S and R Insurance- Fall 2002 Newsletter

Our staff of insurance professionals is at your service! Call Linda Taras for Personal Lines, Life & Health, Policy Service; Kristen Byars for Personal Lines, Life & Health, Policy Service, Billing questions, email/website problems; and Cyndi Jeffers for Personal & Commercial Lines, Life, Health, Bonds, Policy Service, Claims. Our office hours are 9 AM-5 PM Monday thru Friday (other hours by appointment). For after hours emergencies, call our office or call 435-2192. We do have a lock box for your convenience.

THE GRANGE BANK: 1-800-270-8062

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY S&R!

S & R Insurance Services is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year. We cordially invite you to share in our celebration by attending our Open House on Wednesday, May 7th, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Stop by any time during the day to visit with us and enjoy the special refreshments and free gifts we have planned for you! We owe our success to you, our clients, and want to share this special occasion with you!

PERSONAL UMBRELLA:

If your total assets are worth more than $500,000, a Personal Umbrella is recommended. It will provide you with an additional limit of $1 Million, over and above the Liability limits on your personal policies (Home, Personal Auto, Miscellaneous Vehicle, Motorcycle, Boat, etc). You can get limits higher than $1 Million, in increments of $1 Million, if needed. Don’t lose your assets in a lawsuit - call us today for a quote!

SPRING BIGGIES:

We provide you with our quarterly newsletters to help you understand insurance better, so you can determine what changes in your life will prompt a call to our office for adjustments in your coverages. Since we don’t know what you’re doing from day to day,this is the best way we have to keep you up to date on things that could affect you! Here are just a few:

Whenever you move, you MUST notify your insurance agent! And if you’re moving out of state, please contact us PRIOR to your move, as your coverages are not transferrable to a new state in most cases! Vacant or unoccupied dwellings will void your property coverages. Call us ahead of time and let us advise you on how best to handle your insurance coverages when you are moving!
All vehicles registered in TN are required to carry Auto insurance now, and you must carry an ID card in the vehicle. If your vehicle is involved in an accident or stopped for any reason and there is no insurance, the vehicle owner can lose their driver’s license. For vehicles without ID cards, the driver will be ticketed. Check your dec page today to be sure you’ve included ALL your vehicles for coverage. If you’ve misplaced an ID card, call us and we will get you another. Note: New ID cards are sent to you at each renewal or policy change. Please make it a habit to open your insurance mail!
Too many drivers find out through their insurance agents that their driver’s licenses are no longer valid. If you move within TN, you must notify the TN Department of Safety (by going to the license bureau and making a change of address on your license). Otherwise, any mail they send you will not be forwarded, you will not receive your license renewal notice, and if there is a problem with a ticket or accident, you will not be informed.
Property insurance is written for replacement value. The burden of proof rests with the insured at the time of loss. If you under-insure (to save premium, for example), you will be penalized at the time of claim settlement.

RECREATIONAL VEHICLES:

Spring is here, and it’s time to get out the Boat, Motorcycle, ATV, Motor Home, etc for some warm-weather fun! Do you have insurance coverage? These vehicles are not automatically covered by either a Homeowners or Personal Auto policy. The premiums are reasonable - call us today to get properly covered!

BACKUP OF SEWERS & DRAINS COVERAGE:

With Spring comes the rains, and that can sometimes cause problems with water backing up from sewers or drains. Very few insurance companies automatically provide this coverage, but it can be added to your Homeowners policy. If you already have the coverage, it will be listed as an endorsement on your policy dec page. If you’re not sure whether you have this coverage, call us BEFORE something happens!

LIGHTNING DAMAGE - TAKE PRECAUTIONS!

Another Spring event is thunderstorms. When the weatherman tells you there are thunderstorms coming, PLEASE take the proper precautions - if you don’t have surge protectors (or if your surge protectors are older than just a couple of years), unplug computers, cable TV, televisions, telephone equipment, stereos, microwaves, etc from the outlets prior to the storm! While your insurance will cover lightning damage, it can be very inconvenient to be without any of these items, and you will be out your deductible (normally at least $500).

MORTGAGEE/LOSS PAYEE CHANGES:

Please take a moment - right now - to look at your insurance policy dec pages. Call us if there is someone with an interest listed on your policies who should not be there, or has an incorrect address.
When your mortgage company, lienholder, bank, lessor, etc, get changed, change their address, or your loan gets paid, we are not notified automatically. In fact, somewhere in the letter they send you, they ask YOU to notify us and give you the proper address for insurance purposes. If you don’t do this, it will come to light when you have a claim and it causes a problem!
Also, please be aware that if anyone calls us and asks to be listed on your policy (whether it’s your Homeowners, Auto, or Business policy), we cannot make the change without your approval. Many mortgage companies and banks will ask us to change your mortgagee clause, when they may only be quoting a refinance for you. We cannot make a change to your policy until we know for sure that the new loan has closed. We will be calling you to verify this!

COMMERCIAL UMBRELLA:

Yes, there are Umbrella policies to cover businesses, too! Most Liability policies can be increased to provide $1 million in coverage, but if your business assets are more than that, you need a Commercial Umbrella! The premiums are reasonable - call us today for a quote!

LEASED EQUIPMENT:

Does your business regularly have to rent or lease equipment? If so, please let us know so we can make sure you are properly covered. In most cases, we can add an endorsement to your business policy at a cost that is much more reasonable than paying the company you’re leasing the equipment from for insurance! This coverage is NOT AUTOMATIC on your policy, so please call to be sure you have it!

EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY:

We talk about this coverage a lot, because the exposure to a claim or lawsuit is so big. Employment Practices Liability protects your business in case of a claim or lawsuit from an employee who feels you did not treat them properly (discrimination, negligent hiring or firing, sexual abuse, etc, etc). A lawsuit of this type, with no insurance protection, could ruin a business. Call us today for a quote!

WHAT IS A DEC PAGE? (Very Important!!)

When an insurance company issues a policy, the actual policy consists of a declarations (“dec”) page and a set of endorsements that explain your coverages in detail. The entire policy is a legal document, but the dec page is the most important part! The dec page lists who the insured is, who the insurance company and agent are, gives the policy effective and expiration dates, a summary of the coverages provided, lists what endorsements are attached to the policy and shows the premium for the coverages provided. Sometimes the dec consists of more than one page. It is NOT your bill (the bill for the premium is sent separately). Before the computer age, people understood the importance of keeping their dec pages in a safe place. Today, some people don’t even open the envelope their insurance policy comes in - a VERY DANGEROUS PRACTICE! Each insured is required to read their policy and notify their agent if there are any errors or problems with the policy. If you don’t do this, you will not know if there is a problem until you have a claim, and then it might be TOO LATE!
Today, we take technology for granted. If something were to happen with our technology, your dec page could be the only proof anyone has that you had coverage!

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Insurance Update - Spring 2003

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