Clinard Insurance Group Named Rough Notes E-agency Of The Month February 2011

In this blog, I usually try to focus on insurance policy and coverage help that will allow insurance consumers out there to become more informed buyers of the insurance product they need. In this article, I want to deviate from that tack just a bit and take a moment to sing the praises of Clinard Insurance Group in particular.

The occasion for this change in approach on this blog is that Clinard Insurance Group, an independent insurance agency in Winston Salem, NC has been named the e-Agency of the month by Rough Notes magazine. Rough Notes is a national insurance industry magazine with over 40,000 subscribers. So this is a big honor and we want to let all of our readers know about it.

The Rough Notes article focuses on our digital marketing efforts in particular but does give a lot of other information about our agency and our more traditional marketing methods as well. This is an important marker for those of you out there considering an agent for your business insurance. The reason this is so, is that we take our digital and traditional marketing expertise and we use it help our business insurance clients grow their businesses as well. We understand that if your business grows, then so does ours. One of the ways you can see us working hard for our clients is through our partners page that is a place where our business clients can offer coupons to the online world to help increase their client base.

If you would like to read the rough notes article and see photos of some of the people behind the scenes at Clinard Insurance Group, just click here. I hope you enjoy this inside look at our agency.

At Clinard Insurance Group we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers. We work hard to try and disseminate information to the public about insurance issues that affect their lives and their businesses. If we can help you with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your life insurance or business insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com. Also, keep in mind that we also specialize in used car dealer insurance, auto repair and body shop insurance, restaurant insurance, and insurance for small contractors and landscaping companies.

The source information for this article was originally posted to a blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com and you can find the full version at that site.

Used Car Dealer Insurance – An Overview

If you are in the car business, or thinking of getting into the car business, one area in which you will want to develop some expertise is used car dealers insurance. Insurance for a used car dealer is a bit of an unusual animal in the insurance world and there are many agents who don’t fully understand how it works. So how can a non-insurance person get it right? This article will give you the tips you need to get started in this important facet of your business. Note, the information in this article is aimed at NC used car dealer insurance, but most of the basics remain the same in other states as well.

Insurance for a used car dealer is different from a lot of business insurance policies because your inventory moves around. Not only that, your inventory is being driven by customers before they buy and is capable of inflicting huge damages on others. These factors alone make your insurance solution very unique from most other mom and pop businesses out there. So, to keep this simple, we will take these items one at a time and break it down for you.

Garage Liability – This is the place to start. You will need a garage liability policy in order to get your dealer tags. In NC, these policies are rated based on the number of tags you have and the number of salespeople you have. Also, if you furnish a tag to yourself or some other member of your family or an employee, then that will increase your premiums as well. The basic garage liability section of the NC garage insurance policy is designed to protect your business from damages done by your vehicles to other people or their property. Be very careful here to check the limits of liability that you are purchasing on your garage liability coverage. You don’t want to just chase the lowest price without considering your liability limits. The rule of thumb should be to purchase the highest liability limits that you can afford as you are trying to protect against large, unknown loss values that threaten to wipe out your business completely. Also be careful to choose adequate limits for your uninsured motorists and your underinsured motorists coverages.

Dealers Open Lot Coverage – This is protection for your cars themselves, your inventory. Here you need to select a limit that at least covers your highest level of inventory. Also, you should choose the highest deductible that you can afford in the event of a loss. Higher deductibles will reduce the costs of this insurance protection. And, if you work on cars that are owned by others, you need to consider garagekeepers insurance as well. To read more about that situation, see my blog on garagekeepers for car dealers.

Workers Compensation – If you hire employees I highly recommend that you purchase workers compensation insurance. I find that in North Carolina, many dealers skip this coverage when they only have one or two employees. This is a dangerous approach and has the potential to bring your very business down. Please take a moment to read my blog on work comp for car dealers.

Dealer Bond – In NC each car dealer has to post a $50,000 bond with the state of NC in order to obtain and maintain a dealer’s license. You can purchase this bond through your insurance agent. You can read more about this regulatory requirement here.

Property Coverage – If you own your building, or if you have business personal property that you need to protect, be sure to purchase the commercial property insurance to cover these items. Often doing this reduces your garage insurance costs as some companies will give you a multi policy or package discount for combining these policies into one package.

