Insurance Incorporated

Hired & Non-owned auto liability covers bodily injury and property damage caused by a vehicle you hire, which includes vehicles you borrow or rent, or caused by non-owned vehicles.

You may not realize it at first, but as a business owner, you will find yourself in these types of situation, and without hired & non-owned liability on your commercial auto policy, you may not be covered! Some examples include:

Sending an employee to go get coffee.
You rent a car due to maintenance on your vehicle.
You borrow an employee’s vehicle to run to the store.

You don’t necessarily need a commercial auto policy for this type of coverage. An endorsement may be added to your general liability policy to have this included.

You may not realize it, but this may be your single largest exposure! Virtually all client contracts require proof of Hired and Non-Owned coverage.

According to the 2009 FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, 71% of American companies endanger their financial stability by not having insurance that will cover Internet liability.

Would you ever jump into a pool filled with sharks without the proper equipment or protection and bait attached to the side of your hip? Of course not! That is crazy, but essentially, that is what you are doing when your business is on the world wide web and you don’t have the proper protection in place. Think of the sharks as the individuals or groups that would be responsible for theft, extortion, defamation, and/or slander on behalf of your company that could be disasterous on your business. Think of the bait as your business’s website content, which is prone to intellectual property laws. These Internet exposures can be very damaging on your company.

Here are some scenarios:

1. If you send an e-mail containing a virus or malware, and customer information is compromise, you can be held liable.
2. If you or an employee acquired unauthorized access to another company’s information that is misued or stolen, you can be held liable.
3. If you or an employee publishes slander or defamation on the company’s blog, website, or any other Internet media, you can be held liable.

Technology is advancing, and businesses need to try and keep up with it. More companies are turning to computers to store data, such as, customer files, accounting, etc. That being said, you are at risk for these Internet dangers. A regular general liabilty and property policy would not cover your business for any Internet exposures. You would have to purchase cyber liability insurance. Cyber liability insurance offers coverage for data privacy, e-media and Internet liability, network security, infringement of intellectual property rights, professional services, and network security.

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) declared Mainstay Business Solutions to be in default for failing to pay its self insured workers comp claims.  The (DIR) has revoked Mainstay Business Solutions Certificate to Self Insure effective April 18th.  The permissably, self insured professional employer organization (PEO) was essentially shut down by the Employment Development Department earlier this month in a dispute over employment taxes.  The dispute revolves around $16.4 million that EDD claims Mainstay owes for unemployment taxes, interest and penalties. Mainstay disputed that amount, but admitted earlier through its outside public relations counsel that it does owe the state millions.

All assets and liabilities of Mainstay Business Solutions have been ordered to be turned over to the Self-Insurer’s Security Fund who will begin paying claims by no later thant 30 days.

Employers that rely upon Mainstay may find themselves scrambling to replace workers compensation coverage and revise their employment and payroll structure. Employers should be cautious when selecting a Workers Compensation carrier and verify the financial status of the carrier or PEO prior to choosing a policy or plan.

Insurance Incorporated opened there newest office in Fillmore, CA. Insurance Incorporated is a full service Independent Agency. Serving the insurance needs of consumers and business owners since 1958.  Whether you need insurance for auto, home, business, life or health insurance,  Insurance Incorporated can help. 

As independent agents we give you the advantage of saving time and money by shopping your insurance with numerous carriers with one call.  Why shop the old fashion way calling agent after agent gathering one quote at a time, when you can call Insurance Incorporated and receive quotes from the leading insurance carriers, such as Mercury,  Safeco, Hartford, Travelers, Metlife, Golden Eagle, Progressive, Allied to mention just a few. Unlike some carriers that can only quote these companies , we can quote and write your insurance for you. Call 877-898-933 for a free quote on your insurance today!

Failing to disclose all drivers in a household can be dangerous! While it may be tempting not to mention a youthful driver, such as a child or younger brother and/or sister or even a roommate that lives in the same household when applying for auto insurance in order to get a lower rate,  can backfire on you.

The auto insurance application is a contract and the questions that are asked in the application are part of a legal agreement between you, the policy holder and the insurance company and both parties are basing their agreement on the belief that the application reflects truthful representations by both parties. If you misrepresent a fact in the application you could void coverage. For example you are purchasing an auto insurance policy and you live in the same household as your parents and a younger sibling. You apply for auto insurance and decide to include your parents but not to mention the younger sibling.  Later on in the policy period the undisclosed sibling decides to drive your vehicle and gets in a wreck, the insurance carrier could deny coverage, based upon a material misrepresentation on the application in an effort to evade the higher rate.

When applying for insurance if you do not want to cover a particular person in the household you can specifically request to exclude that person. Just understand they cannot drive your vehicle unless you have notified the insurance carrier to add that person back onto the policy,  removing the exclusion and you receive confirmation back from the carrier that the exclusion has been removed prior to allowing them to drive. The insurance carrier will then charge the appropriate premium for the risk on the younger driver.

Be careful on adding and excluding drivers repeatedly on  a policy as some carriers may place a limit on the number oif times they can be added and removed or require you to either include or exclude the person that resides in the same household.

This does not apply to people who do not live in the household that you may lend your car to on a rare occassion. If you lend your vehicle to another person on a regular or frequent  basis you should add them to your policy as some applications ask for all regular drivers of the vehicle.

Consult with your agent or carrier on how best to handle a youthful driver in the household and how your policy is affected.

Insurance Incorporated recently added Metlife to our portfolio of carriers. Giving their auto, home and life insurance customers more carriers to choose from. This allows Insurance Incorported to provide their clients with some of the lowest rates for insurance while providing them with the broadest choice of coverage. We save our customers time by shopping their insurance with over 15 different carriers assuring they are paying the most competitive rates.  Why not give us a try! Log onto www.insuranceinc.com

Insurance Incorporated is pleased to announce it’s newest location in the city of Fillmore , CA. The new office will be located at 421 Central Ave Fillmore, CA 93015. Phone number is 877-893-3236. Ask for Bill Steiger