Workers Compensation Insurance – What About Your Safety Program

Workers compensation insurance for many industries, especially those in construction such as painting contractors, HVAC companies, electricians, landscapers and plumbers just to name a few, can be a huge piece of the insurance budget. In addition, with workers compensation insurance in NC, your policy is experience rated, which means your losses follow you around for years and add to the cost of your particular policy. So why don’t more contractors embrace safety training?

The answer of course is complicated but one of the biggest reason you see so little safety training in the small contractor’s world is that either the contractor doesn’t understand how much it can impact his bottom line, or if he does, he just doesn’t know where to start. This is where company selection can be crucial to the small contractor. There are some companies out there that specialize in workers compensation insurance and don’t deal in any other types of policies. One of the advantages of using these types of companies is that often they will provide you with lots of safety training tools for free.

These tools can range from helping you meet posting requirements in your shop to advice and help with safety services and even helping you develop and create a true, on the job safety training program for all of your employees. One example of a company that does this very well is Summit Insurance. Take a quick look at the offerings that they have on their web site by clicking here. You can see that they are fully engaged with their clients to help them find ways to reduce accidents and downtime associated with injuries.

Let’s face it, when you have a workers comp claim it will cost you money on your policy eventually. But more importantly, think of the immediate costs of stopping work to get your injured employee to the doctor and the downtime associated with waiting on an employee to get back to work. A large percent of accidents that occur on construction sites are preventable with better education and better rules enforcement. If you are already spending money on a work comp policy, you should ask yourself what your insurance company is doing to help you reduce and prevent accidents. Remember, there is much more to the workers compensation policy than just the rate, or the bottom line price. As you can see, there are huge hidden costs in the process and you need to hire a workers comp company that will help you manage those huge hidden costs.

Clinard Insurance Group is a NC insurance agent who specializes in helping small contractors and construction trades all across North Carolina. We understand your difficulties and we speak your language. We have developed specialty programs for all different types of small contractor groups including a landscapers insurance program, and electricians’ insurance program, a special insurance program for painters, an HVAC insurance program, a plumbers insurance program and many others. If you need help with your business insurance, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.thecontractorshelper.com.

This article was pulled and written from source information, all of which may be found in its entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

North Carolina Auto Insurance – Here’s a Nice Add-On

Your North Carolina auto insurance policy is pretty much regulated by the NC Department of Insurance. They regulate the rates and the policy language as well. As such, the policy language is the same from one insurance company to the next. But, within that framework, you can find groupings of coverages or special endorsements that add protection or extend protection to your policy that are created or packaged together by a specific insurance company.

A good example of this type of coverage diversification is the add-on coverage that State Auto Insurance Company has available for its auto insurance customers. Let’s take a quick look at this special endorsement.

This endorsement adds some protections that are not automatically included in your NC auto insurance policy.

Rented Vehicle Coverage – provides physical damages protection (comprehensive and collision coverages) and related expense for rented vehicles.

Emergency Travel Expense – If you are over 50 miles from home then they provide up to $600 for travel expenses such as lodging, meals and transportation back to your residence if your vehicle sustains a covered loss.

Pet Coverage – Here’s an unusual item. State Auto will provide up to $500 coverage if you pet is injured or killed while riding with you in your covered auto.

Additional Transportation Expense – Provides an additional $10 per day for replacement vehicle over the limit already provided by your transportation expense endorsement if you have that on your policy.

Cellular Phone Coverage – Covers loss to your cell phone with no deductible regardless of location.

GPS Coverage – Pays up to $500 for loss to your GPS system in your car.

Locksmith Services – Provides Electronic Key Replacement up to $250 per incident.

Death Indemnity – Subject to a maximum of $10,000 per person and $20,000 per incident, but if the person is wearing a properly fastened, factory installed seat belt, the limit is increase to $25,000 per person and $50,000 per incident.

