

5. Finally, shop around!
Shopping around guarantees that you know what options are available to you. It may be time consuming but it’s worth it. At Gebhardt Insurance Group we understand that people need options, which is why we partner with over 40 insurance providers to ensure you get the best coverage possible for the best price possible. Call us today and we’ll help find the perfect insurance plan for you!