Now that you have a better understanding of which types of policies you should consider, I want to spend a moment on how you should choose your agent. Insurance is a funny business because it is the one business that I can think of where hiring a specialist will generally cost you less money. This is not true of doctors and lawyers of course, the more specialized they are, the more it costs you to hire them. But to add to this oddity, there is also a danger. While most doctors and lawyers will refer you on to a specialist when you are dealing in an area that requires one, few if any insurance agents will refer you to a specialist if they don’t know much about insuring your business. The scary thing here is that they will actually try to help you, and learn on your nickel. This, as you can imagine, can be downright dangerous for the unsuspecting used car dealer. Just because you have a friend or relative in the insurance business, doesn’t mean that they are qualified to help you correctly insure your business. And best of all, insurance agents who specialize in used car dealerships generally have the lowest rates available to you.

When selecting your agent, do a little homework. Google their name with the words car dealer insurance. Do they appear active in this niche business? Do they seem to understand exactly how to insure used car lots? When you talk to them, ask them how many dealers like you they insure now. If they don’t insure at least 25 or more, you can bet they aren’t specialists. If you find one that insures hundreds, then you have probably found the guys with the knowledge and the rates to really help you get the best deal at the best price.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we insure over 300 car dealers across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. We want our dealer clients to be informed insurance consumers and to protect their businesses in a careful and considered way. If we can help you with any of your questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.theautodealershelper.com.

You can read the source article and others from which this article was created by visiting the Clinard Insurance Group Blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Electrician Insurance – A Quick How To

If you are thinking of starting your own electrical contractor business, or if you are planning to grow your existing one, you must become fluent in insurance speak and understand just how to piece together the insurance puzzle for your own specific company. Electricians face some unique insurance issues, so here is a basic primer on the types of insurance policies that you should consider for your electrician insurance program.

This guide should serve as an introductory overview of insurance options for an electrical contractor. For more detailed information on any of these policies or coverage types, please contact our office and we will be happy to give you more one on one personal help.

Liability Insurance – If you have been an electrician for any amount of time, you have probably encountered the need for a certificate of insurance. If you don’t know it already, you will soon find that you will have customers who will require that you prove to them that you have liability insurance on your electrical contractor business. This is the most obvious coverage type and it is usually the first one that electricians think to purchase. This is designed to provide you with protection for losses that you cause in the operation of your business for which you are legally obligated to pay.

Workers Compensation Insurance – Too many electricians, particularly smaller operations want to skip over this policy and not buy it at all. What drives this thinking is the NC law that says you don’t have to purchase a workers compensation policy if you have 3 or less employees. But what people fail to realize is that if you don’t purchase a policy, then your company is on the hook for paying all claims as though you were the workers compensation insurance company. Don’t skip this coverage, one bad accident could put you out of business and ruin all that you have worked so hard for. For more information on workers compensation in general, you can visit the website for the NC Industrial Commission.

Equipment Coverage – This protection comes in two types. Coverage for your equipment and coverage for hand tools. We rarely see a strong need for equipment coverage among electricians, but don’t let this fact lead you to forget to insure your hand tools and small equipment if losing those items would jeopardize your ability to stay in business. Often this coverage can be added for a small limit of coverage to your general liability policy for very little money per year.

Business Auto Insurance – Quite often, one of the first things an electrician does after starting up his or her business, is to title one or more personal vehicles in the company name. There are often nice tax advantages to this but if you do so, don’t forget that you will need the insurance policy to be titled the same way. This means you will need a business auto insurance policy. One quick tip, if all of the vehicles that you own are listed on your commercial auto policy and you don’t have a personal auto policy in your name, then you are vulnerable to a gap in coverage I call the DOC gap. To learn an inexpensive and easy way to protect yourself from this gap, read my blog on DOC for electricians.

Disability Insurance – What happens if you become injured and can’t work? Who will do the work and who will run your business? Disability insurance is a good solution for you to solve this problem. Most electricians don’t remember to cover this exposure and the failure to do so have run a few out of business.

It’s clear that buying insurance for your electrical company is a complicated and specialized process. You need an agent who specializes in electrician’s insurance, and one who can help you navigate the maze of policies and underwriting rules. At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all kinds of electricians with their electrician insurance policies all over North Carolina. We can help you develop a plan that protects your business and saves you money on your electrical contractor insurance policies. If you own an electrician business in NC, then you owe it to yourself to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.LowRatesForElectricians.com and we will be happy to help you.