Of course, the above description is for informational purposes only. You should actually take the time to read and understand this endorsement carefully should you choose to purchase it. But it is important to understand that there are many types of extra coverage endorsements out there that can add or extend the coverage of your NC personal auto insurance policy. You should take a moment to check them out carefully to see if any of them fit your needs and your budget.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance buyers to be informed consumers. If we can help you with your auto insurance, your home insurance, your business insurance or even your life insurance or retirement accounts, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

You can find the basic source information for this article at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

I’ve Been Robbed – Now What Do I Do?

For most people, their home is their sanctuary. According to the Department of Justice, about 9.5% of homes in the US are broken into by thieves each year. Discovering that a thief has broken in and stolen from you can be very upsetting. Most people make the first call to the police. The second call should be to your insurance agent. This blog will discuss what you the claims process on your homeowners insurance should be like after a theft claim.

When you call your agent to file the claim, they may transfer you to the company claims department or they may take the claim information directly for you. Either way should be fine, we give our customers the choice. Generally speaking, if a company has a claim number that you can call, then your claim should proceed a bit faster as the agent will simply have to turn around and file the claim by fax, email or some other electronic system to the company claims department.

Here is a list of the information that your agent or claims processor will need from you.

· When did the loss occur?

· How did the thieves get into your home?

· Is your home currently secured?

· If not, what are you doing to secure the home now?

· What items were stolen?

· What authority or police department did you contact and have they made a report?

· What is the police report number?

· Did the police come out to the scene?

· What phone numbers are best for the company to contact you?

Ok, so what should you expect next? Well, you should expect that a claims adjuster will come out to your home and inspect the premises to better understand the claim. This is normal and your cooperation here will speed up the process. Also, the adjuster will want to take a recorded statement from you. This too is normal and to be expected as the claims adjuster needs to have a complete understanding, from your point of view, about exactly what happened at your home.

The insurance adjuster, and very often the police department, will require that you complete an inventory of the personal property that was stolen. This may seem difficult to do and you may need to amend this list as time goes on and you discover more items that are missing. One thing you can do in now, before you have a loss, is walk around your home with a video camera, opening cabinet doors and drawers and talking to the camera describing the property and when you got it and what you may have paid for it. This video can be very helpful later for remembering what you had so that you can better determine what might be missing.

Most homeowner policies have an endorsement providing replacement cost protection for the personal property that is covered. People are often surprised to learn that in most states this endorsement to the policy will not pay the replacement value unless and until you have actually replaced the item. Until you replace the item, the company will only pay the actual cash value which is determined by subtracting the depreciation for the age of the item from the replacement cost of the item. Knowing in advance how the replacement cost provision works for your personal property on your homeowners insurance can help you plan ahead.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers. If we can help you with your auto insurance, your home insurance or your life insurance or retirement planning, please feel free to call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Data Compromise Coverage – Does Your Business Have This Protection?

All businesses, from restaurants to landscapers to car dealers, collect some data about other people. This data collection is personally indentifying information from employees, customers or even suppliers and vendors. Right now, there are laws in place in 47 states that govern when and how a business must respond to a potential data compromise. There are also federal laws such as the recently enacted FACTA and Red Flag laws. In addition, it is estimated that the average cost of repairing a data compromise is currently $203 per compromised client. With the number of clients, employees and vendors that a business has, it becomes imperative that each business owner understand and give some consideration to data compromise insurance.

Despite your best efforts to protect the data that you collect, data compromises can happen in 4 different ways. There are electronic compromises where your electronic files are hacked, phished or pharmed. Your data is also vulnerable to physical compromise which includes theft of physical files or a device which contains personally indentifying information such as a laptop or backup drive or a computerized cash register. Also, your data is vulnerable to procedural compromise where someone in your organization makes a procedural mistake. Examples of this could be mistakenly posting personally indentifying information on the internet or perhaps accidentally including the social security number on a mailing label. Last of all your data is vulnerable to fraud related compromise where a sham third party company may purchase your data under fraudulent pretenses.

