Welcome Message

Hey, what do you know? I can be taught! I'm officially a blogger. What the heck is a blog anyway? The simplest way to describe it is as my personal journal that’s not so personal because I share it with everyone in the world. This blog is titled “The Bull Stops Here” and focuses on insurance issue that will save you time, money and frustration.

You’ll find regularly posted topics dealing with:
- ways to help you save money on your insurance
- techniques to save you time on managing your insurance
- answers to your questions on coverage issues
- educational resources and workshops that will solve your insurance challenges

My mission is to help you gain more confidence and trust in your business or personal insurance while spending the least amount of money.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Don’t Get Caught Paying Your Own Claim

I just taught a Commercial Property Class to a group of agents here in Seattle last week for the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) program. One of the concepts that is most difficult to grasp, even for agents, is coinsurance. If you are a business owner, it will pay for you to understand coinsurance, or else you may pay dearly not to!

Ask your insurance agent or broker to confirm what coinsurance percentage you have for your property insurance. If you have coinsurance (some policies waive it), it will come in either an 80% or 90% figure. That means that if you have a partial loss on your building or property, you must be insured for at least that percentage of your total property value at the time the loss happened, or else you become a coinsurer of your claim. Sound confusing? It can be. Let’s take a look at an example:

You own a commercial property valued at $500,000. You’re insuring it for $250,000 with a 80% coinsurance clause. Why is it only insured at $250,000? Well, that’s where it normally is but today you received extra inventory that will be flying out of your warehouse tomorrow. That is until disaster strikes!

You suffer a fire loss of $50,000 but you’re not worried because you have more than enough coverage, right? Wrong. The adjustor comes in to settle your claim and tells you that you were underinsured for coinsurance. Here’s why.

You did insure your property at $250,000, but you should have insured it for $400,000 (80% of your actual value at the time of the fire). The adjustor divides the “did by the should”, or the $250K by $400K and comes up with 63%. He then multiplies that percentage by your loss of $50K which is $31,250. That’s all your insurance company is going to pay YOU! How does that make you feel? Not only have you had a fire damage your property and set your operations back, now you have to foot the additional costs by nearly $20,000!

Coinsurance is a highly misunderstood concept and difficult to explain. The bottom line is that you need to make sure you are adequately protected or else you can become a partner in paying your claim.

Dan

To understand coinsurance more, take a look at my booklet, Eight Really Cool Rules to Better Insurance Buying. It explains coinsurance and much more. It will be a valuable tool in making sure you are getting the right coverage at the right price!

Monday, September 24, 2007

The Blondie Rule #2 – Lessons from my dog – The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated


Last month (August 20), the Blondie Rule #1 dealt with overcoming “analysis paralysis”. This month, you will learn how my dog has taught me about perseverance.

The famous quote by Mark Twain listed in the title surely applies to Blondie. In late December of 2004, she was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her gum. The veterinarian had taken as much out as possible, but sadly reported that she didn’t get it all. At the time, Blondie was 13 years old and all the treatments were very invasive and costly. We opted to do nothing, except make our friend as comfortable as she could be for the remainder of her life. She was given a death sentence of 2 to 3 months.

Fast forward to today and Blondie is 16 ½ and those 2-3 months are almost 3 years. The cancer has come back and spread some. In fact, just a few weeks ago, she was looking so bad and struggling so much; we began mentally preparing for her to pass on over the weekend. She fooled us again. It’s been almost a month since that day and although I can’t say she’s going on strong, she perseveres and lives to fight another day. Sooner than later we will have to make that difficult decision when her quality of life erodes. Based on how she devoured her breakfast this morning, we’re not quite there yet!

Blondie reminds me that not every day is going to be better than the day before. Some days can bring frustration, pain, and struggle. But persevering, “grinding” out the tough days, and living to fight another day should be our mantra, too. Blondie didn’t understand the diagnosis she was given in December of 2004. She just kept living every day, even when some days weren’t as good as others.

I know I have days where I grouse and complain about things. Blondie reminds me that I need to get over myself and realize that struggle is a necessary part of life; it makes us stronger. Instead of trying to be the person my dog thinks I am, I guess I just need to be more like my dog!

Dan

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Kids, College, and Insurance


If you have read any of my recent blogs, you know I just shipped my oldest daughter off to Ohio to college. Many of you have done the same thing, and many of you may be quickly approaching this reality. As you may understand, it’s a very bittersweet time in a parent’s life; we are happy for their success but we also miss them.

