How Well Will Your Insurance Policies Protect You From Your Vicarious Liability Exposures?

What is vicarious liability?  Well, it is a legal term that for situations when you or your business becomes liable for the actions of another person or business simply because of a special relationship that you have with this other party.  Here’s an example;  suppose your grading company is behind on a deadline and one of your backhoe operators is out sick.  You hire a temporary worker to work on your job site and you don’t know take the care to discover that he has a drinking problem.   The temp gets drunk on the job and injures another worker with the back hoe.  Now  you can be held responsible for the injuries. 

There a lot of different ways that vicarious liability can harm your business and it’s important that you brainstorm these exposures and scenarios to learn how you can avoid these losses and how you can tailor your business insurance policies to protect your company.

One place to start is to understand that the interactions your own employees and managers with each other carries risk for your company.  If you have a manager, or an employee who is harassing another employee with sexual remarks, then you and your company could face lawsuits for sexual harassment.  The insurance policy that can protect you from this type of loss is called Employment Practices Liability Insurance or EPLI for short.  Not many NC businesses understand this coverage and even fewer have bought an EPLI Insurance policy. 

Vehicles that you don’t actually own also present another common form of vicarious liability risk.  Let’s say you  send your receptionist out to pick up the company  mail at the post office each day.  This presents a vicarious liability risk for you since she is now running a company errand, even though she is using her own car.  Now if she runs a red light and injures several people, her auto insurance policy may not have high enough limits to pay this claim.  If that happens, then your company is probably next in line to pay for the injuries and damages.   You can protect yourself from this type of vicarious liability by adding  non owned auto liability coverage to your business auto policy or to your businessowners insurance policy.

Companies who handle personal identity information for clients have special risks.  If this describes your business, then you must carefully vet those employees who handle personal identity information as well as those who might be able steal this information.  If you hire a temporary worker during a busy time or a holiday season, then your vicarious liability risks will increase during that time.  You should take steps to protect your company like performing background checks on the temporary worker before they begin work for you.

Vicarious liability is a legal reality that handcuffs you to others with whom you have special business relationships.  And your relationship won’t feel so special when you are being dragged into court because of that person or that firm’s actions.  You need to do your homework on the front end to protect yourself from this exposure.  Learn all that you can about a person or company who may bring vicarious liability into your orbit.  Also take some time and run through the risk scenarios with your insurance agent to make sure that you have the protection that you need and want from your insurance policies.

Clinard Insurance Group is an independent agency serving families and businesses all across North Carolina.  It is our mission to help all insurance consumers to be informed buyers.  If we can help you with your insurance and protection needs for your family or your business, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com. 

Facebook And Your Personal Insurance Policies – Is There A Connection?

Most of us would agree that what you say and do on Facebook should have no effect on your insurance policies or your rates.   But the truth is more complicated.  Your Facebook actions can have an effect on your insurance rates and coverages in some circumstances.  And my guess is that the impact will only grow over time.

I want to begin by assuring you that as of this moment, I am not aware of an insurance company that using Facebook as an underwriting tool for personal insurance policies such as home insurance and auto insurance.  There may come a time when they automate that process and if so, will begin to use it if they can.    Insurance for businesses though is a very different scenario.  Businesses want to attract people to their FB pages and so their Facebook information is easy for anyone to see.   Commercial insurance underwriters will routinely study a business Facebook page to be sure that they are comfortable insuring that enterprise.  Here is a list of some of the things you want to consider vis-à-vis your personal insurance and your safety on Facebook.

Start by understanding that Facebook data is a rich source of opportunity for crooks and thieves.   Once again, one bad apple spoils everyone else’s fun.  But you can still have a great time but not give up the information so easily.  The thieves are out there looking for the easy targets.  So here are some ideas to help keep you from being the low hanging fruit for the bad people out there who are looking for ways to steal from you. 

You should start with a very strong password.   Obviously you don’t want to share that password with anyone.   The strong password will help prevent a thief from guessing your password based on the information that can be publicly obtained.  Also, while it is ok to show your birthday, don’t show the year you were born.  That is just an invitation for identity thieves to go to work on you. 

Take the time to understand just how the privacy controls work  and try and limit as much access about yourself to just your friends.  Restrict access to photos, birth date, family information and religious views.  Remember, the more pieces of the puzzle you give out, the easier it is for a crook to steal from you.  It is also a bad idea to post your children’s names in photos as tags.  If someone else does this, you should ask them to delete the tag.    Your children are the weakest link in the information protection game and letting a thief link your information to theirs just makes their job all the easier.

This next reminder should be obvious but people break this rule all of the time.  Don’t post the dates you will be out of town.  If you must share the pics from your recent trip, just wait until you get home to share them.  If you are talking about a future trip online, be as vague as possible about the actual dates you will be gone.

Right now, my experience tells me that the things you say and share on your personal Facebook page are not a threat to your home insurance rates or your auto insurance rates.   I hear rumors out there, which I cannot confirm, that some life insurance companies may be trying to track applicants on Facebook to help decide, based on lifestyle choices, which applicants should get the preferred rates and which should be charged more.  However, at this point in time, I think the biggest threat to you at this comes from theives.  Please use good common sense with your Facebook account.