So what is this data compromise insurance? Well, this protection is a relatively new form of coverage and is usually simply added to an existing businessowners insurance policy. The coverage forms will vary greatly from company to company so you should read the form carefully to be sure that you know what you are purchasing. One important point: Most of these coverage forms will only pay for damages if the personally indentifying information is information that is not already public knowledge. If the only information compromised is the name and address or phone numbers, then the protection will typically not apply.

Also, while coverage forms do vary, generally this protection will pay for one of more of the following three things:

Legal and Forensic Technology Review – Provides professional legal advice as to what is required to respond to a suspected data breach. This can include the cost of the attorney as well as the cost of the computer experts to find out what was lost and how to protect data in the future.

Notification to affected individuals – Reimburses you for your expenses of notifying the people whose data has been compromised.

Service to affected individuals – This coverage is to help the affected individuals repair their credit of take necessary steps to fix any problems that were created for them when your business experienced a data compromising event.

There are several things to consider when purchasing this protection. Always check to see if this extra protection has its own limit of liability that is different from the businessowners general liability policy limit. This is usually the case. Next, check to see if this coverage form has a different deductible than your businessowners policy. Last of all, check to see if this is a claims made type policy form or an occurrence based policy form.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help all insurance buyers become better informed consumers. If we can help you with your business insurance, please call us, toll free, 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Painting Contractor’s Insurance – Don’t Forget The Workers Compensation Policy

NC Painter’s insurance plans can be found in many different forms. One coverage that every painting company with employees should have is workers compensation. In North Carolina, the law states that if you have fewer than 3 employees you don’t have to purchase workers compensation insurance. But what this rule doesn’t tell you is that not buying a policy could wipe you out.

In NC, the workers compensation rules and regulations are controlled by the NC Rate Bureau. And the rules do give you an out when it comes to buying a workers compensation insurance policy if you have less than 3 employees. In fact, there are no real teeth in the law that will catch and find employers who have 3 or more employees who also don’t purchase a workers compensation insurance policy. So, yeah, you could go years without purchasing a workers compensation policy for your painting business. But that would be a very dangerous choice. Here’s why:

Although the law may not require that you actually purchase a workers compensation insurance policy, it will require that you pay all of the claims yourself just as if you were the insurance company. Workers compensation benefits in North Carolina are statutory and claims are governed by the NC Industrial Commission. That means that exactly how much gets paid for each type of illness or injury has already been determined by state law. Therefore, if you are paying out of your own pocket for a claim, you will not have the opportunity to determine how much you are going to pay. And in the case of a long term disability the amount you might have to pay out is staggering.

So, using the loophole in the law to avoid buying a workers compensation policy only gets you out of paying the policy premium. In fact, it puts you in the unenviable position of being the insurance company and on the hook for all claims. And these claim costs can be enormous. Imagine coming up with $100,000 to pay for injuries that resulted in permanent disability, then paying disability payments for years after that for one of your employees. Pretty scary huh? So even if work comp insurance seems expensive, you should realize that purchasing it is a no brainer because going bare means you are pretending to have the assets of an insurance company. For most painters, that just isn’t the case.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping painters with their insurance needs. If you have any questions about your general liability insurance, your workers compensation insurance, your business auto insurance or any other insurance policies, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.LowRatesForPainters.com.

The source information for this blog can be found in articles located at the blog found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Safety Tip - How To Extinguish a Grease Fire In Your Kitchen

As an insurance agent working directly with customers to help them with their home insurance and auto insurance, I see lots of accidents that turn into insurance claims. The most common type of kitchen fire that I see in this business is the fire that is started by grease catching on fire in a pan on the stove. The danger of this kind of fire is often exacerbated by the way people attempt to put it out. This blog will show you a safety tip that you should share with all of your friends and relatives. This knowledge could save a life or at the very least, might save a kitchen or a home from total destruction.