After shipping off my daughter’s fifteen pairs of shoes, I realize that many of you may not understand the implications on your personal insurance of having a child away at school. Do you know how he or she is protected while away from home?

Since your young adult (I don’t think my daughter wants to be called a child anymore) is still not fully emancipated from your home, they are still considered an “insured” on your policy. That’s good from a liability standpoint, but what about that new laptop she has, or the refrigerator you just bought for him? Unlike when I went to school with a 12’ television, two pair of jeans, and my golf clubs, kids have much more valuable “stuff” in dorms and apartments.

Your personal homeowner’s policy provides a limit of 10 percent of your personal property limit because the dorm room or apartment is an "insured's residence other than the residence premises.” You need to look on your homeowner’s policy under Coverage C to find what that limit is. If your limit is $150,000 for example, your students limit will be $15,000. In the old days like with me, that was probably enough. Today, with all the high-priced technology and expensive clothes, it may not be adequate.

Factor in one last thing – do you remember college life? Your kids’ “stuff” is pretty open to theft or other bad things; much more than when they were living at home. The two scenarios could be a recipe for disaster.

I urge you to dust off your homeowners policy and/or call your agent to know how much coverage you have. Then make a realistic inventory of what your student has with them. If you’re coming up short, you should have the ability to increase that limit for just a small amount of premium.

Dan

P.S. If you have any questions about this or any other parts of your personal insurance, check out my online store by clicking here. You can purchase a booklet called, Your Personal Insurance Survival Guide for just $10. You will learn how to best protect yourself, your property, and your family.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Teaching class

I’m teaching my first class for the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research tomorrow in Seattle. The class is for Certified Insurance Service Representatives (CISR) and I’m at the stage of the process to teach the first half of the class. Presenting in front of a group has never been an issue for me; however there are a couple areas that have me nervous.

I’ve got a brand new laptop and projector with great slides that my daughter, Mindy helped me put together. The problem is I’ve never used either in a formal presentation, so I spent all Saturday night making sure I knew how to connect the laptop to the projector and make sure I knew how to use the wireless mouse and laser (I’ve never had control of a little red dot on a screen, but it’s pretty cool). Still, using new gadgets for the first time in a live presentation always makes me a little uneasy. You never know what challenges you will run into with the configuration of the room, the positioning of outlets, or a just Murphy showing up and imposing his law on you.

Now I hope I will do well enough so everyone will pass there test! No pressure, right?

Dan

Friday, September 14, 2007

Protecting your business from technological turmoil

I’m composing this blog from my lap top because I’m having computer issues with my desktop. It seems like I’ve been hit through Internet Explorer with some virus and it’s causing challenges for me.

Whenever this happens, either to me or someone else, it makes me wonder how well we have all backed up our computer systems. Today, almost all businesses are powered to a great extent by their computers. The exposure to losing important data and files is very real, and very dangerous to your business. Fortunately, I’ve backed up my data, but to be honest, I’m not sure how current I am. This should be fixed soon, but it serves as a tremendous wake-up call for me.

How well have you backed up your system? If you lost everything today, would you be able to recover? How long would it take? Don’t take for granted your back-up plan is foolproof. There are many excellent ways to back-up so make sure you can be up and running again soon. Most large organizations have done a pretty good job of this…many small ones may not have had the time or resources. If you are a home-based business, you need to be especially careful. Should know…that’s what I am!

Regardless of the size of your business, make sure to identify the best ways to save data…and then do it. You can never be too safe!

Dan

P.S. Keeping saved data and media in the same location is not sound risk management. Keep at least one storage file off premises in a safe deposit box or even a relatives home. If your building burns, so will all your records if you don’t separate them.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Let Your Dawgs Out and Play


Who let the Dawgs out?

That’s my daughter Kelli and me enjoying a beautiful day in Husky Stadium where our Dawgs were beating up on Boise State. We ended their 14-game winning streak and most importantly, got off to our first 2-0 start since 2001.

As you can imagine, everyone wearing purple in Husky Stadium was ecstatic and looking forward to next week’s match-up with perennial power Ohio State. Visions of bowl games, Pac-10 championships, and Jake Locker touchdowns were dancing in all of our heads.

The funny thing was while we were driving home and listening to the post-game show on the radio, a guy called in and wanted to be the voice of caution. “We’ve seen this before. We can’t get too excited. They’ve let us down in the past”. My response was the same as the reporter. “SO WHAT!” Why can’t we enjoy this time and revel in it, especially since we haven’t had the chance to in about half a decade! Isn’t part of the love of sports based on those highs and lows we experience following and rooting for our teams? Isn’t that what makes sports special? For every New York Yankees, there has to be a Chicago Cubs right?