Clinard Insurance Group is an independent insurance agency located in Winston Salem, NC.  We try very hard to pull back the curtain on the insurance industry so that you can be an informed insurance buyer.  If we can help you with your home insurance, your life insurance, your auto insurance of even your business insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

NC Auto Insurance Advice – 5 Things To Do If You Have An Accident

Since most of us just aren’t frequently involved in auto accidents, if this happens to you then you might find yourself pretty flustered.  If you know what to do ahead of time, perhaps it may help you navigate those first few minutes after the collision.  So, here are the broad categories of things you should do if you find yourself in an auto accident.

At the top of the list of course is that you should call the police.  But read on, as there are a few caveats. If the accident was your fault, and there are only minor property damages; no one has been injured,  and you think you will want to pay for the damages yourself, then not calling the police might work out in your favor.  NC insurance rules dictate that you will be charged insurance points for accidents that are your fault.  Now if the accident only created property damage and the total damage is under $1800 and you have no other tickets or insurance points on your record, then you will not be charged for this accident.  In those cases, by all means, call the police right away.   But, if all of those conditions are not true and you want to avoid the insurance points, then avoiding a police report increases your odds of avoiding the insurance points.  The insurance company will only know about the accident if you file the claim or if the accident shows up on your motor vehicle record.  Calling the police means that your record will indicate you were involved in an accident.

The next step to cover is avoiding additional damages and risks to you.  Move your car away from the roadway to avoid additional accidents.  Stay safely away from the street or highway while you are out of your vehicle.

Step 3 is to  get the correct information about the other driver.  Of course this becomes even more important if you don’t think the accident is your fault.  Be sure to obtain the other driver’s name, his or her driver’s license number, phone number and insurance information and license tag number.  In addition, be sure to verify the name of the owner of the other vehicle.  So often we find that the driver is not the registered owner of a vehicle after an accident.  Knowing the owner’s name is going to speed up the process of filing a claim against his or her insurance policy.

Now you need to fully document the event.  Take as many photos as possible document the damages to each car as well as the accident site. If you use the video camera on your phone, then you can make comments as you go that may be helpful to the investigation.   Find and interview any witnesses and be sure to get their full names and contact numbers so that you can reach them later if needed.  The more information you can obtain, the better.  Clinard Insurance Group customers can request a vehicle claim kit, complete with a camera and other tools to help you in an accident.  Click here to learn more about this kit.

Last of all,  file an accident report.  If you are not at fault, then call the other party’s insurance agent and file a claim with them for your damages.  You should expect the insurance company to contact you and perhaps ask you to provide a recorded statement of what happened.

Clinard Insurance Group is an independent insurance agency located in beautiful Winston Salem, NC.  We service thousands of NC auto insurance policies for clients all across NC.  We can also help you with your home insurance and your life insurance needs.  Give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.  

How Electronic Funds Transfers Can Save You Money On Your Insurance Policies

Insurance bills are no one’s favorite mail. And paying those bills is a chore no one relishes. Most people these days opt for a monthly bill option on their insurance policies; from homeowners insurance and auto insurance to the policies covering their business insurance needs. And while it helps the cash flow to pay monthly there are risks and costs associated with this choice. For instance, in NC, every insurance company can charge up to $3 per installment on each monthly bill. And believe me, almost every insurance company takes advantage of this and charges the full $3 on each installment. If you have several policies that are billed separately on 12 monthly bills, this can add up pretty quickly. If you measure what that comes out to on an interest rate basis, you will quickly decide that this fee is highway robbery.

But the more insidious problem with monthly bills that few consider is the risk of missing one. What if you are out of town and miss a due date, or your mail gets lost? If you don’t pay an insurance bill on time your policy could be cancelled and leave you without protection. Imagine experiencing the worst loss of your life right after your policy cancelled? Think how you would feel if you had carefully bought insurance for years and years and then the one time you missed a payment your house burned? That would be tough to handle, both financially and emotionally.

The EFT payment option, which is available for most insurance policies is a great solution to all of these costs and risks. EFT stands for electronic funds transfer. This is an agreement you have with your insurance company, allowing them automatically draft your checking or savings account each month for the monthly amount due. Insurance companies love EFT because it saves them money on printing, mailing and collecting the monthly bills. As a result, almost all of them will waive the $3.00 per installment service charge if you sign up for EFT with them. And this option has other benefits for you. With EFT you can rest easy knowing that you don’t have to worry about your insurance being cancelled because a bill was lost or mislaid. Just keep an adequate balance in your account to cover the monthly bill, it will be paid whether you are at home or off on a Bahamas vacation. Not only that, but you will have saved yourself the trouble of keeping up with another monthly bill, writing the check and having to get it in the mail on time.

EFT programs also usually offer you the option of picking the day of the month on which the money will be drafted from your account. So, for instance if your paycheck is always deposited on the 1^st of the month, then you could choose the 4^th or the 5^th of each month as your draft date. You pick what works best for you. Set it and forget it. Occasionally people tell me that they don’t want an insurance company get their hands on their bank information because they just don’t trust them to play fair. In the 15+ years that we have been working with insurance companies and our clients with EFT programs I have never experienced a situation where someone was ripped off by the insurance company because of this bank account access. This fear has just not proven to be a realistic one.

Another way to handle the month to month payment risks is to have your insurance company charge your credit card monthly. This is the way I handle my insurance payments because I like to pick up the credit card rewards on that money that I will be paying anyway. When you choose this option, the insurance company will simply charge your credit card each month for your monthly bill amount due.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located here in beautiful Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers to be informed purchasers. We work hard to help educate the general public about their insurance options and choices. If we can help you with your auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance or even your business insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.