Grease fires are a special type of problem. And the ways in which you approach this fire can make the difference between a small isolated event in your kitchen and the loss of your home and your personal possessions. If you throw water onto a grease fire, the water, which is heavier than the oil, will sink to the bottom, then become superheated and the steam will push its way up and out of the pan. The force of this kind of explosion can be quite stunning and worst of all, this explosion will smear burning oil all over the kitchen from the ceiling to the walls. After this has happened, the best course of action would be to get out of the house and call the fire department.

Often people unknowingly spread misinformation about how to put out a grease fire. These include throwing flour or sugar on a grease fire in a pan. Both of these are very dangerous strategies, in fact it is estimated that throwing one cup of flour or sugar on a burning grease fire in a pan can create an explosion with the force of up to two sticks of dynamite.

Fortunately, there is a simple and low tech solution for putting out this type of fire.

Step 1 – Turn off the heat on the burner.

Step 2 – Rinse a dish towel fully in water and then wring it out.

Step 3 – Carefully place the wet dishtowel over the burning pan of grease and wait for it to cool down.

I have found a short video on youtube that you can watch to see a demonstration of this technique. Please take 30 seconds to watch this short video and then teach this to your children and those you love. This knowledge could save the life of someone you love. To see this 30 second video, please click here.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers. But beyond that, we want people to have the safety knowledge that can save lives in an emergency situation. If we can help you with your auto insurance, your home insurance, or your business insurance or life insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Source data for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found online by visiting www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Warning – Before You Shop Your NC Auto Insurance Around…..

We see so many ads on TV today exhorting us to call the 800 number and get an auto insurance quote. Save money they all say. But it’s what they aren’t saying that should be screaming the loudest in your ears. Because what they aren’t saying should warn you not to call them.

Ok, so what is it they are leaving out of the call me now messages? In short, you don’t hear them asking you to call them to save money on your homeowners insurance. And if you live in NC, that is an important distinction. Because in NC, you see, insurance companies are pretty reluctant to write homeowners insurance due to the way the legislature has preloaded the system to protect those with beach properties at the expense of everyone else. If want to read about how this problem developed, please read my blogs on the homeowners insurance crisis Part I and Part II. To better understand how it all turned out, read my blog on house bill 1305. The bill passed by the way.

So what does this mean for you? Well, I can tell you that when someone calls our office and wants us to quote or write only their home insurance, we are left with a diminished marketplace for their protection. Most insurance companies in NC will now not write a homeowners policy without the auto insurance policy to support it. Of course, those that have just their home insurance in place with an insurance company are pretty safe for now. I have not heard of many cases of mass cancellations of standalone homeowners policies in NC at this time. But there has been some activity that comes in the form of consent to rate letters. To learn more about that, read my blog on consent to rate letters in NC.

So this diminished marketplace means higher rates on homeowners policies that are being moved around without the auto policy for support. So, if you take the advice of the ads on TV, and move your auto insurance to a new company to save money, the homeowners policy that you now leave behind, unsupported by your auto policy, might be non renewed at the end of the policy term or you may see dramatically higher rates on that policy at the next renewal.

The hard market for homeowners insurance in our state means that you as an insurance consumer must play your cards carefully when making changes. If your home and auto insurance are with the same company now, then you should be careful to keep these policies together until the homeowners insurance market in NC softens. Separating them can end up costing you a lot more money and grief over time. And it’s not likely that the auto insurance company that is screaming for you to save money on your auto insurance by calling them is going to let you in on that secret. For the most part they would love to take your very profitable (for them) auto insurance and leave behind your more problematic homeowners insurance.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we take pride in working hard to help every insurance buyer become a better informed consumer. We still have open markets for standalone homeowners insurance but they are closing up over time as the market continues to harden in this area. If you need help with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your business insurance or even your life insurance, I hope you will feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Source data for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found in their entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.