That got me thinking…which can be a dangerous thing. How often do we do that in our lives? Whenever things are going well, are we too cautious waiting for the other shoe to drop? Don’t want to have too much fun in anticipation of a letdown? Conversely, when we are grinding through a tough time, do we look forward to the time when the tide changes, knowing those good times are around the corner?

Life is an adventure and a journey. I liken it to a round of golf. Through 18 holes there will be some very tough times and some great holes. And, for most holes, you will be on an even keel or at least “grinding” as Tiger Woods would say. Rejoice in the birdies in your life. They don’t always come around as often as we all would like so enjoy. Grind through those double-bogeys, knowing that your next par may be on the next hole. And, most importantly, enjoy the round and who you are playing with because you never know when that may be the last one. Game on!

Dan


P.S. You are invited to subscribe for my FREE e-newsletter, The Bull Stops Here. It's chock full of valuable information that will help save you time, money, and frustration on your insurance. Click here to subscribe. Did I mention it's FREE?

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Saving You Money Texas-style – Catching the Uninsured Drivers

According to an A.M. Best article on August 30, 2007, Texas will soon have “real-time” Auto Insurance Verification in Place by 2008.

With estimates of as many as one in five vehicles on its roadways being uninsured, Texas is putting this new program into place to catch people driving without automobile liability coverage. If they are successful, you can plan on that happening in your state, too. Is this another case of “Big Brother” watching over us?

In my opinion, it’s a good deal. Why? Well, the bottom line is you are paying way too much for claims being caused by uninsured drivers. You probably (if you’re smart) carry coverage on your policy called Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist to protect you for damage to you or your car in case the person who hit you doesn’t carry liability. That cost has risen over the years. Overall, your insurance premiums are poorly affected by those who are unwilling or unable to do the right thing.

If a program like the one Texas is implementing can keep your rates down and better protect you, then I hope this will catch on everywhere. My guess is that it will.

Dan

P.S. Need to learn more about how to save money on your personal insurance? That’s why I wrote the booklet, Your Personal Insurance Survival Guide. You will learn how to save time, money, and frustration, and how to get the right agent for you. To purchase, go to my Toro IC store. You can buy either the actual booklet or an e-book. Don’t wait to save money on your insurance!

Monday, September 3, 2007

What you can learn from Wii®din

We just bought the new Nintendo game Wii® on Saturday and boy, is it a hoot! How many of you have Wii®? For those of you scratching your head and wondering what the heck is Weedin talking about, let me explain. Wii® is basically a PlayStation ® console where you can play video games on your TV. It’s a wireless game that needs YOU to do all the motions in order to make the characters on your TV move. So, if you’re playing golf, tennis, baseball, boxing, or racing cows – you perform all the actions. No more sitting like a lump on a chair with a joy stick, now you have to get up and move with Wii®.

First of all, as a family Wii® provided us hours of fun, raucous laughter at each others follies, and (unbelievably) great exercise. We were all pooped at the end of the evening. If you don’t believe me, go try out the boxing trainer and tell me you don’t work up a real sweat.

So, what can we learn from playing Wii®?

Well for starters, you can spend real quality time with your family and friends. Wii® is almost like a board game that takes everybody’s participation and attention. Unlike sitting and watching television, conversation, laughter, and bonding take place. You wouldn’t have caught me EVER saying this before about video games, but Wii® changed my mind.

Secondly, I came away with a new appreciation of humility. My daughter Kelli and I were competing in several games, namely boxing and shooting (not people – mainly space ships coming to take away little characters that look like us). She was regularly beating me (pretty soundly) in all the games that required speed, reflexes, and agility. It’s a humbling thing to be beaten by your 17 year old daughter in a boxing match! Although I was stronger (measured by the speed of your punch), she was quicker, delivering more blows.

The lesson in humility is important for all of us. One of the areas of work I need is in humility and sometimes my kids give me a wake up call. Humility is a very important aspect of business. Think about it. If you’re not humble, it’s hard to listen, for both agents AND clients. When listening doesn’t happen, it’s impossible to communicate. If communications fail, then being able to properly protect your business fails. For agents, the ability to serve your clients fails. Being humble in your business and serving others makes winners all the way around. It can be a hard lesson to learn, though.

When was the last dose of humility you received? Maybe the more important question is - what did you do with it?

Happy Labor Day!

Dan