The source information for this article can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Painters Workers Compensation Insurance – How To File A Workers Compensation Claim

If you are a NC painting contractor with any employees at all, there is no question that you should purchase a workers compensation policy. If you don’t and you are paying someone to work for you, whether you consider them a subcontractor or not, then you shouldn’t go a day more without a policy. To learn more about the NC rules on who must buy a policy and who can go bare, click here. But assuming you already have a workers compensation policy, how exactly do you file a claim?

Filing a workers compensation claim is really pretty simple. You should be sure to move quickly and file the claim as soon as possible after the employee is injured. In NC the claim form states that you must file the claim within 5 days of the injury. So, to file the claim you must complete a Form 19 claim form and mail, fax, or email it to your insurance company claims department. The Form 19 is a standardized claim form to be used for all workers compensation claims in North Carolina. The reason for this is that the policy and claims payments are all overseen by the NC Industrial Commission.

If you don’t have a form 19 on hand, check your policy as most insurance companies will insert a few blank ones in the policy that they send to you. It’s ok to make copies of this form when you run out. You can also get one in pdf form from the NC Industrial Commission website.

The Form 19 will ask for contact information for you and for your injured employee. They will also need to know the details of the injury, how and when and where it occurred. This information usually comes from the injured employee’s supervisor. Also, you will need to fill in the occupation of injured person and information about how many hours they work each week and what their wagers are per hour and per day. This information will help settle the disability portion of the claim.

The rules require that you provide a copy of the completed Form 19 to the injured employee or the employee’s representative (read lawyer) at the same time that the Form 19 is submitted to the insurance company. Last of all, you must give your injured employee a blank Form 18 which is a form they can use should they wish to contest the claim settlement. You can obtain blank Form 18 copies the same way you got the form 19, by clicking here, or you may call the NC Industrial Commission at 800-688-8349.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help our clients be informed insurance consumers. As a painting contractor it is important for you to know in advance just how to properly file a workers compensation claim. Trying to figure all of this out after an employee is injured will just slow things down for you and downtime can only cost your company money.

Should you need help with your painters insurance policies, from workers compensation to your general liability, commercial auto and equipment insurance, please consider us as we specialize in insuring painting companies of all types and sizes all across North Carolina and South Carolina. We can put our extensive knowledge to work for you with one quick phone call. Call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.LowRatesForPainters.com.

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

Clinard Insurance Donates $690 to Local Charities

Thanks to the help of the Clinard Insurance Group family of customers, we were able to donate $690 to local nonprofit groups in January of 2011. This is possible through our referral rewards program which designates a $5 charitable donation for each and every referral that we receive throughout the year each year.

Here’s a quick overview of how our Referral Rewards program works. Any time that we receive a quote request that was referred to our agency we do 4 things. First of all, we send a $5 treat gift card to the referring client, just as a way of saying thanks. These cards are from Wendy’s, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and various other places. Next we put the referring client’s name in our monthly drawing for a $50 gift card to the restaurant of their choice. We also put their name in the hat for a chance to win $1000. The winner of that drawing is announced in early December each year. Last of all, we donate $5 to a local charity. Our customers can vote on their favorite charity by calling us, or by completing the form online here.

So this year we had $690 to give away and we delivered that to the following three local nonprofits:

Sunnyside Ministries – This organization is engaged in providing emergency help to families in South Central Forsyth County and Northern Davidson County who are in need of help due to financial crises.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC – This organization collects perfectly edible food that might otherwise end up in a garbage dump and they then distribute this food to those in need across an 18 county area.

Crisis Control Ministry – This organization is engaged in helping people in crisis to meet essential life needs and to become self sufficient.

Each of these groups received a check for $230 thanks to the generous referrals of our clients in 2010. To watch a video of Gina Carlson delivering these checks, please click here.

For 2011, we are going to do it all over again. Your referrals not only help Clinard Insurance Group, but they work directly to help promote and support some of the many fine nonprofit organizations that are right here in NC. We thank all of you who referred your friends and family to us last year and we hope that many more of you will refer your friends and family to us in 2011. Thanks for your support.

The source information for this blog was taken from other articles which can be found in their entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

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.